chore(workflows): audit preview workflows, pin actions to SHA, and clean up dead code

[MrDadhich456]

Summary of Audit & Changes (tcslabs-academy)

This PR performs a full workflow audit and cleanup for tcslabs-academy in accordance with the workflow evaluation guidelines.

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📋 Audit Points Overview

1. Repo Assignment:

   • Assigned repository: meshery-extensions/tcslabs-academy

2. Test PR Scope:

   • Workflow & configuration audit to evaluate build-and-deploy pipeline triggers across pull requests (opened, updated, closed).

3. pull_request_target Triggers Audit:

   • label-commenter.yml (Line 8): on: pull_request_target (triggers label-commenter on PR labels)
   • labeler.yml (Line 3): on: pull_request_target (triggers triage labeler)

4. wait-for-pages-deployment: false Check:

   • Verified. Previews deploy directly to the gh-pages branch using rossjrw/pr-preview-action and do not utilize actions/deploy-pages.

5. Pin Actions to Commit SHAs (Latest Major Versions):

   • build-and-release.yml:
     • actions/checkout: Pinned to SHA 3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 (# v7.0.1)
     • actions/setup-go: Upgraded v5 → v7, pinned to b7ad1dad31e06c5925ef5d2fc7ad053ef454303e (# v7.0.0)
     • actions/setup-node: Pinned to 820762786026740c76f36085b0efc47a31fe5020 (# v7.0.0)
     • layer5io/academy-build: Pinned to 657b2ecc9e146aaf6b698851bd0c151e489ad668 (# v0.1.6)
   • deploy-docs-preview.yml:
     • actions/download-artifact: Pinned to d3f86a106a0bac45b974a628896c90dbdf5c8093 (# v4.3.0)
     • actions/checkout: Pinned to 3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 (# v7.0.1)
     • actions/github-script: Pinned to ed597411d8f924073f98dfc5c65a23a2325f34cd (# v8.0.0)
   • label-commenter.yml:
     • actions/checkout: Upgraded master → v7, pinned to 3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 (# v7.0.1)
     • peaceiris/actions-label-commenter: Pinned to f0dbbef043eb1b150b566db36b0bdc8b7f505579 (# v1.10.0)
   • labeler.yml:
     • actions/labeler: Upgraded v4 → v5, pinned to 8558fd74291d67161a8a78ce36a881fa63b766a9 (# v5.0.0)
   • release-drafter.yml:
     • release-drafter/release-drafter: Upgraded v5 → v6, pinned to 6a93d829887aa2e0748befe2e808c66c0ec6e4c7 (# v6.4.0)
   • slack.yml:
     • slackapi/slack-github-action: Pinned to 91efab103c0de0a537f72a35f6b8cda0ee76bf0a (# v2.1.1)

6. Hugo Version Consistency:

   • hugo.yaml: Updated min Hugo version from 0.156.0 to 0.158.0 to match package.json (hugo-extended: 0.158.0).

7. Remove Dead Hugo CLI & Dart Sass Setup:

   • build-docs-preview.yml: Removed redundant commented-out Install Hugo CLI and Install Dart Sass steps and HUGO_VERSION environment block, as npm ci installs hugo-extended automatically.

8. Deployment Comment Format:

   • deploy-docs-preview.yml: Updated preview deployment message template to include tracking link to GitHub Actions pages deployment.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Chores

  • Pinned automated build, release, documentation, labeling, and notification actions to specific versions for more consistent and secure workflow execution.
  • Upgraded labeling and release-management automation.
  • Removed obsolete documentation build fallback steps.

• Documentation

  • Updated the minimum required Hugo extended version.
  • Improved documentation preview deployment status messaging and guidance.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 250367ee-c45b-4286-a350-161d465bb714

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 12164c2 and df8207f.

📒 Files selected for processing (8)

• .github/workflows/build-and-release.yml
• .github/workflows/build-docs-preview.yml
• .github/workflows/deploy-docs-preview.yml
• .github/workflows/label-commenter.yml
• .github/workflows/labeler.yml
• .github/workflows/release-drafter.yml
• .github/workflows/slack.yml
• hugo.yaml

💤 Files with no reviewable changes (1)

• .github/workflows/build-docs-preview.yml

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Changes

Workflow and documentation build maintenance

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Pin workflow actions to immutable commits .github/workflows/build-and-release.yml, .github/workflows/deploy-docs-preview.yml, .github/workflows/label-commenter.yml, .github/workflows/labeler.yml, .github/workflows/release-drafter.yml, .github/workflows/slack.yml	GitHub Actions references now use pinned commit SHAs while retaining workflow inputs and version comments.
Update preview build configuration .github/workflows/build-docs-preview.yml, hugo.yaml	Removed commented fallback tool installation settings and raised the minimum Hugo extended version to 0.158.0.
Update preview deployment messaging .github/workflows/deploy-docs-preview.yml	The pull-request preview comment now includes deployment-status guidance and a workflow link.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• meshery-extensions/tcslabs-academy#36: Updates the Hugo toolchain to version 0.158.0.
• meshery-extensions/tcslabs-academy#61: Modifies the same documentation preview workflows.
• meshery-extensions/tcslabs-academy#63: Pins GitHub Actions in the documentation preview workflows.

Suggested labels: area/learning-paths

Suggested reviewers: sarajkrishnasingh

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the workflow audit, SHA pinning, and dead-code cleanup described in the changeset.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

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[banana-three-join]

Please keep the scope of the audit only to the Build Site Preview and the Site Preview Post-Build workflows. Revert on the changes made to any of the other workflows.

[MrDadhich456]

Please keep the scope of the audit only to the Build Site Preview and the Site Preview Post-Build workflows. Revert on the changes made to any of the other workflows.

Thanks for the review @banana-three-join! 🙌

I've updated the PR to restrict the audit scope strictly to the site preview workflows (build-docs-preview.yml and deploy-docs-preview.yml) and hugo.yaml. All changes on the other workflows (build-and-release, labeler, label-commenter, release-drafter, and slack) have been reverted.