Update workflows to only add a single comment for how to run an image #54

Copilot · 2026-01-28T19:22:28Z

Solution

Each workflow now:

Uses a unique HTML comment marker (e.g., )
Searches existing comments (up to 100) for one that:
- Is from the github-actions[bot] user
- Starts with its unique marker
If found, updates that comment; otherwise, creates a new one

This approach ensures:

Each workflow maintains exactly ONE comment per PR
Re-running a workflow updates the existing comment instead of creating a new one
Different workflows don't interfere with each other (no race conditions)
User comments won't be accidentally modified

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Update workflows to only add a single comment for how to run an image</issue_title>
<issue_description>Currently each workflow in this project will add a comment on each workflow run, containing instructions on how to run the relevant image in a local container. This can result in many redundant "how to run this image" comments. See #48 for an example.

Ideally we'd have one single comment that is updated to contain the instructions for every image that's being built, but it would be an improvement if each workflow maintained a single comment instead of creating a new one every time.</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>There is a not-exactly-successful attempt at resolving this issue here #50</agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)
@bart-vmware One way to accomplish this is by using the GitHub CLI, such as [here](https://github.com/SteeltoeOSS/Steeltoe/blob/main/.github/workflows/Steeltoe.All.yml#L145):
run: gh pr comment $PR_NUMBER --edit-last --create-if-none --body-file coveragereport/Summary.md
env:
  GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
  PR_NUMBER: ${{ github.event.number }}
```</body></comment_new>
<comment_new><author>@TimHess</author><body>
> One way to accomplish this is by using the GitHub CLI, such as [here](https://github.com/SteeltoeOSS/Steeltoe/blob/main/.github/workflows/Steeltoe.All.yml#L145):
> 
> ```
> run: gh pr comment $PR_NUMBER --edit-last --create-if-none --body-file coveragereport/Summary.md
> env:
>   GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
>   PR_NUMBER: ${{ github.event.number }}
> ```

That seems like a simple solution, but there are up to 4 different workflows that might want to add a comment... quick experiment in SteeltoeOSS/Dockerfiles#50 shows the comments overwrite each other. We could probably do some scripting to evaluate the comment body and append to it, but I wonder how annoying that race condition would be.</body></comment_new>
</comments>

Fixes Update workflows to only add a single comment for how to run an image #49

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Co-authored-by: TimHess <3947063+TimHess@users.noreply.github.com>

github-actions · 2026-01-28T19:26:09Z

To run the UAA server image built for this pull request:

docker run --rm -d --pull=always -p 8080:8080 --name uaa-pr steeltoe.azurecr.io/uaa-server:pr-54

github-actions · 2026-01-28T19:26:47Z

To run the Eureka server image built for this pull request:

docker run --rm -d --pull=always -p 8761:8761 --name eureka-pr steeltoe.azurecr.io/eureka-server:pr-54

github-actions · 2026-01-28T19:26:55Z

To run the Spring Cloud Config Server image built for this pull request:

docker run --rm -d --pull=always -p 8888:8888 --name config-pr steeltoe.azurecr.io/config-server:pr-54

TimHess · 2026-01-28T20:53:52Z

@copilot the spring boot admin server workflow is failing because one of the patch files isn't matching.

Update spring-boot-admin/patches/build.gradle.patch to look like this:

--- ./build.gradle	2025-09-22 14:48:20.000000000 -0500
+++ ./build.gradle	2026-01-27 00:00:00.000000000 -0500
@@ -38,3 +38,10 @@
 tasks.named('test') {
        useJUnitPlatform()
 }
+
+bootBuildImage {
+    createdDate = "now"
+    environment = [
+       "BP_SPRING_CLOUD_BINDINGS_DISABLED": "true"
+    ]

Co-authored-by: TimHess <3947063+TimHess@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot · 2026-01-28T20:55:10Z

@copilot the spring boot admin server workflow is failing because one of the patch files isn't matching.

Update spring-boot-admin/patches/build.gradle.patch to look like this:
...

Updated spring-boot-admin/patches/build.gradle.patch with the provided content in commit 349eb18.

github-actions · 2026-01-28T21:08:25Z

To run the Spring Boot Admin server image built for this pull request:

docker run --rm -d --pull=always -p 9099:9099 --name sba-pr steeltoe.azurecr.io/spring-boot-admin:pr-54

