Fix Smart CI workspace destruction in smart-ci composite action

[Copilot]

Two checkout steps inside .github/actions/smart-ci/action.yml were sequentially wiping the workspace (default clean: true), deleting the composite action's own files before later steps could use them — causing every PR's Smart_CI job to fail with Can't find 'action.yml' under '.github/actions/smart-ci'.

Changes

• checkout wait-for-check action: Added path: _wait_for_check_src so the cross-repo checkout (openvinotoolkit/openvino) targets a subdirectory instead of reinitializing the workspace root. Updated the downstream uses: to ./_wait_for_check_src/.github/actions/wait-for-check-completion.
• checkout components file: Added clean: false to preserve existing workspace files when sparse-checking out .github/components.yml from the current repo.

Tickets:

• N/A

AI Assistance:

• AI assistance used: yes
• Investigated the failed run (#22569866261) via GitHub Actions logs to confirm the exact deletion sequence (3 workspace wipes before requirements.txt was needed). Fix reviewed with automated code review and CodeQL; no issues found. Human validation pending re-run of the affected workflow.

Original prompt

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This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>CI Failure DoctorCI Failure Investigation - Run #31 - Manylinux 2_28 Smart_CI Job Failure</issue_title>
<issue_description>## Summary

The Manylinux 2_28 workflow (run #31) failed on PR #63 (dependabot bump of actions/download-artifact 7.0.0 → 8.0.0). The failure is unrelated to the PR change itself — it is a pre-existing CI configuration issue in the Smart_CI job.

Failure Details

• Run: 22569866261
• Commit: 5b107e94dd270402610c38c13e8d26dadcb259ef
• Trigger: pull_request (PR Bump actions/download-artifact from 7.0.0 to 8.0.0 #63, base: master)
• Failed Job: Smart_CI (job 65374704089)
• Downstream Impact: All other jobs (Docker, Build, Python API tests, NodeJS API tests) were skipped

Root Cause Analysis

The Smart_CI job performs a sparse checkout of .github/components.yml from akashchi/openvino using the ababushk/checkout action with clean: true. This operation deletes the entire workspace contents before checking out only the single file, destroying the previously-checked-out local actions including .github/actions/smart-ci.

When the workflow subsequently tries to invoke the local action .github/actions/smart-ci, GitHub Actions cannot find it:

Deleting the contents of '/home/runner/work/openvino/openvino'
...
ERROR: Could not open requirements file: [Errno 2] No such file or directory:
  '/home/runner/work/openvino/openvino/./.github/actions/smart-ci/requirements.txt'
ERROR: Can't find 'action.yml', 'action.yaml' or 'Dockerfile' under
  '/home/runner/work/openvino/openvino/.github/actions/smart-ci'.
  Did you forget to run actions/checkout before running your local action?

Key sequence in .github/workflows/manylinux_2_28.yml → Smart_CI job:

1. actions/checkout checks out the PR branch (full workspace available ✅)
2. ababushk/checkout sparse-checks out .github/components.yml from akashchi/openvino with clean: true — overwrites workspace ❌
3. The local action .github/actions/smart-ci is now missing → failure

Failed Jobs and Errors

Job	Conclusion	Key Error
Smart_CI	❌ failure	Can't find 'action.yml' under '.github/actions/smart-ci'
Docker	⏭ skipped	Depends on Smart_CI
Build	⏭ skipped	Depends on Smart_CI
Python API tests	⏭ skipped	Depends on Smart_CI
NodeJS API tests	⏭ skipped	Depends on Smart_CI
ci/gha_overall_status_manylinux_2_28	❌ failure	Downstream failure aggregation

Investigation Findings

• The PR change (actions/download-artifact 7 → 8) is a minor version bump in a GitHub Actions step, not the cause of this failure.
• The Smart_CI job would fail on any PR against this repository because the sparse-checkout step destroys the local action files needed by subsequent steps.
• The triage check completed with skipped conclusion, which triggered a ##[warning]Checks completed with mixed conclusions: mixed before proceeding — this is benign.

Recommended Actions

• Fix the workspace destruction issue in Smart_CI job: Change the sparse-checkout step to use a separate path/directory (e.g., path: /tmp/components-checkout) instead of the default workspace, so the primary checkout is not overwritten.
• Alternatively, add a path parameter to the ababushk/checkout step so it checks out to a subdirectory, e.g.:

  - uses: ababushk/checkout@9bec46a94a83db82acd4303e7627d88db71402a5
    with:
      path: /tmp/components
      sparse-checkout: .github/components.yml
      ...

  Then update downstream references to read from /tmp/components/.github/components.yml.
• Once fixed, re-run PR Bump actions/download-artifact from 7.0.0 to 8.0.0 #63 — the dependabot bump itself is a safe change.

Prevention Strategies

• When using multiple actions/checkout steps in a single job, always use the path parameter to direct secondary checkouts to non-overlapping directories.
• Review all clean: true checkout steps that are not the first step in a job — these will overwrite the workspace.
• Add a workflow-level check that verifies the local action directory exists before use (early fail with clear message).

AI Team Self-Improvement

When writing or reviewing GitHub Actions workflows that use multiple actions/checkout (or compatible) steps in the same job, always verify that secondary checkouts specify a non-default path to avoid overwriting the primary workspace. The default clean: true behavior of checkout deletes all workspace contents. Local actions referenced via relative paths (e.g., ./.github/actions/my-action) will disappear if any subsequent checkout step cleans the workspace. Add a pre-step assertion if needed: `test -f .github/actions/smart-ci/action.yml |...

• Fixes CI Failure DoctorCI Failure Investigation - Run #31 - Manylinux 2_28 Smart_CI Job Failure #64

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