update-packmind-artifacts opens a no-op PR on every run due to volatile installedAt timestamp

[ppotin-aaisa]

Description

The update-packmind-artifacts GitHub Action keeps a no-op pull request perpetually open. On every run, even when no standard, skill, or command has changed, it commits, pushes, and keeps a PR open. The cause is that packmind-cli install rewrites the installedAt timestamp in the tracked packmind-lock.json on each invocation, and the action's change-detection is a plain git status --porcelain check that treats the timestamp bump as a real change, so changed is always true.

Suggested fixes, any one of which resolves it:

1. Do not write installedAt into the tracked lock file, move it to a gitignored sidecar file, or drop it.
2. Exclude installedAt from change-detection, for example by normalizing or masking it before the git status check so timestamp-only diffs report changed=false.
3. Add an action input, for example ignore-paths or ignore-fields, so consumers can exclude volatile fields from change-detection.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Set up the action on a repository with no pending playbook changes.
2. Trigger the workflow.
3. Trigger it again without editing any playbook artifact.

Expected Behavior

When no standard, skill, or command has changed, the action reports changed=false and does not open or update a pull request.

Actual Behavior

A pull request stays open on every run, and its entire net diff is a single installedAt line (see Logs).

Environment

• Packmind version: 1.15.1 (Helm chart packmind-ai 1.17.0)
• packmind-cli version (if relevant): 0.31.0
• Browser/OS (if frontend issue): N/A, runs in GitHub Actions on ubuntu-latest
• Environment (open-source/cloud/on-prem): on-prem, self-hosted (OSS edition)
• update-packmind-artifacts action: pinned at 9c2aa860c80a31f49873814c3cb7718a54458fe5 (v1)

Logs/Screenshots

Net diff of a run with no playbook changes:

-  "installedAt": "2026-07-20T07:02:32.281Z",
+  "installedAt": "2026-07-22T15:57:09.22

[vincent-psarga]

Thanks for this feedback. We've entirelly dropped the generation of the installedAt field which was causing the issue.
You may still get one PR that looks "wrong" (in which the installedAt field will be dropped) but this should be fine after.

[cteyton]

LGTM 👍

[ppotin-aaisa]

Thanks @vincent-psarga. We're still getting the installedAt churn on the latest published @packmind/cli (0.32.0, from 2026-07-27), so it looks like the fix hasn't landed on npm yet. Which released version will include it, and is there a rough ETA? The action installs the CLI unpinned, so it should reach us automatically once it's published.

[vincent-psarga]

Hi :)
The fix was not done on the cli itself but the backend (which generates the packmind-lock.json artifact). Do you run on app.packmind.ai or a self-hosted instance? If so, which version do you use?

[ppotin-aaisa]

We're self-hosted, running the packmind-ai Helm chart with the backend image pinned to 1.15.1 (chart 1.17.0). Which backend version includes the fix? Happy to bump our image tag once we know.

[vincent-psarga]

I've just released the 1.16.1 which should make this issue disappear. There is also a new chart version with 1.19.1 (not sure this would change much as it just points to the new app version)