Add issues to your organization project board

Github action that populates your organization project board with open issues based on their labels.

Inputs

input	required	description
github-token	yes	Github token.
organizations	yes	Comma-separated list of Github organizations where to search issues in.
issues-labels	yes	Comma-separated list of labels of the open issues to be searched.
time-interval	yes	Time range filter for issues. Uses the "ms" package format.
project-number	yes	The number of the project board where issues will be added.
column-name	yes	The name of the column where issues will be added.

Usage

The action requires a github-token that can be generated in two ways:

1) Creating and installing a Github App + using tibdex/github-app-token@v1

Create a GitHub App under your organization with the following permissions:

Permissions:

• Repository: issues: read/write
• Organization: projects: read/write

Copy the Private key and App id from the application created.

Go to your repository and create the following secrets:

• PRIVATE_KEY
• APP_ID

Install the application in your organization.

uses: tibdex/github-app-token@v1

This is a necessary step in the action workflow to generate the token that grants permissions to perform the action.

It takes the PRIVATE_KEY and APP_ID added to the repository secrets as input.

- name: Generate token
  id: generate_token
  uses: tibdex/github-app-token@v1
  with:
    app_id: ${{ secrets.APP_ID }}
    private_key: ${{ secrets.PRIVATE_KEY }}

Example workflow configured with Github App token:

The example below runs the action every day at midnight (schedule event). The action (inputs have been commented out) fetches open issues labelled bug or good first issue in the fastify and nearform organizations updated over the previous 25 hours. The new issues found are added to the to do column of the organization project number 12.

name: Add issues to board

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * *'

jobs:
  setup:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Generate token
        id: generate_token
        uses: tibdex/github-app-token@v1
        with:
          app_id: ${{ secrets.APP_ID }}
          private_key: ${{ secrets.PRIVATE_KEY }}
      - name: Add issues to board
        uses: nearform-actions/github-action-add-issues-to-project@v1
        with:
          github-token: ${{ steps.generate_token.outputs.token }}
          organizations: # 'nearform, fastify'
          issues-labels: # 'bug, good first issue'
          time-interval: # '25 hours'
          project-number: # 12
          column-name: # 'to do'

2) Creating a PAT (personal access token)

You can also configure this action by creating a GitHub PAT with the following permission:

• repo --> public_repo
• admin:org -> read/write:org

Once the PAT is created save it as a GitHub secret in the repository.

Example workflow configured with PAT:

In the example below the action is expected to be run manually (workflow_dispatch). The required inputs are specified in the inputs fields. As a default, the issues-labels to be searched are labelled good first issue, they have been updated over the past 7 days and will be added to the project to do column.

name: Add issues to project
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      organizations:
        description: 'organizations for issues (comma separated)'
        required: true
      issues-labels: 
        description: 'issues labels (comma separated)'
        default: 'good first issue'
        required: true
      time-interval:
        description: 'time range filter'
        default: '7 days'
        required: true
      project-number:
        description: 'project board number'
        required: true
      column-name: 
        description: 'project board column name'
        default: 'to do'
        required: false

jobs:
  setup:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Add issues to board
        uses: nearform-actions/github-action-add-issues-to-project@v1
        with:
          github-token: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
          organizations: ${{ github.event.inputs.organizations }}
          issues-labels: ${{ github.event.inputs.issues-labels }}
          time-interval: ${{ github.event.inputs.time-interval }}
          project-number: ${{ github.event.inputs.project-number }}
          column-name: ${{ github.event.inputs.column-name }}

⚠️ Limitations and caveats ⚠️

Due to some differences between Github's project beta boards and (legacy) project boards APIs, please be aware of the following limitations if the target project board is a project beta board:

• the organization owning the board can only fetch issues from its own repositories, as the project beta board does not allow adding issues from different organizations.

Special features

• Any unwanted card can be prevented from being added back into the board by being archived. See how to archive a card.
• If the target board is a project beta board, the column-name field can be left empty as the issue will be added to whichever column specified in the project beta workflow (if defined) or to a 'No status' column.

Output

For each issue found a new card is added to the project board with a link to the existing issue. In projects beta boards, instead, the issues found are directly added to the specified organization project board.