Understanding CI/CD Workflow Runs \\ Through Interactive and Animated Visualizations

Workflow runs record the executions of continuous integration and delivery specifications. They serve as the primary monitoring mechanism, enabling failure detection and integration reliability assessment.However, understanding run intricacies is far from trivial. Each run involves multiple interdependent execution units (\eg attempts, jobs, and steps) whose relationships are not immediately visible.Moreover, current tools provide limited support for detecting patterns across runs, particularly in projects with high workflow execution frequency.As a result, run monitoring remains constrained to fragmented views that are cumbersome to use. We present a novel approach that supports workflow run comprehension through interactive and animated visualizations.Our approach enables developers to inspect end-to-end execution traces and to identify structural and behavioral patterns. We implemented a GitHub Actions prototype and analyzed runs from public repositories to illustrate its potential.Preliminary insights suggest that the approach is feasible and provides a starting point for workflow run comprehension analysis.