Add PR Needs-Author-Feedback lifecycle workflow by MuyuanMS · Pull Request #48812 · microsoft/PowerToys

MuyuanMS · 2026-06-23T08:22:31Z

Summary

Adds a GitHub Actions workflow that manages the "Needs-Author-Feedback" label lifecycle for pull requests, complementing the existing fabricbot-based issue management.

This addresses the problem of community PRs going stale while pending author response — currently fabricbot handles stale issues but not PRs.

Behavior

Flow diagram

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Maintainer adds "Needs-Author-Feedback" label (or /needinfo)        │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────────────────┐
│  7 days, no author activity     │────►│  Convert PR to draft        │
│                                 │     │  + post warning comment     │
└─────────────────────────────────┘     └─────────────────────────────┘
         │                                           │
         ▼                                           ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────────────────┐
│  14 days total, still inactive  │────►│  Close PR                   │
│                                 │     │  + post closing comment     │
└─────────────────────────────────┘     └─────────────────────────────┘

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Author pushes commits                                               │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
    Remove "Needs-Author-Feedback"

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Author comments or submits review                                   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
    Remove "Needs-Author-Feedback" (handled by existing fabricbot)

Jobs

Job	Trigger	Action
`author-responded-push`	Author pushes commits (`synchronize`)	Removes `Needs-Author-Feedback`
`check-stale-prs`	Cron schedule (every 6 hours) or `workflow_dispatch`	Converts to draft at 7 days / closes at 14 days of author inactivity

Why not extend fabricbot (resourceManagement.yml)?

The existing fabricbot policy handles issues with Needs-Author-Feedback (5d stale → 10d close) and already removes the label on author comments for both issues and PRs. However, fabricbot cannot:

Detect push (synchronize) events on PRs
Call GraphQL mutations (convertPullRequestToDraft)
Implement conditional logic (already-draft vs not-draft)
Filter scheduled searches by isPullRequest (only isIssue exists)

This workflow adds only what fabricbot can't do — avoiding duplication.

Inactivity detection

Measures inactivity from the later of the label-applied timestamp or the author's last activity — so labeling an already-stale PR starts a fresh 7-day window rather than triggering immediately.
Author activity = last commit by the PR author + last issue/review comment by the author (ignoring bot comments).
Uses issues.listEvents to find when the label was most recently applied, handling label re-application cycles correctly.

Edge cases handled

PR already draft when label is added: Posts the 7-day warning on first detection, then closes after 7 more days of inactivity.
Draft conversion: Uses GraphQL convertPullRequestToDraft mutation since REST API doesn't support this.
Draft conversion failure: Falls back to closing the PR if the GraphQL mutation fails and 14 days have elapsed.
Label re-application: Bot warning detection filters by created_at >= labelAppliedDate so prior cycle's warnings are ignored.
Concurrency: Uses a per-PR concurrency group to prevent duplicate runs; scheduled runs share a stable 'maintenance' group.
Race conditions: Re-checks label presence before every mutation (guards against concurrent removal by maintainer).
Manual testing: workflow_dispatch trigger with dry_run input allows safe testing without making changes.

Triggers summary

Event	Purpose
`pull_request_target: [synchronize]`	Author push detection (fabricbot can't detect this)
`schedule` (every 6h)	Stale PR processing
`workflow_dispatch`	Manual runs with dry-run option

Relationship to existing automation

Mechanism	Scope	What it handles
`resourceManagement.yml` (fabricbot)	Issues + PR comments	Removes `Needs-Author-Feedback` on author comment; stale close for issues only
This workflow	PRs only	Removes label on author push; 7d→draft, 14d→close lifecycle

No overlap — fabricbot handles comment-based label removal, this workflow handles push-based removal and the stale lifecycle.

Testing

YAML syntax validated
Workflow tested end-to-end on fork
Verified: author-push label removal ✅, dry-run scheduled job ✅
Workflow logic is idempotent (safe to run multiple times on the same PR)
No label is added/removed if already in the expected state

Adds a GitHub Actions workflow that manages the Needs-Author-Feedback label lifecycle for pull requests: - New non-draft PRs automatically receive the Needs-Triage label - When author pushes commits or comments, Needs-Author-Feedback is removed and Needs-Triage is re-added - After 7 days of inactivity, PR is converted to draft with a warning - After 14 days of inactivity, PR is closed with a clear message This complements the existing fabricbot-based issue management in resourceManagement.yml by adding PR-specific behaviors (draft conversion) that require GitHub Actions. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Adds a new GitHub Actions workflow to automate the Needs-Author-Feedback label lifecycle for pull requests, including auto-triage labeling, automatic label swaps when the author responds, and scheduled stale handling (draft conversion + eventual close).

Changes:

Introduces .github/workflows/pr-needs-author-feedback.yml to apply Needs-Triage on new non-draft PRs.
Automatically removes Needs-Author-Feedback (and re-adds Needs-Triage) when the PR author pushes commits or comments.
Adds a scheduled stale check intended to convert inactive PRs to draft after 7 days and close them after 14 days (based on author activity).

