Logs

[dannysachdev]

Why are you starting this discussion?

Question

What GitHub Actions topic or product is this about?

General

Discussion Details

I have logs (like aws logs) and in the session I cannot paste them (too many chars) and if I update a file in the repo the current agent cant access, is there a workaround?

[midiakiasat]

Yes. Don’t paste logs into chat.

Workarounds that actually scale:

1. Upload as an artifact (preferred)

• In the workflow, actions/upload-artifact the log file(s).
• Then share the artifact link or download locally.

2. Attach logs to the run via GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY

• Write a truncated/filtered version to the job summary.
• Keep full logs as artifact.

3. Store logs externally and link

• Push to S3 / CloudWatch / GCS and share a pre-signed URL (time-limited).
• Or paste into a GitHub Gist (private/secret) and share the gist link.

4. Commit logs to a temporary branch

• If the agent can’t see new commits mid-session, restart/re-run the agent/session so it re-checks out the updated ref/commit.
• Better: generate logs inside the workflow and artifact them, so no repo write is needed.

5. Reduce log size

• Filter before sharing: grep -i error, tail -n 5000, remove secrets.
• Compress: gzip and upload artifact.

If you’re using a Copilot/agent inside Actions: it typically runs on the checked-out commit at job start; it won’t automatically see repo updates unless the job re-checks out or you rerun the job.

[JulianCeleita]

Yeah, that’s a common pain point, logs can get way too big for pasting into the session. Right now there isn’t a way for the agent to directly read updated files from your repo, so the usual workarounds are:

• Trim or chunk the logs into smaller pieces and paste them in parts.
• Upload the log file somewhere accessible (like a gist or a pastebin) and share the link.
• If you need the agent to analyze it, point it to a summarized version or highlight the sections you care about most.

Basically, the agent can’t auto‑pull from your repo, so you’ll need to provide the data in a way it can “see” smaller chunks or external links usually do the trick.

[Viniciusulpicio]

Hi @dannysachdev!

When dealing with large log files in GitHub Actions that exceed the character limit for comments or terminal pasting, the best workaround is to use Artifacts.

You can upload your log files as an artifact during the workflow run. This way, you don't need to update files in the repo (which the current agent might not see immediately due to the environment isolation).

Here is a simple example of how to add this to your YAML:

• name: Upload Logs
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  with:
  name: aws-logs
  path: path/to/your/logfile.log

After the run, you can download the .zip file containing the full logs directly from the "Summary" page of the Action.

Hope this helps!

[dbuzatto]

Hi,

GitHub Actions (and Copilot/Agents in general) have input size limits, so very large logs can’t be pasted directly into a session.

Here are a few practical workarounds:

1. Upload the logs as an artifact

If this is from a workflow run, you can:

• Upload the full logs as a workflow artifact
• Download and inspect them locally
• Share only the relevant excerpts in the discussion

2. Store logs in a temporary file and summarize

Instead of pasting the entire log:

• Extract the relevant section (e.g., last 200–500 lines)
• Filter by keywords like ERROR, Exception, or Failed
• Share only the meaningful portion

Example:

grep -i error aws.log | tail -n 200