Benchmark history never updates on release: `benchmark-history.yml` triggers on `release: published`, but releases are published with `GITHUB_TOKEN`

[matt-edmondson]

Plan reference

The design spec makes this commitment (https://github.com/ktsu-dev/Semantics/blob/7852eab73d673ab42ff1ad10cb1ad1124b8b0122/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-09-18-strings-paths-benchmarks-design.md#L9-L11):

Every release adds a point to docs/benchmarks/history.json, the chart is redrawn into docs/benchmarks/performance.svg, and the README shows it.

Plan Task 8 (https://github.com/ktsu-dev/Semantics/blob/7852eab73d673ab42ff1ad10cb1ad1124b8b0122/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-09-18-strings-paths-benchmarks.md#L1543-L1548) says: "The workflow itself is proven by the first real dispatch, which is out of scope here."

What exists today

• .github/workflows/benchmark-history.yml triggers on release: types: [published] and on workflow_dispatch.
• The Actions API reports zero runs ever for the Benchmark History workflow since it was created on 2026-09-16.
• In that time at least 8 releases (v5.5.0 through v5.8.3) were published by github-actions[bot]. dotnet.yml passes GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }} to ktsubuild.
• Events caused by GITHUB_TOKEN do not start new workflow runs; only workflow_dispatch and repository_dispatch are exempt. So the release trigger can never fire.

What's missing

The committed histories are frozen:

• docs/benchmarks/history.json stops at 5.3.2.
• strings-history.json and paths-history.json stop at 5.3.4, the local seed.

The current version is 5.8.3, so the README charts are stale.

Acceptance criteria

• The release pipeline triggers the benchmark workflow using any one of these:
  • Have the release job dispatch it explicitly (gh workflow run benchmark-history.yml -f versions=<tag> or a repository_dispatch; GITHUB_TOKEN is allowed to trigger both).
  • Publish releases with a PAT or GitHub App token.
  • Trigger on workflow_run of the .NET workflow and read the new tag.
• One run (dispatched or release-triggered) backfills 5.8.x points into all three histories.
• The next release adds a point with no manual step.

Dependencies

None. Related but independent: #303 (SVG/history drift guard).

[matt-edmondson]

Triage

• Category: Bug (CI/workflow)
• Priority: Medium. The workflow has never run, and the README's performance charts have been stale since 5.3.x. No shipped code is affected.
• Area / suggested assignment: .github/workflows/benchmark-history.yml and the release job. Any other org repo that uses a release: published trigger with KtsuBuild's GITHUB_TOKEN releases has the same blind spot, so this may belong in the shared pipeline.
• Duplicates: none. It is related to, but independent of, No verify-charts guard: committed benchmark SVGs can drift from docs/benchmarks/*history.json without any PR failing #303 (the SVG/history drift guard).
• In progress: no open PR.

Suggested next step: dispatch explicitly from the release job with gh workflow run benchmark-history.yml -f versions=<tag>. It is the smallest change that GITHUB_TOKEN is allowed to make. Then run one manual dispatch to backfill 5.8.x.

---

Generated by Claude Code