…nation - Fix: close only after 14 days of author inactivity (not 7 days after draft conversion). The previous logic closed on the next 6h cycle after converting to draft. - Fix: filter commits by author login so maintainer pushes don't reset the inactivity timer. - Fix: use paginate() for both listComments and listCommits to handle PRs with >100 items. - Fix: only post the draft-conversion comment if the GraphQL mutation actually succeeded. - Bump actions/github-script from v7 to v9 for consistency with the rest of the repo. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot

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Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

- Add concurrency guard to prevent overlapping runs from racing on the same PR (consistent with auto-labeler.yml pattern). - Add pull_request_review trigger so author review submissions also remove the Needs-Author-Feedback label. - Include PR review comments (pulls.listReviewComments) in the scheduled inactivity check, not just issue comments. - Use the label-applied timestamp as inactivity baseline: timer starts from max(label_applied_date, last_author_activity), so labeling a long-stale PR gives the author a fresh 7-day window. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

…wording, fallback - Use stable concurrency group ('maintenance') for schedule/dispatch runs so only one maintenance run is active at a time. - Add open-state check for pull_request_review trigger to avoid mutating labels on closed PRs. - Bot warning detection now requires the comment timestamp >= label-applied date, so label remove/re-apply cycles don't reuse stale warnings. - Already-draft PRs get accurate wording ('This draft pull request has been marked as requiring author feedback...') instead of falsely claiming conversion. - If GraphQL convertPullRequestToDraft fails and inactivity >= 14 days, close the PR as a fallback instead of leaving it open indefinitely. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Extends the workflow to handle 'Add single comment' on diffs (pull_request_review_comment events). Without this, inline review comments from the author were counted as activity by the scheduled job but did not remove the Needs-Author-Feedback label in real time. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

The previous marker phrase spanned a line break in the join()'d comment body, so it never matched the conversion comment. Use the shorter 'requiring author feedback' which appears on a single line in both the auto-conversion comment and the already-draft warning comment. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

- Skip expensive API pagination for PRs labeled < 7 days ago (can never meet draft/close threshold) - Re-check that Needs-Author-Feedback label is still present before converting to draft or closing (guards against race with concurrent label removal) Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

michaeljolley · 2026-06-25T16:25:18Z

As for the reason for the new process, need info flow help adds the [Needs-Author-Feedback] label, but there's no periodical job closing it for PRs (current is issue only), so we need to have one for the PR.

The needinfo flow also is a fabricbot policy, which has no GraphQL support and no conditional logic, which isn't enough for PR handling like checking whether it's draft. That's why this workflow as a GitHub Action is added just for checking and closing PRs with the label.

I may have been unclear. I don't mind that it's a GitHub action. My question was why not use the same process that FabricBot does for issues?

We use /needinfo in a PR and it adds the Needs-Author-Feedback label.
Response from OP removes Needs-Author-Feedback and adds Needs-Team-Response.
On an scheduled run, with the Needs-Author-Feedback label, after n days/weeks close it.

…implify triggers

MuyuanMS · 2026-06-26T08:54:30Z

As for the reason for the new process, need info flow help adds the [Needs-Author-Feedback] label, but there's no periodical job closing it for PRs (current is issue only), so we need to have one for the PR.
The needinfo flow also is a fabricbot policy, which has no GraphQL support and no conditional logic, which isn't enough for PR handling like checking whether it's draft. That's why this workflow as a GitHub Action is added just for checking and closing PRs with the label.

I may have been unclear. I don't mind that it's a GitHub action. My question was why not use the same process that FabricBot does for issues?

We use /needinfo in a PR and it adds the Needs-Author-Feedback label.

Response from OP removes Needs-Author-Feedback and adds Needs-Team-Response.

On an scheduled run, with the Needs-Author-Feedback label, after n days/weeks close it.

@michaeljolley This PR aims to achieve the third bullet point, and part of second bullet point to make existing needinfo workflow works for PRs as well:
When OP commits, it also removes Needs-Author-Feedback (for PR only)
PR has a scheduled run to check for the label after n days/weeks to convert to draft or close it

All other parts are handled by existing logic.

Existing fabricbot policy has limitations in logics like checking whether it's draft, so I used GitHub Action to complete the workflow

MuyuanMS · 2026-07-07T09:46:09Z

As for the reason for the new process, need info flow help adds the [Needs-Author-Feedback] label, but there's no periodical job closing it for PRs (current is issue only), so we need to have one for the PR.
The needinfo flow also is a fabricbot policy, which has no GraphQL support and no conditional logic, which isn't enough for PR handling like checking whether it's draft. That's why this workflow as a GitHub Action is added just for checking and closing PRs with the label.

I may have been unclear. I don't mind that it's a GitHub action. My question was why not use the same process that FabricBot does for issues?

We use /needinfo in a PR and it adds the Needs-Author-Feedback label.

Response from OP removes Needs-Author-Feedback and adds Needs-Team-Response.

On an scheduled run, with the Needs-Author-Feedback label, after n days/weeks close it.

