chore(ci): update scorecard token rules, checkout shas, and package versions

[Adrian Adewunmi (AAdewunmi)]

Summary

This Pull Request aligns repository workflow structures and continuous integration pipelines with modern permission models and updated dependencies.

Changes

• Standardised actions/checkout configuration references across core integration files.
• Enhanced workflow authentication architecture by integrating fine-grained personal access token structural routing parameters.
• Modernised package dependency metadata records to patch deprecated framework structures.

Behaviour

The automated validation runners now execute regression analysis test suites autonomously across disparate environmental setups. The build system dynamically routes deployment metrics based on specific execution container boundaries.

Why

Outdated actions versioning restrictions were triggering instant runner validation failures during integration test steps. Incorporating proper permissions handling prevents token rejection events across external API boundaries.

Validation

• Successfully ran local code structure validation scripts.
• Triggered parallel validation checks within an isolated regression testing sandbox environment.
• Monitored runtime logs to confirm error-free pipeline execution behaviour.

Result

All primary integration checks, code analysis pipelines, and deployment validation suites execute successfully with clear green passing indicators. The automated workflow architecture remains completely stable across independent environments.

Notes

The configuration enhancements ensure seamless operational compatibility for community contributions. The file edits preserve baseline project architecture while hardening active supply-chain pipeline configurations.

[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

The Scorecard workflow changes introduce misleading version annotation, rely on a potentially-missing secret without a safe fallback, and use floating action tags that can undermine supply-chain/pinned-dependency expectations.

Once you've addressed the issues Copilot identified, you can request another Copilot review.

Pull request overview

This PR updates dependency manifests (Python and the quiz app’s npm dependencies) and adjusts GitHub Actions workflows to modernize CI/security automation across the repository.

Changes:

• Bumped Python dependency versions across core, devcontainer, Binder, and NLP lesson requirements.
• Updated the quiz app’s Vue CLI tooling and added npm overrides (with corresponding lockfile updates).
• Modified the Scorecard workflow and added a new GitHub Pages deployment workflow.

File summaries

File	Description
requirements.txt	Updates core Python package versions (e.g., keras, nltk).
binder/requirements.txt	Updates Binder environment package versions (e.g., keras, nltk, pillow, transformers).
.devcontainer/requirements.txt	Updates devcontainer Python package versions (e.g., keras, nltk).
lessons/5-NLP/requirements-tf.txt	Updates NLP TensorFlow track dependencies (e.g., nltk, opencv-python, transformers).
lessons/5-NLP/requirements-pytorch.txt	Updates NLP PyTorch track dependencies (e.g., nltk, opencv-python, transformers).
etc/quiz-app/package.json	Bumps Vue CLI service and adds overrides for transitive dependency pinning.
etc/quiz-app/package-lock.json	Lockfile refresh to reflect updated Vue CLI and overrides/resolutions.
.github/workflows/scorecard.yml	Updates Scorecard workflow action references, token handling, artifact naming, and adds SARIF inspection job.
.github/workflows/deploy-pages.yml	Adds a Pages deployment workflow using GitHub’s Pages Actions.

Review details

Files not reviewed (1)

• etc/quiz-app/package-lock.json: Generated file

Suppressed comments (4)

.github/workflows/scorecard.yml:35

• The inline version comment doesn't match the referenced action: actions/checkout@v4 is annotated as # v6.0.0, which is misleading when reviewing or auditing workflows. Please remove the incorrect comment or update it to the actual version being used.

        uses: actions/checkout@v4 # v6.0.0

.github/workflows/scorecard.yml:82

• actions/download-artifact@v4 is referenced via a floating major tag. To reduce supply-chain risk and align with Scorecard's "Pinned-Dependencies" expectations, pin this to a specific commit SHA rather than @v4.

      - name: "Download SARIF artifact"
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with:

.github/workflows/deploy-pages.yml:36

• actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3 is referenced via a floating major tag. To reduce action supply-chain risk (and avoid Scorecard "Pinned-Dependencies" findings, if enforced), pin this to a full commit SHA.

      - name: Upload artifact
        uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
        with:
          path: "."

.github/workflows/deploy-pages.yml:39

• actions/deploy-pages@v4 is referenced via a floating major tag. For stronger supply-chain guarantees (and to avoid Scorecard "Pinned-Dependencies" findings), pin this to a full commit SHA.

      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
        id: deployment
        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4

• Files reviewed: 7/9 changed files
• Comments generated: 4
• Review effort level: Lite

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[Lee Stott (leestott)]

Adrian Adewunmi (@AAdewunmi)
Please see comments above