GitHub Action Issue Notifications

A GitHub Action that automatically posts notifications to Slack or Discord channels when GitHub issues meet certain criteria.

Features

New Issue Notifications: Get notified when new issues are created with specific keywords or labels
Engagement Thresholds: Receive alerts when issues reach certain reaction or comment counts
Batch Checking: Periodically check all open issues for thresholds (perfect for reactions!)
Flexible Filtering: Filter issues by title keywords, required labels, or excluded labels
Multi-Platform Support: Send notifications to both Slack and Discord
Customizable Messages: Use custom message templates with placeholders

Quick Start

1. Set up Webhooks

Slack Webhook

Go to your Slack workspace
Create a new app or use an existing one
Enable "Incoming Webhooks"
Create a webhook for your desired channel
Copy the webhook URL

Discord Webhook

Go to your Discord server
Edit a channel → Integrations → Webhooks
Create a new webhook
Copy the webhook URL

2. Add Secrets to Your Repository

Go to your repository → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions, and add:

SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL (your Slack webhook URL)
DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL (your Discord webhook URL)

3. Create Workflow File

Create .github/workflows/issue-notifications.yml:

name: Issue Notifications

on:
  issues:
    types: [opened, edited]
  issue_comment:
    types: [created]
  # Optional: Add batch checking for reactions
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 * * * *" # Every hour

jobs:
  notify:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Issue Notification Action
        uses: your-username/github-action-issue-ack@v1
        with:
          slack_webhook_url: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
          discord_webhook_url: ${{ secrets.DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL }}
          title_keywords: "urgent,security,bug"
          excluded_labels: "acknowledged"
          reaction_threshold: "5"
          comment_threshold: "3"
          # Enable batch checking for reactions
          check_all_open_issues: "true"

Configuration Options

Webhook Configuration

Input	Description	Required	Default
`slack_webhook_url`	Slack webhook URL	No	-
`discord_webhook_url`	Discord webhook URL	No	-

Issue Filters

Input	Description	Required	Default
`title_keywords`	Comma-separated keywords to filter issues by title	No	-
`required_labels`	Comma-separated labels that must be present	No	-
`excluded_labels`	Comma-separated labels that should exclude the issue	No	-

Thresholds

Input	Description	Required	Default
`reaction_threshold`	Minimum reactions to trigger notification	No	5
`comment_threshold`	Minimum comments to trigger notification	No	3

Message Customization

Input	Description	Required	Default
`message_template`	Custom message template with placeholders	No	See below
`new_issue_prefix`	Prefix for new issue notifications	No	🆕 New issue created on {repo_link}!
`threshold_prefix`	Prefix for threshold notifications	No	🚨 High-engagement issue detected on {repo_link}!

Notification Settings

Input	Description	Required	Default
`notify_on_create`	Send notification when new issue is created	No	true
`notify_on_threshold`	Send notification when thresholds are met	No	true

Batch Checking Configuration

Input	Description	Required	Default
`check_all_open_issues`	Check all open issues for thresholds when action runs	No	false
`max_issues_to_check`	Maximum number of issues to check during batch processing	No	100
`issue_state`	Which issues to check (open, closed, all)	No	open

Message Template Placeholders

You can customize the notification message using these placeholders:

{title} - Issue title
{url} - Issue URL
{author} - Issue author username
{reactions} - Number of reactions
{comments} - Number of comments
{repo} - Repository name (owner/repo)
{repo_name} - Repository name only (without owner)
{repo_url} - Repository URL
{repo_link} - Repository name as hyperlink repo
{created_minutes_ago} - Minutes since issue was created
{created_hours_ago} - Hours since issue was created
{created_days_ago} - Days since issue was created
{created_at} - Original creation timestamp
{created_ago} - Smart time format (e.g., "2 hours ago", "3 days ago")

Default Message Template

🚨 High-engagement issue detected!