@michaeljolley This PR aims to achieve the third bullet point, and part of second bullet point to make existing needinfo workflow works for PRs as well: When OP commits, it also removes Needs-Author-Feedback (for PR only) PR has a scheduled run to check for the label after n days/weeks to convert to draft or close it

All other parts are handled by existing logic.

Existing fabricbot policy has limitations in logics like checking whether it's draft, so I used GitHub Action to complete the workflow

@michaeljolley created #49151 where I leverage existing fabricbot policy - meaning that we no longer can convert to draft but to close directly due to limitations. If you think that's more like the way to go, then I'll close this one

michaeljolley · 2026-07-07T16:06:51Z

Yeah. I vote close over draft for sure.

…9151) ## Summary Adds fabricbot rules to manage the `Needs-Author-Feedback` label lifecycle for **pull requests**, complementing the existing issue management rules in `resourceManagement.yml`. This is a **simpler alternative** to the GitHub Actions workflow approach (PR #48812), trading advanced features (draft conversion, author-specific activity tracking) for zero-maintenance fabricbot automation. ## Behavior ### Flow diagram ``` ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Maintainer adds "Needs-Author-Feedback" label to a PR │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────────┐ │ 7 days, no activity │────►│ Add "Status-No recent activity" │ │ │ │ + post warning comment │ └─────────────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ ▼ ▼ ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────────┐ │ 7 more days (14 total), no activity│────►│ Close PR + post closing comment │ └─────────────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────────┘ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Author pushes commits OR comments on PR (at any point) │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ Remove "Needs-Author-Feedback" → Add "Needs-Triage" Remove "Status-No recent activity" (if present) ``` ### Scheduled searches (every 6 hours) | Condition | Action | |-----------|--------| | PR + `Needs-Author-Feedback` + 7 days inactive + no `Status-No recent activity` | Add `Status-No recent activity` label + warning comment | | PR + `Needs-Author-Feedback` + `Status-No recent activity` + 7 more days inactive | Post closing comment + close PR | ### Event responders | Trigger | Action | |---------|--------| | Author comments on PR (`Issue_Comment` + `issueAuthor`) | Remove `Needs-Author-Feedback`, add `Needs-Triage` + `Needs-Team-Response` | | Author pushes commits (`Pull_Request` + `Synchronize` + `issueAuthor`) | Remove `Needs-Author-Feedback`, add `Needs-Triage` | | Any PR update activity | Remove `Status-No recent activity` | ### Bot messages **Warning (at 7 days):** > This pull request has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for **7 days**. It will be closed if no further activity occurs **within 7 days of this comment**. To keep this PR active, please push your changes or leave a comment. **Closing (at 14 days):** > This pull request has been automatically closed because it has been marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for **14 days**. If you would like to continue working on this, please reopen the PR and push your changes. ## Comparison with GitHub Actions workflow (PR #48812) | Feature | This PR (fabricbot) | PR #48812 (Actions) | |---------|-------------------|-------------------| | Convert to draft at 7 days | ❌ Not supported | ✅ Via GraphQL | | Close at 14 days | ✅ | ✅ | | Author-specific activity tracking | ❌ Any activity resets timer | ✅ Only author activity counts | | Bot comment resets timer | ⚠️ Yes (fabricbot limitation) | ✅ No (filtered out) | | Maintenance burden | None (fabricbot managed) | Low (workflow file) | | Testing before merge | ❌ No local testing | ✅ `workflow_dispatch` + dry-run | | Review comment detection | ❌ Only issue comments | ✅ Reviews + inline comments | ## Trade-offs **Pros:** - Zero maintenance — fabricbot is a managed service - Consistent with existing issue management patterns in the same file - No workflow YAML to debug or maintain **Cons:** - No draft conversion (fabricbot cannot call GraphQL) - `noActivitySince` counts **all** activity — bot comments, maintainer comments, and label changes all reset the inactivity timer - Cannot distinguish author activity from other activity - No way to test locally or with dry-run before merge ## Relationship to existing automation Mirrors the existing issue rules (lines 11-43) which use the same pattern: - Issues: 5 days → warning, 5 more days → close - PRs (this change): 7 days → warning, 7 more days → close Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

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github-project-automation Bot added this to Needs Attention Jun 25, 2026

Remove author-responded-comment job (fabricbot already handles it); s…

db70623

…implify triggers

MuyuanMS removed the Needs-Author-Feedback The original author of the issue/PR needs to come back and respond to something label Jun 30, 2026

microsoft-github-policy-service Bot added the Needs-Author-Feedback The original author of the issue/PR needs to come back and respond to something label Jul 1, 2026

MuyuanMS mentioned this pull request Jul 6, 2026

Add PR Needs-Author-Feedback lifecycle to fabricbot configuration #49151

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niels9001 closed this Jul 8, 2026

github-project-automation Bot moved this to Done in Needs Attention Jul 8, 2026

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Summary

Behavior

Flow diagram

Jobs

Why not extend fabricbot (resourceManagement.yml)?

Inactivity detection

Edge cases handled

Triggers summary

Relationship to existing automation

Testing

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michaeljolley commented Jun 25, 2026

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