Step Name Alignment Issues

Found in: .github/workflows/*.lock.yml (all workflows using MCP Scripts alongside Safe Outputs, e.g. smoke-copilot.lock.yml)

Summary

Three lifecycle steps for the MCP Scripts subsystem use different naming conventions than their direct Safe Outputs counterparts. Because these steps perform the same class of operation for two parallel subsystems, their names should follow a consistent pattern. Currently, each pair differs in whether the word "MCP" or "Files" is included.

Issues Identified

1. [High Priority] Inconsistent "Tool Files" vs "Tools" in Write steps

Current step names:

• Write Safe Outputs Tools
• Write MCP Scripts Tool Files

Issue:
Parallel "Write" steps for two subsystems use different suffixes — "Tools" for Safe Outputs but "Tool Files" for MCP Scripts. The object being written is the same in both cases (tool definition files).

Suggested improvement: Align to the more explicit form:

• Write Safe Outputs Tools → Write Safe Outputs Tool Files

2. [High Priority] Inconsistent "MCP Server Config" vs "Server Config" in Generate steps

Current step names:

• Generate Safe Outputs MCP Server Config
• Generate MCP Scripts Server Config

Issue:
The Safe Outputs version includes "MCP" before "Server Config", while the MCP Scripts version omits it — despite both generating an MCP server configuration.

Suggested improvement: Drop "MCP" from both to avoid redundancy and achieve consistency:

• Generate Safe Outputs MCP Server Config → Generate Safe Outputs Server Config
• Generate MCP Scripts Server Config → no change needed (already shorter form)

Or alternatively, add "MCP" to the Scripts version:

• Generate MCP Scripts Server Config → Generate MCP Scripts MCP Server Config (avoid — "MCP" appears twice)

The cleaner fix is to standardize on the shorter form for both.

3. [High Priority] Inconsistent "MCP HTTP Server" vs "HTTP Server" in Start steps

Current step names:

• Start Safe Outputs MCP HTTP Server
• Start MCP Scripts HTTP Server

Issue:
The Safe Outputs version includes "MCP" before "HTTP Server"; the MCP Scripts version omits it — even though both start an MCP-based HTTP server.

Suggested improvement: Drop "MCP" from the Safe Outputs version to standardize on the shorter form:

• Start Safe Outputs MCP HTTP Server → Start Safe Outputs HTTP Server

Scope

These names are compiler-generated templates that appear across many lock files:

• Write Safe Outputs Tools / Write MCP Scripts Tool Files — ~194 / 13 workflows
• Generate Safe Outputs MCP Server Config / Generate MCP Scripts Server Config — ~194 / 13 workflows
• Start Safe Outputs MCP HTTP Server / Start MCP Scripts HTTP Server — ~194 / 13 workflows

Agentic Task Description

To improve these step names:

1. Locate the compiler template — step names are generated by gh aw compile; search the actions/ folder or compiler source for the string literals "Write Safe Outputs Tools", "Generate Safe Outputs MCP Server Config", and "Start Safe Outputs MCP HTTP Server"
2. Apply changes — update the template strings to the suggested names
3. Recompile all affected workflows — run gh aw compile for each workflow that uses Safe Outputs or MCP Scripts
4. Verify consistency — re-run the step-name-alignment workflow to confirm no further discrepancies

Related Files

• Example compiled workflow: .github/workflows/smoke-copilot.lock.yml
• Source workflow: .github/workflows/smoke-copilot.md
• Project glossary: docs/src/content/docs/reference/glossary.md

Priority

This issue is High Priority — the inconsistency appears in every workflow that uses these subsystems and would confuse contributors examining step output side-by-side.

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• expires on Apr 25, 2026, 7:55 PM UTC