jayalfredprufrock/create-issues-action

GitHub action that creates new issues from a glob of yaml templates with frontmatter, optionally adding them to projects.

Create Issues GitHub Action

A GitHub Action that bootstraps/seeds new issues using template files containing frontmatter.

Basic Usage

Here's a simple workflow that creates new issues when a repository is first created:

name: Seed issues
on: ["create"]
if: github.event.ref == github.event.master_branch
permissions:
    issues: write 
jobs:
  create-issues:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: jayalfredprufrock/create-issues-action@v1

By default, any files matching the glob expression .github/issues/**/*.md will automatically create issues. Markdown files can include frontmatter to specify/override issue configuration.

---
title: Design Call
labels: ["design"]
milestone: 1
assignees: 
  - jayalfredprufrock
---

Call client to discuss design direction.

Issue Groups

Issue groups can be used to prevent creating issues until all issues with a smaller group number have been closed out.

name: Seed issues
on: 
  - create
  - issues:
      types: [closed]

if: github.event_name != 'create' || github.event.ref == github.event.master_branch
permissions:
    issues: write 
jobs:
  create-issues:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: jayalfredprufrock/create-issues-action@v1
        with:
          template: `.github/issues/design/*.md`

---
title: Design Call
group: 1
---

Call client to discuss design direction.

---
title: Design Homepage
group: 2
---

Build figma mock-up of homepage.

Creating Project Items

It is also possible to associate project items after creating issues. Here is an example:

name: Seed issues
on: ["create"]
if: github.event.ref == github.event.master_branch
permissions:
    issues: write 
jobs:
  create-issues:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: jayalfredprufrock/create-issues-action@v1
        with:
            project-number: 1
            project-github-token: ${{ secrets.GH_TOKEN_PROJECT_WRITE }}

Specifying project-github-token is necessary when GITHUB_TOKEN is not a PAT token with project:write scope, as is the case when using workflow permissions to setup an ad-hoc GITHUB_TOKEN. Alternatively, you can pass a single github-token as input and it will be used for both issue and project creation, assuming the PAT has the necessary scopes.

Within frontmatter, you can automatically set project item fields:

---
title: Design Call
labels: ["design"]
assignees: 
  - jayalfredprufrock
projectFields:
    status: Todo
    startDate: @today
    endDate: @today+7
---

Call client to discuss design direction.

The special variable @today can be used to create an ISO date string, optionally offset by a number days. (i.e. @today-2)

Inputs

Name	Required	Default	Description
template-path	false	.github/issues/**/*.md	Path or glob expression to templates. File names should be unique across directories.
follow-symbolic-links	false	true	Indicates whether to follow symbolic links when globbing templates.
repo-owner	false		The owner of the repo to create issues in if different than the context repo owner. Can be overridden in frontmatter with repoOwner
repo-name	false		The the repo name to create issues in if different than the context repo. Can be overridden in frontmatter with repoName
group	false		When set, issue will not be created until all issues with a smaller group number have been closed out. Can be overridden in frontmatter with group
labels	false		Comma separated list of labels to add to created issues. Will be merged with any labels specified in frontmatter with labels.
assignees	false		Comma separated list of assignees to add to created issues. Will be merged with any assignees specified in frontmatter with assignees.
milestone	false		Milestone number to associate with created issues. Can be overridden in frontmatter with milestone.
github-token	false	${{ github.token }}	GitHub token or PAT with permissions to create issues and projects in the specified repos.
project-owner	false		The owner of the project if different than the context repo owner. Can be overridden in frontmatter with projectOwner
project-number	false		The number of the project (found in the url) if the issue should be added to the project. Can be overridden in frontmatter with projectNumber
project-fields	false		Stringified JSON object of fields/values to add to project items. Will be merged with any fields specified in frontmatter with projectFields.
project-github-token	false		GitHub PAT token to use solely for adding issues to projects. Will use github-token input if not present.

Outputs

Name	Description
issues	Map of template names (excluding file extension) containing issue/project info. Use fromJSON to parse output string. e.g. fromJSON(steps.create-issues.outputs.issues)['template-name'].issue-node-id Available fields: issue-url, issue-node-id, issue-number, issue-repo, issue-repo-owner, issue-repo-name, project-item-id, project-owner, project-number