Agentic Workflows

GitHub Agentic Workflows (gh-aw) let you author an agent task as a markdown file — with YAML frontmatter — under .github/workflows/. GitHub compiles that source into a <name>.lock.yml GitHub Actions workflow, which is what actually runs.

CodeCargo detects and catalogs these files so admins get a consolidated view of them across the organization — and imports each agentic source into the Agent Catalog as a GitHub Actions-engine agent. Once an admin reviews and publishes an imported agent, CodeCargo can trigger its compiled workflow directly, from an Agentic Job or a Dispatch plan step. How running works — dispatch mechanics, the compiled-state badge, and what "the prompt is not delivered" means — is covered in Agent Engines → GitHub Actions.

How Detection Works

During an organization workflow sync, CodeCargo scans for gh-aw source files (.md), their compiled .lock.yml output, and shared MCP configuration files (shared/*.md), pairing each source file with its compiled lock file by basename. Each file is classified into one of four types:

If a gh-aw file can't be parsed, it's still cataloged — marked as unparsed — rather than being dropped from the scan or failing it outright.

gh aw compile also writes .github/workflows/agentics-maintenance.yml (or .yaml) from the expires and safe-outputs.noop settings across the repository's agentic workflows. CodeCargo catalogs that file as an agentic lock, with no paired source. Its Agentic tab is titled Generated maintenance workflow: to change the file, edit those settings in the sources and recompile. A workflow you maintain yourself at that path stays a standard workflow.

Governance Metadata

For each agentic workflow, CodeCargo extracts governance-relevant metadata from the frontmatter, including:

• Engine / model — which AI engine and model the workflow declares
• MCP servers — declared servers, their transport, read-only status, and allowed tools (secret key names only — CodeCargo never stores or displays secret values)
• Tool grants — which tools the workflow is permitted to use
• Safe outputs — declared safe-output configuration
• Network config — declared network access
• Timeout and concurrency — execution limits declared in the frontmatter

Any frontmatter fields CodeCargo doesn't yet recognize are preserved as opaque passthrough data rather than discarded.

Viewing Agentic Workflows

In the Workflows inventory (organization or project level), agentic files carry the gh-aw mark next to their name and a badge in the Traits column: Agentic for a source file, Compiled for its lock file, and Shared MCP for shared configuration. Filter the Traits column by Agentic or Standard to narrow the list.

Opening an agentic workflow's detail page adds an Agentic tab alongside the standard workflow detail tabs, showing the extracted engine, model, MCP server, tool grant, and network metadata for that workflow.