temporary-id-safe-output

Adding Temporary ID Support to Safe Output Jobs

Use this implementation plan for temporary ID support in safe output jobs. Temporary IDs let agents reference newly created issues in the same run before real issue numbers exist.

Problem Statement

When an agent creates a parent issue and immediately links sub-issues in the same run, it does not know the real issue number until create_issue completes. Temporary IDs bridge this gap with placeholders resolved at execution time.

Temporary ID Format

Temporary IDs follow the pattern aw_[A-Za-z0-9]{3,8} where:

• aw_ is a fixed prefix identifying agentic workflow temporary IDs
• XXXXXXXX is a 3-8 character alphanumeric string (A-Za-z0-9)

Example: aw_abc, aw_abc123, aw_Test123

Implementation Components

1. Shared Module: temporary_id.cjs

Location: actions/setup/js/temporary_id.cjs

This module provides shared utilities for temporary ID handling:

// Core functions
generateTemporaryId()           // Generate new temporary ID
isTemporaryId(value)            // Check if value is a temporary ID
normalizeTemporaryId(tempId)    // Normalize to lowercase for map lookups
loadTemporaryIdMap()            // Load map from GH_AW_TEMPORARY_ID_MAP env var
resolveIssueNumber(value, map)  // Resolve value to issue number (supports temp IDs)
replaceTemporaryIdReferences(text, map)  // Replace #aw_XXX references in text

2. Producer Job: create_issue

The create_issue job outputs a temporary ID map that other jobs can consume:

Go changes (pkg/workflow/create_issue.go):

• No changes needed - already outputs temporary_id_map

JavaScript changes (actions/setup/js/create_issue.cjs):

• Generate temporary ID for each created issue
• Build map of temporary_id -> issue_number
• Output map via core.setOutput("temporary_id_map", JSON.stringify(map))

3. Consumer Job: Adding Temporary ID Support

For each safe output job that needs to resolve temporary IDs:

Step 1: Update Go Job Builder