[CI Broken] Multiple CI failures: runic check missing Julia, workflow config error, and test failures

[ChrisRackauckas-Claude]

CI Broken - Multiple Critical Failures

Summary

Automated CI health check (PR #410) revealed 3 critical failures in the master branch CI pipeline:

1. Runic formatting check fails - Julia not available in CI environment
2. Main test suite fails - Process exits with code 1 (rapid failure)
3. BoundaryValueDiffEqMIRK tests fail - Workflow configuration error

Failed CI Jobs

1. Runic Formatting Check ❌

• Duration: 12 seconds
• URL: https://github.com/SciML/BoundaryValueDiffEq.jl/actions/runs/20794144073/job/59723196420
• Error: runic-action: julia is a required dependency but does not seem to be available.
• Exit Code: 1

Root Cause: The runic formatting action runs before Julia is installed in the CI environment. This is a workflow ordering issue.

Suggested Fix: Reorder the workflow steps to ensure Julia is installed before the runic check runs, or add Julia setup to the runic job.

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2. Main Test Suite Failure ❌

• Duration: 1 minute 0 seconds
• URL: https://github.com/SciML/BoundaryValueDiffEq.jl/actions/runs/20794144033/job/59723196432
• Error: Process completed with exit code 1 at julia-actions/julia-runtest@v1
• Exit Code: 1

Root Cause: Test suite fails immediately (within 1 minute). Unfortunately, detailed error logs are not accessible due to GitHub UI rendering issues, but the rapid failure suggests a critical test setup or dependency problem.

Suggested Fix: Investigate the test logs directly to identify which tests are failing and why.

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3. BoundaryValueDiffEqMIRK Test Failure ❌

• Duration: 43 minutes 30 seconds
• URL: https://github.com/SciML/BoundaryValueDiffEq.jl/actions/runs/20794144116/job/59723196465
• Error: Unexpected input(s) 'project', valid inputs are ['skip', 'projects', 'mode', 'julia_version']
• Exit Code: 1

Root Cause: The workflow uses the incorrect parameter name project in the julia-downgrade-compat action when it should be projects (plural). This is a workflow configuration bug.

Suggested Fix: Update the workflow file to change project: to projects: in the downgrade compatibility step.

Example fix in .github/workflows/CI.yml or similar:

- uses: julia-actions/julia-downgrade-compat@v1
  with:
    projects: lib/BoundaryValueDiffEqMIRK  # Changed from 'project'

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Passing Checks ✅

For context, these checks passed successfully:

• Spell Check with Typos (19s)
• build (23m 37s)
• generate_plots (20m 8s)
• test (alldeps, 1.11, lib/BoundaryValueDiffEqAscher) (17m 49s)
• test (alldeps, 1.11, lib/BoundaryValueDiffEqCore) (4m 12s)
• test (alldeps, 1.11, lib/BoundaryValueDiffEqFIRK) (4m 27s)
• test (alldeps, 1.11, lib/BoundaryValueDiffEqMIRKN) (9m 6s)
• test (alldeps, 1.11, lib/BoundaryValueDiffEqShooting) (8m 48s)

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Impact

Severity: High - Master branch CI is broken and cannot validate PRs correctly.

Affected Areas:

• Code formatting validation (runic)
• Main test suite validation
• BoundaryValueDiffEqMIRK library testing

---

Action Items

1. Fix runic job ordering in CI workflow
2. Change project: to projects: in BoundaryValueDiffEqMIRK test job
3. Investigate and fix the main test suite failure
4. Verify all CI checks pass after fixes

---

Additional Context

• Discovered via: Automated CI health check PR CI Health Check - Testing master branch #410
• Detection Date: January 7, 2026
• Branch tested: master (commit: a758ad2)
• Test PR: CI Health Check - Testing master branch #410

@ChrisRackauckas - Please review these CI failures at your earliest convenience.