github-action-check-linked-issues

GitHub action to check if pull requests have their corresponding issues linked, in order to enforce traceability.

Inputs

input	required	default	description
github-token	No	${{github.token}}	Your Github token, it's already available to your Github action.
exclude-branches	No	''	A comma-separated list of patterns to ignore source branches. (Any pattern supported by minimatch).
exclude-labels	No	''	A comma-separated list of labels to ignore.
comment	No	true	A boolean value that allow the action to create a comment.
custom-body-comment	No	"No linked issues found. Please add the corresponding issues in the pull request description. Use GitHub automation to close the issue when a PR is merged"	Custom body PR comment.
loose-matching	No	false	A boolean value indicating whether the action should verify linked issues inside a PR's description, merging onto any branch (including non-default branches like main or master). When enabled, this option supports both local issues (e.g., #123) and external ones (e.g., https://github.com/org-name/repo/issues/123). Associating a pull request with an issue requires the use of any of the supported keywords in the pull request's description (e.g., fixes #123).

Outputs

output	description
linked_issues_count	The total number of issues linked to your pull request.
issues	A stringified array containing the numbers of the linked issues, of the form ["some/repo#123", "another/repository#456"]

Standard Usage

Triggers

Configure a workflow to run a job on pull_request or pull_request_target events.

If you enable the comment option (enabled by default) we recommend to listen on pull_request_target event. pull_request_target event has write permission to the target repository allowing external forks to create comments.

Permissions

This action needs the following permissions:

• issues: read
• pull-requests: write

💡 Note that pull-requests: write is required only if you enable the comment option (enabled by default), see Disabling comments example below.

Example

name: Check linked issues

on:
  pull_request_target:
    types: [opened, edited, reopened, synchronize]

jobs:
  check_pull_requests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Check linked issues
    permissions:
        issues: read
        pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: nearform-actions/github-action-check-linked-issues@v1
        id: check-linked-issues
        with:
          exclude-branches: "release/**, dependabot/**"
      # OPTIONAL: Use the output from the `check-linked-issues` step
      - name: Get the output
        run: echo "How many linked issues? ${{ steps.check-linked-issues.outputs.linked_issues_count }}"

When the action cannot find any linked issues it will fail explaining the reason.

Comments

Adding comments

By default, when the job fails it adds a new comment on Pull Request, but you can also write your custom comment setting custom-body-comment.

on:
  pull_request_target:
    types: [opened, edited, reopened, synchronize]

jobs:
  check_pull_requests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Check linked issues
    permissions:
      issues: read
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: nearform-actions/github-action-check-linked-issues@v1
        id: check-linked-issues
        with:
          exclude-branches: "release/**, dependabot/**"
          custom-body-comment: "Here is a custom comment!"

      # OPTIONAL: Use the output from the `check-linked-issues` step
      - name: Get the output
        run: echo "How many linked issues? ${{ steps.check-linked-issues.outputs.linked_issues_count }}"

Disabling comments

To disable comments in your Pull Request, you just need to set comment to false.

on:
  pull_request_target:
    types: [opened, edited, reopened, synchronize]

jobs:
  check_pull_requests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Check linked issues
    permissions:
      issues: read
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: nearform-actions/github-action-check-linked-issues@v1
        id: check-linked-issues
        with:
          exclude-branches: "release/**, dependabot/**"
          comment: false

      # OPTIONAL: Use the output from the `check-linked-issues` step
      - name: Get the output
        run: echo "How many linked issues? ${{ steps.check-linked-issues.outputs.linked_issues_count }}"

Limitations ⚠️

Currently you must link issues from the pull request description.

See the docs for more information about the supported syntax.

Why?

When you manually link up issues from the sidebar on the github.com UI, the workflow doesn't trigger. On the other hand, if you link up issues from your commits, then the PR doesn't get linked on your Projects board.

This is a GitHub limitation. This table shows what happens:

Linked from:	Workflow triggered?	Query works?	Appears on Projects?
Sidebar UI	❌	✅	✅
Commit message	✅	❌	❌
PR description	✅	✅	✅

Please DO NOT link issues manually from the sidebar, neither from commit messages.

Referencing issues in another repository

You can also reference issues outside of the repository on which the workflow is running. This works only if the repository containing the issue is public. Issues in private repositories are not accessible by this action.