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While step debug logs focus on the actions themselves, runner diagnostic logs provide system-level debugging for the entire job environment. This is useful for diagnosing issues that may be related to the runner itself (e.g., an error when the runner tries to save a cache).
to list and even delete problematic caches from your terminal. 4. Live Debugging on the Runner
Next time you see Cache restored from key and suspect something is off, remember the steps: turn on debug logs, check the UI, split restore/save actions, and inspect sizes. Master debug-action-cache , and you master GitHub Actions performance. debug-action-cache
In the world of modern DevOps and CI/CD pipelines, speed is the ultimate currency. As projects grow, build times tend to balloon, often becoming a bottleneck for development teams. To combat this, build systems like and GitHub Actions utilize "action caching." However, when a cache doesn't behave as expected—either by failing to hit or by returning "poisoned" results—you need a way to look under the hood.
, a common area of frustration when build times spike due to unexpected cache misses or corrupted data. 1. Enable Verbose Debug Logging While step debug logs focus on the actions
This exposes the communication between the runner and the remote cache storage, showing you if the network is failing or if the key lookup is returning a "404 Not Found." The "Cache-Hit" Checklist
Before we debug, we must understand the problem. GitHub Actions cache is an immutable blob storage system. You write a cache using actions/cache@v3 or v4 , and later, you attempt to restore it using a key. In the world of modern DevOps and CI/CD
The debug-action-cache knowledge base continues to grow. Bookmark these resources:
debug-cache: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - name: Restore cache debug id: cache-restore uses: actions/cache/restore@v3 with: path: node_modules key: $ runner.os -node-$ hashFiles('package-lock.json') restore-keys: | $ runner.os -node- - name: Show cache status run: | echo "Cache hit: $ steps.cache-restore.outputs.cache-hit " if [ -d node_modules ]; then ls -la node_modules; fi
Understanding , restore keys , and cache scope is critical.
