Claude-driven GitHub Actions Workflows

Guidelines for the LLM-driven workflows in .github/workflows/ that invoke anthropics/claude-code-action (e.g., closed-issue-comment.yml, claude-triage.yml, pr-review-responder.yml).

Gate deterministic branching in the workflow, not the prompt

If a workflow's behavior depends on a deterministic check (identity comparisons, label presence, file paths, actor type, etc.), do the check in a workflow-level if: condition and split into separate jobs — do not leave it to the prompt.

Why: LLMs can conflate branches when the comment/PR body @mentions or describes the "other" party. A prior bug (see closed-issue-comment.yml history, dyad-sh/dyad#3228): the prompt told Claude "if COMMENT_AUTHOR == ISSUE_AUTHOR do X, else do Y," but when a maintainer closed an issue with a comment that mentioned @original-author and described the symptom, Claude fell into the author branch and re-opened the issue.

How to apply:

• Compare github.event.comment.user.login vs github.event.issue.user.login (and similar) in the job if: block, not the prompt.
• When one branch doesn't need judgment (e.g., posting a fixed reply), drop the LLM entirely and use gh directly.
• Add github.event.*.user.type != 'Bot' to prevent bot-comment loops when the same workflow can be triggered by its own output.