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docs: strengthen skip-if-match guidance for scheduled issue-creating workflows #28545

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pelikhan merged 2 commits into from
Apr 26, 2026
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docs: strengthen skip-if-match guidance for scheduled issue-creating workflows #28545

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Copilot Apr 26, 2026
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docs: strengthen skip-if-match guidance for scheduled issue-creating …
Copilot Apr 26, 2026
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10 changes: 10 additions & 0 deletions .github/aw/create-agentic-workflow.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -828,6 +828,16 @@ Based on the parsed requirements, determine:
- **No action needed** → `safe-outputs: noop:` - **IMPORTANT**: When the agent successfully completes but determines nothing needs to be done, use `noop` to signal completion. This is critical for transparency—it shows the agent worked AND that no output was necessary.
- **Daily reporting workflows** (creates issues/discussions): Add `close-older-issues: true` or `close-older-discussions: true` to prevent clutter
- **Daily improver workflows** (creates PRs): Add `skip-if-match:` with a filter to avoid opening duplicate PRs (e.g., `'is:pr is:open in:title "[workflow-name]"'`)
- **Scheduled workflows that create issues**: Add `skip-if-match:` to avoid creating duplicate issues on every run. Pair with `expires:` so resolved issues are cleaned up automatically. Example:
```yaml
on:
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The example for “Scheduled workflows that create issues” shows on: with only skip-if-match, but no actual trigger (e.g., schedule:). Since skip-if-match is a modifier rather than a trigger, copying this example would produce invalid frontmatter / a compile error. Add a schedule: line (and optionally show it combined with skip-if-match) to make the example runnable.

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on:
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 9 * * *'

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skip-if-match: 'is:issue is:open in:title "[workflow-name]"'
safe-outputs:
create-issue:
title-prefix: "[workflow-name] "
expires: 7 # auto-close after 7 days
Comment on lines +834 to +838
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In the example, title-prefix includes a trailing space ("[workflow-name] ") but the skip-if-match query searches for "[workflow-name]" without the trailing space. This still matches, but it’s less precise and inconsistent with the more exact scheduled-workflow example in github-agentic-workflows.md. Consider aligning the query string with the exact prefix (including the trailing space) to reduce accidental matches.

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```
Without `skip-if-match`, a scheduled workflow that creates issues will open a new issue on every run even if an identical issue is already open.
- **New workflows** (when creating, not updating): Consider enabling `missing-tool: create-issue: true` to automatically track missing tools as GitHub issues that expire after 1 week
5. **Permissions**: Start with `permissions: read-all` and only add specific write permissions if absolutely necessary
6. **Repository Access Roles**: Consider who should be able to trigger the workflow:
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14 changes: 14 additions & 0 deletions .github/aw/github-agentic-workflows.md
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