Would you like to simulate a conversation where I provide the report and you respond as a stakeholder?
Technically, debug-action-cache is not a standalone binary. It is a inside the actions/cache and actions/toolkit packages. When you enable it, the cache library outputs verbose logs showing:
Dependencies cached on a Linux runner may fail when restored on a macOS runner due to absolute pathing or library version mismatches. debug-action-cache
name: Save cache (only if build succeeded) if: steps.cache-restore.outputs.cache-hit != 'true' uses: actions/cache/save@v3 with: path: vendor/bundle key: $ runner.os -gems-$ hashFiles('Gemfile.lock')
[debug] Checking cache for key: Linux-node-abc123 [debug] restoreKeys: [ 'Linux-node-' ] [debug] Cache service URL: https://artifactcache.actions.githubusercontent.com/... [debug] Request headers: Authorization: 'Bearer ***', Accept: 'application/json' [debug] GET response: 404 (Not Found) [debug] Trying restore key: Linux-node- [debug] GET response: 200 OK [debug] Cache found: cacheKey: 'Linux-node-def456', archiveLocation: 'https://...' [debug] Downloading 234MB archive... [debug] Extracting to /home/runner/work/repo/node_modules Would you like to simulate a conversation where
gh actions cache delete <KEY> --repo <owner>/<repo>
In modern DevOps, the "action cache" stores intermediate build artifacts and dependencies. However, debugging these caches is notoriously difficult because they are often opaque, immutable, and distributed across various runner environments. A debug-action-cache utility serves as a diagnostic bridge, allowing engineers to inspect the state of cached assets without manual intervention. When you enable it, the cache library outputs
Check for "restore-keys." GitHub will try to find the closest match if an exact key isn't found. If your restore-keys
Most CI engines hide verbose caching logs by default. In GitHub Actions, you can expose these hidden insights by setting the repository secrets or workflow variables: ACTIONS_RUNNER_DEBUG = true ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG = true