Autograding Setup -- Not Required

Status: deprecated as of May 2026. You do not need to configure any test cases in the GitHub Classroom autograding UI for this workshop. Skip that step entirely when creating Day 1 and Day 2 assignments.

Why this changed

GitHub Classroom's "test cases" panel intermittently fails to save edits (the modal closes with no error and the test list comes back empty). Rather than fight a broken UI on every cohort, every autograded check has been re-implemented as a normal GitHub Actions workflow inside Community-Access/learning-room-template. Those workflows are copied into each student repo automatically when GitHub Classroom creates the repo from the template -- no Classroom configuration required.

Where the checks live now

Each check below runs as its own workflow in the student repo. Results are posted as a single PR or issue comment that updates in place on each push.

Day 1 checks

Challenge What it verifies Workflow file
2: Issue Filed Student has opened at least one issue in their repo .github/workflows/autograder-issue-filed.yml
5: Commit on a branch At least one commit on a non-default branch .github/workflows/autograder-branch-commit.yml
6: PR links to an issue PR body contains Closes, Fixes, or Resolves #N .github/workflows/autograder-pr-link.yml
7: No conflict markers No <<<<<<<, =======, or >>>>>>> markers in docs/ .github/workflows/autograder-conflicts.yml

Day 2 checks

Challenge What it verifies Workflow file
10: Local commit At least one commit on a non-default branch .github/workflows/autograder-local-commit.yml
14: Custom issue template A non-challenge YAML template under .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ with name: and description: fields .github/workflows/autograder-template.yml
16: Capstone agent file Agent markdown file with frontmatter, responsibilities, and guardrails .github/workflows/autograder-capstone.yml

A separate workflow, .github/workflows/autograder-watchdog.yml, listens for workflow_run completion of every autograder above. If one of them ends with conclusion: failure and no challenge-result comment has been posted on the open PR for that branch, the watchdog posts a single fallback notice telling the student the check could not complete and to ping a facilitator. If the in-job error handler already posted a comment, the watchdog is a no-op. This is a safety net only -- the seven primary workflows remain the source of truth for pass/fail.

What to do during cohort setup

When creating Day 1 and Day 2 assignments in GitHub Classroom:

  1. Paste the assignment description as usual.
  2. Skip the autograding tests section. Leave it empty. Do not click Add test.
  3. Save the assignment and copy the invite URL.

That is the entire change. Everything else in live-facilitation-flow.md still applies.

Verifying the checks work

Before sharing invite links, use a test student account to verify each workflow posts its comment. The procedure is in live-facilitation-flow.md (Phase 3: Verify Autograder Workflows).

Historical reference

The Classroom test-case definitions that used to live in classroom/autograding-day1.json and classroom/autograding-day2.json were deleted in May 2026 along with this workflow migration. The autograder workflow files (learning-room/.github/workflows/autograder-*.yml) are the only remaining source of truth for what each check verifies. Git history retains the old JSONs if you ever need to read them.

Authoritative Sources

Use these official references when you need the current source of truth for facts in this chapter.

Section-Level Source Map

Use this map to verify facts for each major section in this file.