Roadmap: shrink homeboy-action to thin primitive composer, then move packaging into core

[chubes4]

Summary

Track the end state for homeboy-action: shrink it into a thin GitHub Actions wrapper that installs Homeboy, sets up GitHub Actions-only environment bits, and composes existing Homeboy primitives.

This is explicitly not a request for a homeboy ci mega-command. The desired direction is the opposite: keep core as composable primitives, delete duplicated orchestration from the Action, and eventually let the core homeboy repo own the tiny action.yml packaging layer.

Target shape

GitHub Actions workflow
  -> thin action.yml
  -> install or build homeboy
  -> setup runtime dependencies only when GitHub Actions has to do it
  -> call existing primitives:
     - homeboy review
     - homeboy bench
     - homeboy release
     - homeboy issues reconcile
     - homeboy git pr comment
     - homeboy git issue/pr helpers

The Action remains useful as GitHub Actions glue, but it stops being a second implementation of Homeboy's orchestration contracts.

Current duplicated / transitional surfaces

• scripts/core/run-homeboy-commands.sh + scope scripts duplicate the review umbrella and --changed-since composition.
• scripts/pr/comment/* + scripts/digest/render-command-summary.py duplicate core PR-comment rendering and sectioned comment primitives.
• scripts/issues/auto-file-categorized-issues.sh duplicates issue reconciliation now tracked in core.
• scripts/release/run-release.sh wraps homeboy release with branch checks, dry-run parsing, bot identity, and output extraction.
• scripts/autofix/* still owns raw git push / branch / PR creation slices that should continue moving onto homeboy git primitives where possible.
• scripts/setup/read-portable-config.sh and runtime setup are GitHub Actions glue, but some of the config/runtime detection logic can stay delegated to homeboy component env and extension metadata.

Roadmap slices already tracked

Core primitive gaps:

• issues: reconciliation belongs in homeboy core, not 809 lines of bash in homeboy-action homeboy#1551 — move issue reconciliation out of auto-file-categorized-issues.sh and into homeboy issues reconcile.
• feat(report): move failure digest rendering out of homeboy-action homeboy#1647 — move failure digest rendering out of homeboy-action and into core report rendering.
• feat(review): --banner key=value for action-level signals in pr-comment renderer homeboy#1510 — add review --report=pr-comment --banner support for action-level signals.
• git: push override flags for App-token / fork-PR push flows homeboy#1349 — add git push override flags for GitHub App / fork-PR autofix push flows.
• homeboy test: define and document the lint/typecheck/audit/test contract homeboy#1459 — continue hardening the shared verification phase / runner contract.

Action migration slices:

• refactor(pr): replace render-command-summary.py + sections.sh with homeboy review --report=pr-comment #144 — replace shell/Python PR-comment rendering with homeboy review --report=pr-comment.
• feat: expose homeboy bench as a first-class CI command #172 — expose homeboy bench as a first-class Action command.
• Gracefully fall back when latest Homeboy release asset is missing #170 — gracefully handle missing latest release assets during binary install.
• fix(action): fail closed on malformed results JSON #166 — fail closed on malformed results JSON.
• fix(action): do not render unknown command status as command failure #164 — do not render unknown command status as a command failure.
• fix: RESULTS env var gets stray '}' from ${FIRST_RESULTS:-{}} parameter expansion #163 — fix malformed default results JSON expansion.
• feat: support multiple extensions #4 — support multiple linked extensions / stop assuming a single extension input.

Missing slices this meta issue should spawn or keep linked

• Collapse scripts/release/run-release.sh onto the modern homeboy release structured output and --git-identity support.
• Move the action.yml packaging layer into the core homeboy repo once the Action is small enough.
• Decide whether Extra-Chill/homeboy-action remains as a compatibility shim that delegates to the core repo action, or gets archived after consumers move to Extra-Chill/homeboy.

Done means

• The Action has no typed domain logic for audit/lint/test/review/report/issues/release decisions.
• Action-owned code is mostly install, GitHub Actions env adaptation, and forwarding outputs.
• Action scripts are small enough that the package can live in the core repo without making Homeboy harder to maintain.
• Existing uses: Extra-Chill/homeboy-action@v2 consumers have a clean migration or compatibility path.