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR resolves the issue of workflows creating redundant comments on each run by implementing an idempotent comment update mechanism. Instead of creating a new comment every time a workflow runs, each workflow now searches for its existing comment (using a unique HTML marker) and updates it if found, or creates it if not. This approach avoids the race condition issues encountered in PR #50 where --edit-last caused different workflows to overwrite each other's comments.

Changes:

Updated all four build workflow files to use unique HTML comment markers for idempotent comment updates
Modified the spring-boot-admin build.gradle patch to match the current file structure
Added pagination support (per_page: 100) and bot user filtering based on code review feedback

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
`.github/workflows/build_config_server.yaml`	Replaced simple comment creation with marker-based update-or-create logic using unique marker `IMAGE_INSTRUCTIONS_CONFIG_SERVER`
`.github/workflows/build_eureka_server.yaml`	Replaced simple comment creation with marker-based update-or-create logic using unique marker `IMAGE_INSTRUCTIONS_EUREKA_SERVER`
`.github/workflows/build_springboot_admin_server.yaml`	Replaced simple comment creation with marker-based update-or-create logic using unique marker `IMAGE_INSTRUCTIONS_SPRING_BOOT_ADMIN`
`.github/workflows/build_uaa_server.yaml`	Replaced simple comment creation with marker-based update-or-create logic using unique marker `IMAGE_INSTRUCTIONS_UAA_SERVER`
`spring-boot-admin/patches/build.gradle.patch`	Updated patch to remove version upgrade section and adjust line numbers to match current file structure

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TimHess

LGTM

bart-vmware

This is very nice!

Comments stay at their original position
When a comment gets updated with the same contents, its last-modified time is retained at the original value (no "edited" entry)
After changing the comment myself, the next build restores it to the original value (with "edited" history, see picture below)
I don't get a new email when the content of an existing comment has changed
When I change the workflow to produce a different comment, it gets added to the history of the existing comment (picture below)

Initial plan

762f48f

Copilot AI assigned Copilot and TimHess Jan 28, 2026

Copilot started work on behalf of TimHess January 28, 2026 19:22 View session

Copilot AI and others added 2 commits January 28, 2026 19:24

Update workflows to use comment markers for idempotent PR comments

6a7575a

Co-authored-by: TimHess <3947063+TimHess@users.noreply.github.com>

Address code review: add pagination and bot user check

20157c9

Co-authored-by: TimHess <3947063+TimHess@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI changed the title ~~[WIP] Update workflows to add a single comment for image instructions~~ Update workflows to only add a single comment for how to run an image Jan 28, 2026

Copilot AI requested a review from TimHess January 28, 2026 19:27

Copilot finished work on behalf of TimHess January 28, 2026 19:27

Copilot started work on behalf of TimHess January 28, 2026 20:54 View session

Fix build.gradle.patch to match current file structure

349eb18

Co-authored-by: TimHess <3947063+TimHess@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot finished work on behalf of TimHess January 28, 2026 20:55

TimHess marked this pull request as ready for review January 28, 2026 21:11

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings January 28, 2026 21:11

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of TimHess January 28, 2026 21:12 View session

TimHess requested a review from bart-vmware January 28, 2026 21:14

Copilot AI reviewed Jan 28, 2026

View reviewed changes

TimHess approved these changes Jan 29, 2026

View reviewed changes

bart-vmware mentioned this pull request Jan 29, 2026

Update README.md with test comment #55

Closed

bart-vmware approved these changes Jan 29, 2026

View reviewed changes

TimHess merged commit d624c00 into main Jan 29, 2026
11 checks passed

TimHess deleted the copilot/update-workflows-single-comment branch January 29, 2026 16:01

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Update workflows to only add a single comment for how to run an image #54

Update workflows to only add a single comment for how to run an image #54

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Copilot AI commented Jan 28, 2026 •

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