Make Copilot/Claude harness retry policy configurable via `GH_AW_HARNESS_*` by Copilot · Pull Request #43051 · github/gh-aw

Copilot · 2026-07-02T23:40:12Z

Copilot and Claude harness retries were hardcoded to a short fixed window, which made sustained transient API outages fail the run before safe outputs could be written. This change keeps the existing defaults but allows workflows to widen the retry window without patching the built-in harnesses.

Harness retry policy
- Added env-driven retry configuration to copilot_harness.cjs and claude_harness.cjs:
  - GH_AW_HARNESS_MAX_RETRIES
  - GH_AW_HARNESS_INITIAL_DELAY_MS
  - GH_AW_HARNESS_BACKOFF_MULTIPLIER
  - GH_AW_HARNESS_MAX_DELAY_MS
- Preserved current defaults (3, 5000, 2, 60000).
- Added parsing/validation with safe fallback to defaults for invalid values.
- Clamp max delay to at least initial delay to avoid invalid backoff windows.
Workflow-facing configuration
- Documented the intended workflow-level usage via engine.env, so retry tuning can be done in frontmatter without replacing the harness.
Coverage
- Added focused harness tests for:
  - default retry config
  - env overrides
  - invalid env values
  - max-delay clamping

Example workflow override:

engine:
  id: copilot
  env:
    GH_AW_HARNESS_MAX_RETRIES: "6"
    GH_AW_HARNESS_INITIAL_DELAY_MS: "10000"
    GH_AW_HARNESS_BACKOFF_MULTIPLIER: "2"
    GH_AW_HARNESS_MAX_DELAY_MS: "180000"

Generated by 👨‍🍳 PR Sous Chef · 6.07 AIC · ⌖ 7.49 AIC · ⊞ 6.4K · ◷

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

pelikhan · 2026-07-03T00:09:43Z

@copilot refactor configuration code so that all harnesses can use it. Reuse exiting function to read integer from env in JavaScript.
These are configuration vars that should be reused by every agentic engine.

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot · 2026-07-03T00:50:44Z

@copilot refactor configuration code so that all harnesses can use it. Reuse exiting function to read integer from env in JavaScript.
These are configuration vars that should be reused by every agenti...

Addressed in 64ddfca.

github-actions · 2026-07-03T01:12:55Z

Triage Result

Field	Value
Category	feature
Risk	Medium
Priority Score	57/100
Score Breakdown	Impact: 30 · Urgency: 15 · Quality: 12
Recommended Action	fast_track

Rationale: Makes harness retry policy configurable via GH_AW_HARNESS_* env vars. Defaults preserved. Larger diff (+297/-74, 7 files) for a config change — review to confirm backward compat. Draft state needs resolution.

Generated by 🔧 PR Triage Agent · 98.6 AIC · ⌖ 9.89 AIC · ⊞ 5.5K · ◷

github-actions · 2026-07-03T02:36:35Z

✅ Test Quality Sentinel completed test quality analysis.

pelikhan · 2026-07-03T03:54:54Z

@copilot single string legacy format is still accepted as "short form" . Test both.

…nly long form Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot · 2026-07-03T04:11:08Z

@copilot single string legacy format is still accepted as "short form" . Test both.

Done in the latest commit. The existing string-form test was renamed to "object format - harness string short form (legacy)" and a new "object format - harness sub-object use-only (long form)" test was added alongside it, both asserting that HarnessScript is set to the same value.

gh-aw-bot · 2026-07-03T04:20:15Z

@copilot please run the pr-finisher skill, address unresolved review comments, and rerun checks once the branch is up to date.

Generated by 👨‍🍳 PR Sous Chef · 6.07 AIC · ⌖ 7.49 AIC · ⊞ 6.4K · ◷

…dependency, add max-retries cap Co-authored-by: gh-aw-bot <259018956+gh-aw-bot@users.noreply.github.com>

…ility Co-authored-by: gh-aw-bot <259018956+gh-aw-bot@users.noreply.github.com>

pelikhan · 2026-07-04T03:29:42Z

@copilot merge main and recompile, fix conflicts

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot · 2026-07-04T03:41:50Z

@copilot merge main and recompile, fix conflicts

Done. Merged main into the branch and resolved conflicts in claude_harness.cjs and copilot_harness.cjs — kept the env-driven variable names (maxRetries, backoffMultiplier, maxDelayMs) from our branch while incorporating the soft-timeout guard checks added in main. Recompiled all 258 workflows successfully.

gh-aw-bot · 2026-07-04T03:47:44Z

@copilot please run the pr-finisher skill, address the unresolved review feedback from github-actions (review: GH_AW_HARNESS retry policy correctness/security concerns), add and link the required ADR in the PR body, refresh the branch from main if needed, and rerun checks once updates are pushed.

