# PyPI Publishing Workflow Forensic Analysis Report

## Executive Summary

**Root Cause Identified**: The PyPI publishing workflow fails during the **quality checks step** when triggered by GitHub releases, preventing the workflow from reaching the PyPI publishing step.

## Key Findings

### 1. Failure Point Analysis

**Failed Release Run (ID: 19053294175)**
- **Trigger**: GitHub release event (`v0.1.0b1`)
- **Failure Step**: "Run quality checks" 
- **Exit Code**: 1
- **Timestamp**: 2025-11-04T00:08:45Z

**Successful Manual Runs (ID: 19059736842, 19056475432)**
- **Trigger**: Manual workflow_dispatch
- **Status**: Completed successfully
- **Key Difference**: These runs used current `main` branch code

### 2. Specific Error Details

The release-triggered workflow failed with **6 linting errors**:

1. **F541 errors** (3 instances): f-strings without placeholders
   - `examples/complete_workflow.py:115:15`
   - `examples/smoke_test.py:60:23` 
   - `scripts/check_table_requirements.py:48:19`
   - `scripts/check_table_requirements.py:55:19`

2. **F401 error** (1 instance): Unused import
   - `scripts/check_table_requirements.py:10:8` - `import os`

3. **W293 error** (1 instance): Blank line contains whitespace
   - `examples/smoke_test.py:47:1`

### 3. Critical Workflow Execution Difference

**Release-Triggered Workflow**:
- Checks out specific tag: `refs/tags/v0.1.0b1` (commit `7c9a53e`)
- Runs quality checks on **old code** that contains linting errors
- Fails at quality gate, never reaches PyPI publishing

**Manual Workflow**:
- Checks out current main branch (commit `94c915d`)
- Runs quality checks on **current code** (linting errors already fixed)
- Passes quality gate, successfully publishes to PyPI

### 4. Timeline Analysis

The linting errors existed in the codebase at the time of the `v0.1.0b1` tag creation but were subsequently fixed in later commits on the main branch. This explains why:
- Manual publishing works (uses current main branch)
- Release-triggered publishing fails (uses old tagged code)

## Proof of Root Cause

**Evidence 1**: Workflow logs show exact failure at quality check step
```
publish Run quality checks      2025-11-04T00:08:45.0884336Z Found 6 errors.
publish Run quality checks      2025-11-04T00:08:45.0884650Z [*] 6 fixable with the `--fix` option.
publish Run quality checks      2025-11-04T00:08:45.0909231Z ##[error]Process completed with exit code 1.
```

**Evidence 2**: PyPI publishing step never executed in failed run
- No PyPI authentication attempts in logs
- No package build completion
- Workflow terminated at quality check step

**Evidence 3**: Successful manual runs show complete workflow execution
- Quality checks pass
- Package builds successfully  
- PyPI authentication and upload complete

## Conclusion

The PyPI publishing failure is **NOT** a PyPI configuration or authentication issue. The workflow fails before reaching the PyPI publishing step due to code quality violations in the tagged release code. The solution requires fixing the linting errors in the codebase to ensure quality gates pass for all workflow triggers.