**{title}**
By: {author}
Reactions: {reactions} | Comments: {comments}
Repository: {repo_link}
Created: {created_hours_ago} hours ago
{url}

Examples

Basic Usage

Notify on urgent issues with 3+ reactions:

- uses: your-username/github-action-issue-ack@v1
  with:
    slack_webhook_url: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
    title_keywords: "urgent,security"
    reaction_threshold: "3"

Advanced Filtering

Notify on high-priority bugs with custom message:

- uses: your-username/github-action-issue-ack@v1
  with:
    slack_webhook_url: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
    title_keywords: "bug,crash,error"
    required_labels: "high-priority,needs-attention"
    excluded_labels: "wontfix,duplicate"
    message_template: |
      🐛 Bug Alert!

      **{title}**
      Reported by: {author}
      Engagement: {reactions} reactions, {comments} comments
      {url}

Batch Checking for Reactions

Since reactions don't trigger GitHub events, use batch checking to catch them:

name: Issue Notifications with Batch Checking

on:
  issues:
    types: [opened, edited]
  issue_comment:
    types: [created]
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 * * * *" # Every hour

jobs:
  notify:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Issue Notification Action
        uses: your-username/github-action-issue-ack@v1
        with:
          slack_webhook_url: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
          title_keywords: "urgent,security"
          reaction_threshold: "5"
          comment_threshold: "3"
          check_all_open_issues: "true"
          max_issues_to_check: "50"

Batch Checking Only

Check all open issues periodically without real-time events:

name: Batch Check Only

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "*/30 * * * *" # Every 30 minutes

jobs:
  check-issues:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Issue Notification Action
        uses: your-username/github-action-issue-ack@v1
        with:
          slack_webhook_url: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
          notify_on_create: "false"
          notify_on_threshold: "true"
          check_all_open_issues: "true"
          reaction_threshold: "3"
          comment_threshold: "2"

Custom Message Formatting

You can customize the notification messages using placeholders:

- uses: your-username/github-action-issue-ack@v1
  with:
    slack_webhook_url: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
    title_keywords: "bug,crash,error"
    required_labels: "high-priority,needs-attention"
    excluded_labels: "wontfix,duplicate"
    message_template: |
      🐛 Bug Alert!

      **{title}**
      Reported by: {author}
      Engagement: {reactions} reactions, {comments} comments
      Age: {created_days_ago} days, {created_hours_ago} hours old
      {url}
    new_issue_prefix: "🆕 New bug reported on {repo_link}!"
    threshold_prefix: "🚨 High-engagement bug on {repo_link}!"

Time-Based Examples

# Show age in different formats
message_template: |
  **{title}**
  Created: {created_minutes_ago} minutes ago
  Age: {created_hours_ago} hours, {created_days_ago} days
  {url}

# Only show if issue is older than 1 hour
message_template: |
  **{title}** ({created_hours_ago}h old)
  {url}

Events Handled

The action responds to these GitHub events:

issues.opened: New issue created
issues.edited: Issue edited (checks thresholds)
issue_comment.created: New comment added (checks thresholds)
schedule: Periodic batch checking (when enabled)

Why Batch Checking?

GitHub doesn't provide webhook events for:

Reactions added/removed - No webhook events
Reaction count changes - No real-time notifications

The batch checking feature solves this by:

✅ Checking all open issues periodically
✅ Catching reaction thresholds that would otherwise be missed
✅ Configurable intervals (every 30 minutes, hour, etc.)
✅ Efficient pagination to handle large repositories

Development

Building the Action

npm install
npm run build

Testing

npm test

Contributing

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch
Make your changes
Add tests if applicable
Submit a pull request

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 21 Commits
.github		.github
dist		dist
docs		docs
examples		examples
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
action.yml		action.yml
jest.config.js		jest.config.js
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json

License

ajpallares/github-action-issue-ack

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

GitHub Action Issue Notifications

Features

Quick Start

1. Set up Webhooks

Slack Webhook

Discord Webhook

2. Add Secrets to Your Repository

3. Create Workflow File

Configuration Options

Webhook Configuration

Issue Filters

Thresholds

Message Customization

Notification Settings

Batch Checking Configuration

Message Template Placeholders

Default Message Template

Examples

Basic Usage

Advanced Filtering

Batch Checking for Reactions

Batch Checking Only

Custom Message Formatting

Time-Based Examples

Events Handled

Why Batch Checking?

Development

Building the Action

Testing

Contributing

License

About

Resources

License

Uh oh!

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

Packages 0

Languages

Packages