ci: add timeout and debug logging to claude-pr-review workflow

[diegomrsantos]

Issue Addressed

Fixes workflow hanging indefinitely during Claude Code Action execution.

Proposed Changes

Added safety measures to the claude-pr-review.yml workflow:

1. Timeout Protection (timeout-minutes: 15):

   • Prevents workflow from running indefinitely
   • Terminates the step after 15 minutes if it hangs

2. Debug Logging (ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG: true):

   • Enables detailed debug output for troubleshooting
   • Helps diagnose where the action hangs

Additional Info

Observed Behavior:

• First workflow run: ✅ Completes successfully
• Subsequent runs: ❌ Hangs at "Setting up Claude Code..." step

With these changes, the workflow will fail fast (15 minutes) instead of hanging, and provide detailed logs to identify the issue.

[claude-code-actions-sigp]

Workflow Changes: Good additions

The timeout-minutes: 15 and ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG: true are sensible additions for preventing workflow hangs and debugging issues. These align with the PR description.

[claude-code-actions-sigp]

Claude finished @diegomrsantos's task —— View job

---

Code Review Complete

Todo List:

• Read the modified workflow file
• Compare changes with base branch
• Review against code quality criteria
• Post comprehensive review feedback

---

Review Summary

This PR adds two important safety features to the claude-pr-review.yml workflow. The changes are minimal, targeted, and address a real operational issue (workflow hanging indefinitely).

Changes Made:

• Added timeout-minutes: 15 to the "Run Claude Code Action" step (line 88)
• Added ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG: true environment variable (line 90)

Detailed Analysis

1. Code Quality ✅

• Clean and minimal: The changes are focused and don't introduce unnecessary complexity
• Proper placement: Both additions are correctly positioned within the step definition
• Follows GitHub Actions conventions: Standard YAML syntax and GitHub Actions best practices

2. Timeout Value Consideration ⚠️

The 15-minute timeout is reasonable for most PR reviews, but consider:

Potential issue: For large PRs with extensive changes, 15 minutes might be insufficient for Claude Code to:

• Clone and analyze the entire codebase
• Perform comprehensive reviews across multiple files
• Generate detailed inline comments

Recommendation: Monitor timeout occurrences after deployment. If legitimate reviews are being cut short, consider:

• Increasing to 20-30 minutes
• Making timeout configurable via workflow inputs
• Adding timeout duration to the PR description template for visibility

Current assessment: 15 minutes is a good starting point for fail-fast behavior while debugging the hang issue.

3. Debug Logging Implementation ✅

ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG: true is the correct approach for enabling debug logging in GitHub Actions. This will:

• Provide detailed output from the action's execution
• Help identify where hangs occur
• Not interfere with production functionality (logging only)

Note: Debug logs can be verbose. Once the hang issue is resolved, consider making this conditional (e.g., via workflow input or only when claude-recheck label is present).

4. Security ✅

No security concerns. The changes:

• Don't expose secrets or sensitive data
• Don't modify permissions
• Don't introduce new external dependencies

5. Testing Considerations

Manual testing required: These changes need real-world validation:

• Verify timeout triggers correctly after 15 minutes
• Confirm debug logs provide useful information
• Test that timeout doesn't prematurely kill valid long-running reviews

No automated tests needed: GitHub Actions workflow configuration changes typically don't have unit tests.

6. Documentation

Missing: Consider adding a comment in the workflow file explaining the timeout rationale:

- name: Run Claude Code Action
  if: steps.check.outputs.is_member == 'true'
  # 15-minute timeout to prevent indefinite hangs (see issue #XXX)
  timeout-minutes: 15
  env:
    # Enable debug logging to diagnose hanging issues
    ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG: true

This helps future maintainers understand why these values were chosen.

Additional Observations

1. Root cause investigation: While these changes add safety measures, they don't fix the underlying hang issue. After this PR merges, continue investigating why subsequent runs hang at "Setting up Claude Code..."

2. Consider adding: If hangs persist, you might want to add workflow-level timeout as a safety net:

   jobs:
     claude-pr-review:
       timeout-minutes: 20  # Workflow-level timeout

3. Monitoring: After deployment, track:

   • How often the timeout triggers
   • Whether debug logs reveal the hang location
   • If 15 minutes is adequate for typical PRs

Conclusion

Approval recommendation: ✅ Approve with minor suggestions

The changes are sound and address the immediate problem effectively. The suggestions above are enhancements, not blockers. This PR delivers exactly what it promises: fail-fast behavior and debugging capability.

---

[diegomrsantos]

I tried a workaround to make the review run again: change the PR to draft and then to ready again. In my operator dg PR, it didn't work. The job was stuck for hours in "Setup claude" https://github.com/sigp/anchor/actions/runs/18719488501. But in this PR the trick worked.

[diegomrsantos]

So I tried the trick once again in the other PR and seems it fails immediately if there's another one running https://github.com/sigp/anchor/actions/runs/18719488501/job/53387663631. Or maybe it was just a coincidence

[diegomrsantos]

So I tried the trick once again in the other PR and seems it fails immediately if there's another one running https://github.com/sigp/anchor/actions/runs/18719488501/job/53387663631. Or maybe it was just a coincidence

Actually it did work in the second time #692 (comment), I was checking the previous job that got cancelled after 6 hours