Test Release Canary

The Release Canary (.github/workflows/release-canary.yml) smoke-tests the artifacts a Release Dev run just published. It is the last automated checkpoint before tagging a public release: if the canary is red, the published dev artifacts do not install on a stock environment.

What the canary verifies

All canary jobs disable anonymous OpenShell telemetry. Host package jobs inject OPENSHELLTELEMETRYENABLED=false through the service environment, and the Kubernetes job installs with server.telemetryEnabled=false, so smoke traffic does not contribute to product usage metrics.

install.sh defaults to the latest tagged release — the canary is therefore checking that the most recent public release still installs, not the just-published dev build. The kubernetes job is the exception: it pins to 0.0.0-dev chart + :dev images.

The canary does not install or import @nvidia/openshell-sdk. TypeScript SDK validation lives in the TypeScript SDK branch check, including a publish dry-run. The tagged release workflow publishes the package to GitHub Packages; verify that job directly when diagnosing SDK publication failures.

Trigger paths

The workflow has two triggers:

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  workflow_run:
    workflows: ["Release Dev"]
    types: [completed]

• Automatic. Every successful Release Dev run (on main or a manual dispatch of Release Dev) fires the canary. Each job gates on github.event.workflow_run.conclusion == 'success' so a failed Release Dev does not run the canary.
• Manual. workflow_dispatch lets you run the canary on demand against any branch's workflow definition. To include ubuntu-snap, supply release-dev-run-id for a successful Release Dev run whose Snap artifact should be tested; without it, that job is skipped because no artifact is available.

When dispatched manually, github.event.workflowrun.headsha is empty and the workflow falls back to github.sha (the branch tip) for the install.sh URL.

Manual dispatch

Run the canary as-is on the current branch:

gh workflow run release-canary.yml --ref "$(git branch --show-current)"

To exercise the Ubuntu Snap job, pass the successful Release Dev run ID:

gh workflow run release-canary.yml --ref "$(git branch --show-current)" \
  -f release-dev-run-id=<release-dev-run-id>

Watch the run that starts:

sleep 5  # let GitHub register the dispatch
gh run list --workflow release-canary.yml --limit 1
gh run watch "$(gh run list --workflow release-canary.yml --limit 1 --json databaseId --jq '.[0].databaseId')"

View only failed jobs after completion:

gh run view <run-id> --log-failed

Iterating on the canary itself

When you change release-canary.yml on a branch, a manual dispatch on that branch tests your branch's workflow logic against main's published artifacts (0.0.0-dev chart, :dev images, latest tagged install.sh assets). This is what you want for iterating on the canary — you're validating that the canary still works against known-good artifacts.

Note install.sh is pulled from raw.githubusercontent.com/NVIDIA/OpenShell/${head_sha}/install.sh, so changes to install.sh on your branch are exercised even though the binaries it downloads are from the latest public tag.

Testing artifacts from a specific SHA

Release Dev publishes two chart versions for every dev build (see .github/actions/release-helm-oci/action.yml:89-102):

• oci://ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/helm-chart:0.0.0-dev — floating, overwritten on every main push.
• oci://ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/helm-chart:0.0.0-dev.<sha> — immutable, appVersion set to the same SHA so it pulls ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/gateway:<sha> and :supervisor:<sha>.

To smoke-test the chart for a specific dev build, dispatch Release Dev on the branch first, then run the kind canary steps locally pointed at the SHA-pinned chart (see "Local kind reproduction" below). The release-canary workflow itself does not currently expose chartversion / imagetag inputs.

Local kind reproduction

The kubernetes job can be reproduced on any machine with Docker and mise install-provided kubectl + helm:

kind create cluster --name release-canary-local

bash e2e/support/install-agent-sandbox.sh

helm install openshell oci://ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/helm-chart \
  --version 0.0.0-dev \
  --namespace openshell --create-namespace \
  --set server.disableTls=true \
  --set server.telemetryEnabled=false \
  --wait --timeout 5m

kubectl wait --namespace openshell \
  --for=condition=Ready pod \
  --selector="app.kubernetes.io/name=openshell,app.kubernetes.io/instance=openshell" \
  --timeout=300s

kubectl port-forward --namespace openshell svc/openshell 8080:8080 &
openshell gateway add http://127.0.0.1:8080 --local --name kind
openshell status

Keep pkiInitJob.enabled=true (the chart default), even when server.disableTls=true. The hook also generates the sandbox JWT signing secret that the gateway pod always mounts.

Swap 0.0.0-dev for 0.0.0-dev.<sha> to pin to a specific dev build. Tear down with kind delete cluster --name release-canary-local.

Loopback registration auto-derives the gateway name to openshell if --name is omitted, which collides with the install.sh-installed local gateway — always pass --name kind (or another distinct name) when registering in addition to a local install.

Diagnosing failures

The kubernetes job's diagnostics step (only runs if: failure()) emits, in order: helm status, rendered manifest, kubectl get all, pod descriptions, pod logs (200 lines per container), port-forward log, gateway list, CLI version. Read it top-to-bottom — most failures fall out by the manifest or pod logs.

Related

• helm-dev-environment skill — local k3d-based dev environment (more featureful than the canary's kind cluster, but uses Skaffold-built local images, not published artifacts).
• watch-github-actions skill — generic gh run workflow monitoring.
• debug-openshell-cluster skill — runtime gateway/sandbox diagnostics that pair with the kind job's diagnostics dump.