No-workflows repositories: three controls report unexpected_exit instead of saying there is nothing to audit #584

Summary

Low priority, wording only, On a repository with no .github/workflows/ directory and no confirmed project context, three controls report WARN [unexpected_exit]:

WARNING: OSPS-BR-01.01: exec handler could not complete (error_class=unexpected_exit): Command exited with unexpected code 3: zizmor --format json --offline <repo>; stderr: ... fatal: no audit was performed ...
WARNING: OSPS-BR-01.02: exec handler could not complete (error_class=unexpected_exit): Command exited with unexpected code 2: grep -rln github.head_ref .github/workflows/; stderr: grep: .github/workflows/: No such file or directory
WARNING: OSPS-AC-04.02: exec handler could not complete (error_class=unexpected_exit): Command exited with unexpected code 3: zizmor --format json --offline <repo>; ...
  OSPS-BR-01.01: WARN [unexpected_exit] - Could not automatically verify - manual verification required

All three have when = { ci_provider = "github" }, the context has no ci_provider until a person confirms it, and running the control and reporting WARN is the cautious result.

The point is the reason shown. "Unexpected exit code 3" reads as a broken tool. What happened is well defined: zizmor exits 3 when it finds no inputs, and grep exits 2 when the directory is missing. A new user auditing a repository before adding CI sees three warnings that look like failures of darnit.

Possible direction

• Recognize "no workflow files" for these steps and say so in the message, keeping WARN.
• Or point the message at the ci_provider question: confirming it makes these controls not applicable.

Seen with zizmor 1.30.1 on main at 24a4fed.

Drafted with Claude; reviewed and filed by me.