Generated by 👨‍🍳 PR Sous Chef · 5.58 AIC · ⌖ 7.65 AIC · ⊞ 6.7K · ◷
_{Comment /souschef to run again}

done

Co-authored-by: gh-aw-bot <259018956+gh-aw-bot@users.noreply.github.com>

…DR-43051 Co-authored-by: gh-aw-bot <259018956+gh-aw-bot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot · 2026-07-04T03:57:16Z

@copilot please run the pr-finisher skill, address the unresolved review feedback from github-actions (review: GH_AW_HARNESS retry policy correctness/security concerns), add and link the required AD...

Done. All unresolved review threads were already addressed in prior commits (all five threads are marked outdated or their concerns resolved). Added ADR-43051 at docs/adr/43051-configurable-harness-retry-policy.md documenting the design decision. Branch is up to date with main (merged in the previous round). Local validation passes (make fmt, make lint — one pre-existing unrelated lint issue in arc_dind_artifacts.go, harness tests all green). CI needs a human re-trigger after this push.

Initial plan

e31ef18

Copilot AI assigned Copilot and pelikhan Jul 2, 2026

Copilot started work on behalf of pelikhan July 2, 2026 23:40 View session

Copilot AI linked an issue Jul 2, 2026 that may be closed by this pull request

Make Copilot/Claude harness retry count and backoff cap configurable (transient API outages) #43042

Open

Copilot AI and others added 3 commits July 2, 2026 23:56

Make harness retry policy configurable

bd83702

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Tighten harness retry config tests

2f115a1

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Clarify harness retry config parsing

6d0062d

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI changed the title ~~[WIP] Make Copilot harness retry count and backoff cap configurable~~ Make Copilot/Claude harness retry policy configurable via GH_AW_HARNESS_* Jul 3, 2026

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan July 3, 2026 00:02

Copilot AI requested a review from pelikhan July 3, 2026 00:02

Copilot started work on behalf of pelikhan July 3, 2026 00:26 View session

Copilot AI and others added 4 commits July 3, 2026 00:39

Refactor shared harness retry config

e90f9e1

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Tighten shared retry config helper

522f419

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Simplify shared retry config parsing

9681826

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Restore harness retry config logging defaults

64ddfca

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan July 3, 2026 00:51

github-actions Bot added pr-action:fast_track pr-agent:copilot-swe-agent pr-priority:medium pr-risk:medium pr-type:feature labels Jul 3, 2026

github-actions Bot mentioned this pull request Jul 3, 2026

[PR Triage Report] PR Triage Report — 2026-07-03 (Run #28631342177) #43067

Closed

pelikhan marked this pull request as ready for review July 3, 2026 02:35

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings July 3, 2026 02:35

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of pelikhan July 3, 2026 02:36 View session

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan July 3, 2026 03:51

Copilot started work on behalf of pelikhan July 3, 2026 04:02 View session

Add explicit tests for harness string short form and sub-object use-o…

a60a0b5

…nly long form Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan July 3, 2026 04:11

Merge branch 'main' into copilot/make-retry-count-configurable

b8663a5

Copilot started work on behalf of gh-aw-bot July 3, 2026 04:20 View session

Copilot AI and others added 2 commits July 3, 2026 04:32

Fix harness retry config: single-path decimal validation, remove sdk …

e654cec

…dependency, add max-retries cap Co-authored-by: gh-aw-bot <259018956+gh-aw-bot@users.noreply.github.com>

Refactor: extract regex patterns to module-level constants for readab…

a645ad7

…ility Co-authored-by: gh-aw-bot <259018956+gh-aw-bot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot finished work on behalf of gh-aw-bot July 3, 2026 04:35

Copilot AI requested a review from gh-aw-bot July 3, 2026 04:35

Copilot started work on behalf of pelikhan July 4, 2026 03:30 View session

Copilot AI and others added 2 commits July 4, 2026 03:36

Merge branch 'main' into copilot/make-retry-count-configurable

e17e867

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Recompile workflows after merging main

a430238

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan July 4, 2026 03:42

Copilot started work on behalf of gh-aw-bot July 4, 2026 03:48 View session

Copilot AI and others added 2 commits July 4, 2026 03:56

docs(adr): add ADR-43051 for configurable harness retry policy

00b7c39

Co-authored-by: gh-aw-bot <259018956+gh-aw-bot@users.noreply.github.com>

docs(adr): clarify validation rationale and cap-clamping warning in A…

49b77bf

…DR-43051 Co-authored-by: gh-aw-bot <259018956+gh-aw-bot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot finished work on behalf of gh-aw-bot July 4, 2026 03:57

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Make Copilot/Claude harness retry policy configurable via `GH_AW_HARNESS_*`#43051

Make Copilot/Claude harness retry policy configurable via `GH_AW_HARNESS_*`#43051
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