Auto-label

The Auto label action will check for every new issue and automatically adds a label based on the body of the issue. This means that finding specific issues will be much easier.

Creating

Add a file to .github/workflows/auto-label.yml

name: Labeling new issue
on:
  issues:
    types: ['opened']
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          sparse-checkout: |
            .github/workflows/auto-label.json5
          sparse-checkout-cone-mode: false
      - uses: Renato66/auto-label@v3
        with:
          repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Add a config file to .github/workflows/auto-label.json5

// see inputs for more examples
{
  labelsSynonyms: {
    bug: ['error', 'need fix', 'not working'],
    enhancement: ['upgrade'],
    question: ['help', 'how can i']
  },
  labelsNotAllowed: [
    'documentation',
    'duplicate',
    'good first issue',
    'help wanted',
    'invalid'
  ],
  defaultLabels: ['triage'],
  ignoreComments: true
}

Inputs

Name	Description	Required	Default	Examples
repo-token	GitHub token for the repository	true	-	...
configuration-file	Configuration file path	false	.github/workflows/auto-label.json5	...
ignore-comments	Ignore labels inside issue comments	false	true	...
labels-synonyms	Text synonyms for labels	false	-	...
labels-not-allowed	Labels to ignore	false	-	...
default-labels	Labels that will always be set	false	-	...

Repo Token

Repo token is provided automatically by GitHub; just need to add

repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Configuration File

Configuration file can be created at any place at your repository, it will need another action to get the file like:

      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          sparse-checkout: |
            .github/workflows

and it will look for any file named auto-label with the extension JSON or JSON5 or JSONC but you can also define a specific extension

      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          sparse-checkout: |
            .github/workflows/auto-label.json5
          sparse-checkout-cone-mode: false

to set another place to store your configuration file, you should checkout and point with configuration-file input:

      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          sparse-checkout: |
            src/actions/configuration.json
          sparse-checkout-cone-mode: false
      - uses: Renato66/auto-label@v3
        with:
          configuration-file: 'src/actions/configuration.json'

Change bot appearance

If you want to change who added the labels, you can provide a user token

The token will only need the public_repo scope

You will need to provide it as secret GITHUB_USER_TOKEN and update the issue.yml repo-token with: repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_USER_TOKEN }}

Ignore Comments

If you prefer to leave as default (true) You can provide a list of labels in a template for the author to choose which labels are available to pick But if you prefer to set it as false, the author can set the labels inside a comment so it doesn't appear on issue body

// .github/workflows/auto-label.json5
{
  "ignoreComments": true
}

yml (deprecating)

ignore-comments: true

Scoped blocks

You can set a custom part of your issue/pr to be labeled using this structure:

Some text that could have a label that wouldn't be set
<!-- AUTO-LABEL:START -->
Another text that could have a label and will be set as a label
<!-- AUTO-LABEL:END -->

thanks to @dielduarte and @PauloGoncalvesBH

Labels Synonyms

Sometimes labels can be set upon other texts, as an example, if you have a label like C: VCombobox it would be hard to match the label in a normal issue, but you can provide a JSON to set it synonyms:

// .github/workflows/auto-label.json5
{
  "labelsSynonyms": {"C: VCombobox": ["combobox", "v-combobox", "combo box"]}
}

yml (deprecating)

labels-synonyms: '{"C: VCombobox":["combobox","v-combobox","combo box"]}'

Labels Not Allowed

Some labels are restricted to repo owners such as needs priority testing won't fix they can be set in an Array form:

// .github/workflows/auto-label.json5
{
  "labelsNotAllowed": ["needs priority", "testing", "won't fix"]
}

yml (deprecating)

labels-not-allowed: '["needs priority","testing","won't fix"]'

Default Labels

Labels that will always be set when an issue is created/updated such as triage, they can be set in an Array form:

// .github/workflows/auto-label.json5
{
  "defaultLabels": ["needs priority", "testing", "won't fix"]
}

yml (deprecating)

default-labels: '["triage"]'

Badge

To add a badge simple replace owner and repository

<!-- Replace <OWNER> and <REPOSITORY>. It assumes workflow name is "Labeling%20new%20issue" -->
[![Auto Label](https://github.com/<OWNER>/<REPOSITORY>/workflows/Labeling%20new%20issue/badge.svg)](https://github.com/Renato66/auto-label)