GitHub Actions Workshop

Master GitHub Actions with hands-on labs and exercises. Learn how to automate workflows, run tests, deploy applications, and more using GitHub's powerful automation platform. This repository has everything you need to get started with continuous integration and continuous deployment.

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Lab: Automatically Comment and Label Issues

Introduction

In this lab, you will create a workflow to automatically comment on new issues and add a label. This demonstrates how to use the github-script action for interacting with GitHub’s REST API to enhance automation.

Estimated Duration: 20-30 minutes

Instructions

Step 1: Create the Workflow File

  1. Create a new workflow file in your repository under .github/workflows/ named auto-comment-on-issues.yml.

  2. Copy the following content into the workflow file:

    name: Misc - Auto Comment on New Issue

on:
  issues:
    types: opened
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  thanks:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      issues: write # Required to create comments
    steps:
      - uses: actions/github-script@v7
        id: issue_script
        with:
          github-token: $
          script: |
            const issue_number = context.issue.number;
            console.log(`issue_number: ${issue_number}`);

            const owner = context.repo.owner;
            const repo = context.repo.repo;

            // Lookup issue info
            const issue = await github.rest.issues.get({
              repo, owner, issue_number
            });
            console.log(`issue: ${issue}`);

            // Create comment thanking contributor
            const comment = await github.rest.issues.createComment({
              repo, owner, issue_number,
              body: "Thanks for your contribution!"
            });
            console.log(`comment id: ${comment.data.id}`);
            console.log(comment.data);

            // Auto-label the issue
            github.rest.issues.addLabels({
              repo, owner, issue_number,
              labels: ['todo-review']
            });

            // Make comment id available to subsequent steps
            return comment.data.id;

      - run: echo 'comment id=$'
  3. Commit the file to the main branch.

Step 2: Trigger the Workflow

  1. Open the Issues tab in your repository.
  2. Create a new issue.
  3. Wait a few moments for the workflow to run.
  4. Navigate to the Actions tab and view the details of the workflow run.

Step 3: Review the Workflow Functionality

  1. Comment: The workflow should automatically add a comment to the newly created issue, thanking the contributor.
  2. Label: The workflow should label the issue with todo-review.
  3. Logs: Review the workflow logs to see the GitHub API interactions. Look for the issue number, comment ID, and other information logged by the script.

Step 4: Understanding the Workflow

Triggers (on)

Jobs (jobs)

Steps

  1. Add Comment:
    • The script fetches the issue number from the context.issue object.
    • It uses the GitHub REST API to create a comment on the issue, thanking the contributor.
  2. Add Label:
    • The script adds a label (todo-review) to the issue using the GitHub REST API.
  3. Expose Comment ID:
    • The script outputs the comment ID for potential use in subsequent steps.

Step 5: Optional Enhancements

  1. Change the Comment Text:

    • Modify the body field in the script to customize the comment text.
    body: 'We appreciate your input! Stay tuned for a response.';

  2. Add Multiple Labels:

    • Add additional labels by updating the labels array.
    labels: ['todo-review', 'needs-feedback'];

  3. Trigger on Additional Events:

    • Update the on section to include other issue-related events, such as reopened.
    on:
  issues:
    types: [opened, reopened]

Step 6: Run the Workflow Manually

If you want to test the workflow manually without creating a new issue:

  1. Go to the Actions tab.
  2. Select the workflow named Misc - Auto Comment on New Issue.
  3. Click the Run workflow button.
  4. Provide an issue number for testing if needed.

Summary

In this lab, you:

  1. Created a workflow that listens for new issue events.
  2. Used the github-script action to comment on and label new issues.
  3. Learned how to interact with the GitHub REST API through the GitHub Actions context.

This workflow is a practical example of automating repository management tasks with GitHub Actions.

Additional Resources