Bug: Workflow_Runs query type consistently returns 0 rows when same URL+token directly returns data

[GastonM10]

Bug: Workflow_Runs query type returns 0 rows when the same URL+token directly returns the expected data

What you expected to happen

A Workflow_Runs query against a valid owner / repository / workflow should return the workflow runs visible to the configured credentials, like:

GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/workflows/{workflow}/runs?created=<from>..<to>

would return when called directly.

What actually happened

The plugin returns status: 200 with a valid frame schema (14 fields: id, name, head_branch, …) but all field value arrays are empty ([]). Other query types (Workflows, Issues, Pull_Requests, Repositories, Commits) against the same datasource work correctly and return populated data.

Steps to reproduce

1. Configure the datasource against an org with at least one repo and one workflow that has recent runs.

2. Add a panel with query:

   {
     "queryType": "Workflow_Runs",
     "options": {
       "owner": "<owner>",
       "repository": "<repo>",
       "workflow": "<workflow-file>.yml"
     }
   }

3. Set the dashboard time range to a window that contains real runs.

4. Inspect the panel. The query returns no rows.

For reference, the same underlying API endpoint called directly with the exact created=<from>..<to> filter the plugin would construct (using either an App installation token or a PAT) returns the expected runs:

curl -H "Authorization: token $TOKEN" \
     -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
     "https://api.github.com/repos/<owner>/<repo>/actions/workflows/<workflow>.yml/runs?created=<from-iso>..<to-iso>&per_page=100"
# → total_count: 12, returns 12 runs

Query inspector evidence

Request body sent by the plugin (captured via Grafana's query inspector):

{
  "queries": [{
    "refId": "A",
    "datasource": { "type": "grafana-github-datasource", "uid": "..." },
    "queryType": "Workflow_Runs",
    "options": {
      "owner": "<owner>",
      "repository": "<repo>",
      "workflow": "<workflow>.yml"
    },
    "datasourceId": 62,
    "intervalMs": 600000,
    "maxDataPoints": 1180
  }],
  "from": "1781300092199",
  "to":   "1781904892199"
}

Plugin response:

{
  "results": {
    "A": {
      "status": 200,
      "frames": [{
        "schema": {
          "name": "workflow_run",
          "fields": [
            { "name": "id", "type": "number", ... },
            { "name": "name", "type": "string", ... },
            { "name": "head_branch", ... },
            { "name": "head_sha", ... },
            { "name": "created_at", "type": "time", ... },
            { "name": "updated_at", ... },
            { "name": "run_started_at", ... },
            { "name": "html_url", ... },
            { "name": "url", ... },
            { "name": "status", ... },
            { "name": "conclusion", ... },
            { "name": "event", ... },
            { "name": "workflow_id", ... },
            { "name": "run_number", ... }
          ]
        },
        "data": { "values": [[], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], []] }
      }]
    }
  }
}

Schema is correct; values are empty for every field.

What we ruled out during debugging

We spent a few hours narrowing this down. The matrix of combinations that all produced the same 0 rows result:

Variable	Tested	Result
Plugin version	v2.3.0, v2.5.1, v2.6.0, v2.8.0	All: 0 rows
Auth	GitHub App (ghinstallation) + Personal Access Token	Both: 0 rows
Workflow workflow value	basename (x.yml), numeric ID (<id>), full path (.github/workflows/x.yml)	Basename and ID: 0 rows. Full path: workflow not found error (expected).
Workflow choice	several different workflows in the same repo	All: 0 rows
Repository choice	several different repos in the same org	All: 0 rows
Time range	now-7d, now-30d, explicit epoch ms covering known-good runs	All: 0 rows
Direct API call with the same install token / PAT	Same URL the plugin would construct, same created=<from>..<to> filter	Returns the expected runs (12 in our test)

App permissions used (verified by minting an installation token via JWT and inspecting /app/installations/{id}/access_tokens response):

"permissions": {
  "actions": "read",
  "contents": "read",
  "issues": "read",
  "metadata": "read",
  "pull_requests": "read"
}

repository_selection: "all".

Environment

• Grafana: 12.1.1
• Plugin: confirmed across 2.3.0, 2.5.1, 2.6.0, 2.8.0
• Auth tested: GitHub App (with valid permissions including actions: read) and Personal Access Token (with repo, workflow, read:org scopes)
• Cluster: EKS, plugin running in the official Grafana Helm chart deployment
• Other query types from this plugin against the same datasource all work: Workflows (lists workflows), Issues, Pull_Requests, Repositories, Commits

Possible related fix

PR #526 (fixes #503) addressed a similar "0 rows" problem in the Workflows query type — root cause was in pkg/models/workflows.go / pkg/github/workflows.go around CreatedAt/UpdatedAt time filtering with nil-handling and the addition of a None time field option.

Workflow_Runs does not expose a similar None option (the time filter is always applied based on the dashboard time range, constructed inside pkg/github/client/client.go as created=<from RFC3339>..<to RFC3339>). It's plausible the same underlying issue with time filter construction affects this query type but is not covered by #526's fix.

Hypothesis

The fact that:

• The plugin returns HTTP 200 (so the call to GitHub succeeded)
• The schema is fully populated (14 expected fields)
• Yet data.values arrays are all empty
• And a manual curl with the exact same URL+token returns runs

…suggests something between the GitHub response and the frame serialization is dropping rows. The fact that PR #526's fix on the Workflows query type added "improve time filtering logic with better nil handling" makes me suspect the same neighborhood — perhaps the response is being parsed and rows are filtered out by some predicate that shouldn't apply.

I'd be happy to add more diagnostic information (debug-level logs from the plugin, network trace) if useful — please indicate what would help most.

Workaround

For now we removed the Workflow_Runs-based panels from our dashboard and use only the query types that work (Workflows, Issues, Pull_Requests, Repositories). Workflow-run metrics remain unavailable to us via this plugin.

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