Temporary ID references in patch content are not resolved before `git am`

[wtgodbe]

Temporary ID references in patch content are not resolved before git am

Summary

When a create_pull_request safe output references a create_issue temporary ID inside the patch content (i.e., in the actual code being committed), the #aw_* placeholder is not resolved to the real issue number. The framework correctly resolves temporary IDs in the PR body text, but the patch file is applied verbatim — so the placeholder string ends up in the committed source code.

Reproduction

1. Create a workflow where the agent:
   • Calls create_issue with temporary_id: "aw_myid"
   • Calls create_pull_request with a patch that contains #aw_myid in the diff content (e.g., inside a string literal in source code)
2. Run the workflow.
3. Observe that the PR body correctly resolves #aw_myid → #66195 (or whatever issue number was assigned), but the committed code still contains the literal string #aw_myid.

Real-world example

In dotnet/aspnetcore's test-quarantine workflow, the agent quarantines a flaky test by adding a [QuarantinedTest] attribute that references the tracking issue:

[QuarantinedTest("https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore/issues/#aw_navqry1")]

The safe_outputs job creates issue #66195 and correctly resolves the reference in the PR body ("Associated issue: #66195"). But the committed code in the PR still contains the unresolved placeholder:

// Actual (wrong):
[QuarantinedTest("https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore/issues/#aw_navqry1")]

// Expected:
[QuarantinedTest("https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore/issues/66195")]

Root cause

In actions/setup/js/create_pull_request.cjs, replaceTemporaryIdReferences() is called on the PR body (~line 693):

processedBody = replaceTemporaryIdReferences(processedBody, tempIdMap, itemRepo);
core.info(`Resolved ${tempIdMap.size} temporary ID references in PR body`);

But it is never called on the patch content. The patch is read from disk (line 524), validated, and then applied directly via git am --3way (~line 1010) with the raw, unresolved content.

The safe_outputs log confirms this — note the asymmetry:

Resolved 1 temporary ID references in PR body        ← body is resolved ✓
...
+    [QuarantinedTest("https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore/issues/#aw_navqry1")]   ← patch is NOT resolved ✗
...
[command]/usr/bin/git am --3way /tmp/gh-aw/aw-quarantine-....patch
Patch applied successfully

Additional consideration: URL-context replacement

Even if the patch content were processed, the current replacement logic would produce an incorrect result in URL context. The TEMPORARY_ID_PATTERN in temporary_id.cjs (line 30) replaces #aw_navqry1 → #66195:

Input:  https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore/issues/#aw_navqry1
Output: https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore/issues/#66195   ← '#' makes this a URL fragment anchor
Correct: https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore/issues/66195   ← should be a path segment

In PR body markdown, #66195 is a valid GitHub issue shorthand. But inside a URL, the # character creates a fragment identifier instead of a path component, making the link point to the wrong location.

Suggested fix

In create_pull_request.cjs, before applying the patch (around line 995), resolve temporary IDs in the patch content:

1. Read patchContent (already done at line 524)
2. Apply a URL-aware replacement that handles both contexts:
   • URL context: Replace /#aw_XXX (preceded by /) with /NUMBER — no # prefix
   • Text context: Replace #aw_XXX with #NUMBER (existing behavior)
3. Write the modified content back to patchFilePath before calling git am

A simple approach for step 2 could be to first replace the URL-context pattern, then fall through to the standard text-context pattern:

// URL-context: /issues/#aw_XXX → /issues/NUMBER
patchContent = patchContent.replace(/\/(#aw_[A-Za-z0-9_]{3,12})\b/gi, (match, tempIdWithHash) => {
  const tempId = tempIdWithHash.substring(1); // strip leading #
  const resolved = tempIdMap.get(normalizeTemporaryId(tempId));
  if (resolved) {
    return `/${resolved.number}`;
  }
  return match;
});

// Then apply standard text-context replacement
patchContent = replaceTemporaryIdReferences(patchContent, tempIdMap, itemRepo);

// Write back before git am
fs.writeFileSync(patchFilePath, patchContent, "utf8");

Note: modifying the patch content changes the diff lines but not the patch metadata (commit hashes, etc.), so git am may need --3way to handle any resulting mismatch — which is already the default path.

Environment

• gh-aw version: v0.67.1
• Workflow: dotnet/aspnetcore test-quarantine
• Affected PR: [test-quarantine] Quarantine ServerRoutingTest.CanNavigateToQueryStringPageWithNoQuery dotnet/aspnetcore#66196
• Created issue (correctly): Quarantine ServerRoutingTest.CanNavigateToQueryStringPageWithNoQuery dotnet/aspnetcore#66195