GitHub PR Test Status: See Test Results Without Leaving GitHub

Your PR has 3 green checkmarks and 1 red X. You click the red X, land on a workflow run page, expand the test job, scroll through 200 lines of output, and finally find the failing test. Why is seeing test results in GitHub so hard?

The GitHub Actions Test Results Problem

Every developer knows this workflow:

1. Push code to PR
2. Wait for CI to finish
3. See a red X on the PR
4. Click to see details
5. Land on the workflow run page
6. Click into the job
7. Expand the test step
8. Scroll through logs to find failures

Total time to see what failed: 2-5 minutes

And if you want the full test report? Download artifacts, extract the zip, open the HTML file. Good luck doing that on your phone when you’re away from your desk.

What You Actually Want

GitHub’s built-in features get you partway there, but not all the way:

Feature	What It Does	Limitation
Status checks	Shows pass/fail	No details about which tests
Annotations	Shows failures inline	Limited to ~50, no full context
Job summaries	Markdown in Actions tab	Manual setup, buried in workflow
Artifacts	Stores reports	Requires download, expires

The Solution: Commit Statuses with Report Links

The fix is simple: post a commit status that links directly to a hosted test report.

How It Works

Tests run in GitHub Actions
        ↓
Results uploaded to Gaffer
        ↓
Gaffer posts commit status to GitHub
        ↓
PR shows: ✓ Gaffer / Vitest — 47 passed   [Details →]

What Developers See

On your pull request, under the checks section:

✓ Gaffer / Playwright — 23 passed              Details
✗ Gaffer / Vitest — 45 passed, 2 failed        Details

Click “Details” and you’re taken directly to the full test report in Gaffer. No logs, no artifacts, no extraction.

What QA and PMs See

A simple link they can open in any browser:

https://app.gaffer.sh/r/abc123

No GitHub access required. No downloading. Click and view.

Setting Up the Gaffer GitHub App

Step 1: Install the GitHub App

1. In Gaffer, go to Settings → GitHub
2. Click Install GitHub App
3. Choose your GitHub organization or account
4. Select which repositories Gaffer can access

Step 2: Link a Repository to Your Project

1. Go to your project in Gaffer
2. Navigate to Settings → GitHub
3. Select your repository from the dropdown
4. Enable Commit statuses

Step 3: Upload Results with Commit SHA

If you’re already uploading to Gaffer, just make sure you’re passing the commit SHA:

- name: Run tests
  run: npm test

- name: Upload to Gaffer
  if: always()
  uses: gaffer-sh/gaffer-uploader@v2
  with:
    api-key: ${{ secrets.GAFFER_UPLOAD_TOKEN }}
    report-path: ./test-results
    commit_sha: ${{ github.sha }}
    branch: ${{ github.ref_name }}

For pull requests, use the PR head SHA:

- name: Upload to Gaffer
  if: always()
  uses: gaffer-sh/gaffer-uploader@v2
  with:
    api-key: ${{ secrets.GAFFER_UPLOAD_TOKEN }}
    report-path: ./test-results
    commit_sha: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha || github.sha }}
    branch: ${{ github.head_ref || github.ref_name }}

That’s it. The GitHub App handles posting the status automatically.

What the Status Looks Like

Gaffer posts commit statuses in this format:

Gaffer / {framework}

For example:

• Gaffer / Playwright - Your Playwright E2E tests
• Gaffer / Vitest - Your Vitest unit tests
• Gaffer / Jest - Your Jest tests

If you have multiple test suites, each gets its own status. At a glance, you can see which suite failed.

Comparison: Finding Test Results

Approach	Time to Results	Click to Report	Works for QA
Check workflow logs	2-5 minutes	No	No
GitHub Annotations	30 seconds	No	No
Download artifacts	1-2 minutes	After extraction	No
Gaffer commit status	5 seconds	Yes, one click	Yes

Beyond Status Checks

Once you have test results flowing through Gaffer, you also get:

Historical Context

See if this test has failed before. Was it flaky last week? The history is right there.

Flaky Test Detection

Tests that fail intermittently are flagged automatically. Know whether a failure is a real bug or just flakiness before you start debugging.

Slack Notifications

Get notified in Slack when tests fail, with a direct link to the report. No need to watch GitHub.

Cross-Repo Dashboard

If you have multiple repositories, see all your projects’ test health in one place.

Getting Started

Gaffer’s free tier includes 500 MB storage with 7-day retention - enough to try the GitHub integration on a real project. Commit statuses are included on all plans.