[step-names] Align step names across workflows: verb consistency, safe-outputs casing, and minor naming issues

[github-actions]

Step Name Alignment Issues

Found across multiple .github/workflows/*.lock.yml files (152 workflows analyzed, 225 unique step names reviewed).

Summary

Several recurring inconsistencies were found across the compiled workflows. The issues fall into three categories: verb inconsistency (Echo vs Print), casing/hyphenation of safe-outputs/safe-inputs, and a small set of minor naming problems. All source changes should be made in the .md files and recompiled.

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Issues Identified

1. [High Priority] Inconsistent Verb: Echo agent output types vs Print pattern

Current step name (142 workflows):

• Echo agent output types

Issue:
Two other high-frequency steps in every workflow use the verb Print:

• Print prompt (152 workflows)
• Print firewall logs (152 workflows)

Using Echo (a shell command name) as a step verb is inconsistent with the established Print pattern.

Suggested improvement:

• Echo agent output types → Print agent output types

Example files: .github/workflows/agent-performance-analyzer.lock.yml, .github/workflows/archie.lock.yml, and 140 others.

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2. [High Priority] Terminology Mismatch: safe-outputs/safe-inputs casing

Current step names with lowercase-hyphenated form (8 workflows each):

• Parse safe-inputs logs for step summary
• Upload safe-outputs assets

Dominant form used in 145+ other steps:

• Upload Safe Outputs
• Write Safe Outputs Config
• Generate Safe Outputs MCP Server Config
• Start Safe Outputs MCP HTTP Server
• Process Safe Outputs
• Generate Safe Inputs MCP Server Config
• Setup Safe Inputs Config
• Start Safe Inputs MCP HTTP Server

Issue:
The overwhelming majority of steps (145+) use Title Case Safe Outputs / Safe Inputs. Two outlier steps use the hyphenated lowercase form safe-outputs / safe-inputs, creating inconsistency. The glossary notes that safe-outputs is used hyphenated in technical (YAML) contexts, but step names are prose labels and should follow the same Title Case convention as all other steps.

Suggested improvements:

• Parse safe-inputs logs for step summary → Parse Safe Inputs logs for step summary
• Upload safe-outputs assets → Upload Safe Outputs assets

Example files: .github/workflows/copilot-pr-merged-report.lock.yml, .github/workflows/audit-workflows.lock.yml, and others.

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3. [Medium Priority] Inconsistent Verb: Run Codex vs Execute for AI engine steps

Current step names:

• Run Codex (11 workflows)
• Execute Claude Code CLI (37 workflows)
• Execute GitHub Copilot CLI (104 workflows)

Issue:
All three steps perform the same conceptual action — invoking an AI engine. Two use Execute while the Codex engine uses Run. Similarly, Install Codex (11 workflows) is consistent with Install Claude Code CLI and Install GitHub Copilot CLI, but the run step is not.

Suggested improvement:

• Run Codex → Execute Codex

Example files: .github/workflows/ai-moderator.lock.yml, .github/workflows/codex-github-remote-mcp-test.lock.yml, and others.

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4. [Low Priority] Missing verb: Dev dependencies

Current step name (1 workflow — tidy.lock.yml):

• Dev dependencies

Issue:
Every other dependency installation step uses an explicit verb:

• Install dev dependencies
• Install dependencies
• Install development dependencies

This step is missing its verb entirely.

Suggested improvement:

• Dev dependencies → Install dev dependencies

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5. [Low Priority] Underscore in step name: Run stale_repos tool

Current step name (1 workflow — stale-repo-identifier.lock.yml):

• Run stale_repos tool

Issue:
This is the only step name in the entire codebase that contains an underscore. All other multi-word identifiers in step names use spaces or hyphens. The underscore comes from the action/tool name stale-repos but should not appear in the human-readable step label.

Suggested improvement:

• Run stale_repos tool → Run stale-repos tool

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6. [Low Priority] Wrong preposition capitalization: Assign To Agent

Current step name (2 workflows — issue-monster.lock.yml, workflow-generator.lock.yml):

• Assign To Agent

Issue:
Short prepositions like "to" should not be capitalized in step names. Compare with Assign Copilot to created issues which correctly uses lowercase "to".

Suggested improvement:

• Assign To Agent → Assign to agent

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Agentic Task Description

To fix these step names:

1. Review source files — Changes must be made in the .md source files, not the .lock.yml compiled files
2. Apply renames — Update each affected step name in the relevant .md workflow file
3. Recompile — Run gh aw compile (workflow-name).md to regenerate the .lock.yml
4. Verify consistency — Confirm the new names appear correctly in the compiled output

Related Files

• Source workflows: .github/workflows/*.md
• Compiled workflows: .github/workflows/*.lock.yml
• Project glossary: docs/src/content/docs/reference/glossary.md

Priority

This issue is High Priority for items 1–3 (affects 100+ workflows each) and Low Priority for items 4–6 (single-workflow outliers).

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AI generated by Step Name Alignment for daily maintenance

Generated by Step Name Alignment

• expires on Feb 21, 2026, 12:34 PM UTC