Add agentic workflow for auto-approving dependency PRs

[Copilot]

Implements automated approval for pull requests containing only dependency updates or version bumps from Renovate bot or repository owner.

Implementation

• Agentic workflow (.github/workflows/auto-approve-renovate-prs.md) using gh-aw v0.43.23

  • Triggers on PR opened/synchronized/reopened/ready_for_review events
  • AI agent verifies: non-draft status, trusted authors only, dependency-only changes
  • Conservative approval logic: rejects on any uncertainty

• Custom safe-outputs job for PR approval via GitHub API

  • Separate job with pull-requests: write permission
  • Main agent runs read-only with GitHub toolsets (repos, pull_requests, actions)
  • Reads approval body from agent output artifact

• Allowed file changes:

  • Dependency files: package.json, requirements.txt, pom.xml, meta/debian/control, meta/rpm/*.spec, .github/images.json
  • Root-level VERSION file

Agent verification flow

1. Check PR draft status → reject if draft
2. List all commits → verify authors (renovate[bot] or plengauer only)
3. Get changed files → ensure only dependencies/VERSION modified
4. Review diffs → confirm no code logic changes
5. Approve with detailed comment if ALL criteria met

Security

• Strict mode: minimal permissions, template injection protection via env vars
• Permission separation: agent (read) → approval job (write)
• Same-repo PRs only (forks blocked)
• CodeQL: 0 alerts

Warning

Firewall rules blocked me from connecting to one or more addresses (expand for details)

I tried to connect to the following addresses, but was blocked by firewall rules:

• github.github.com
  • Triggering command: /home/REDACTED/work/_temp/ghcca-node/node/bin/node /home/REDACTED/work/_temp/ghcca-node/node/bin/node --enable-source-maps /home/REDACTED/work/_temp/copilot-developer-action-main/dist/index.js (dns block)
• https://api.github.com/repos/actions/github-script/git/ref/tags/v8
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/gh gh api /repos/actions/github-script/git/ref/tags/v8 --jq .object.sha (http block)
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/gh gh api /repos/actions/github-script/git/ref/tags/v8 --jq .object.sha /usr/bin/rm mktemp /usr/bin/git -p y, .value.used, /tmp/tmp.4g1FJd4IAk_opentelemetry_shell_2788.observation_handle.pipe�� /usr/bin/rm git erva�� ad180516:.github/workflows/auto-approve-renovate-prs.lock.yml .github/AUTO-APPROVE-WORKFLOW-README.md /usr/bin/mkfifo auer/opentelemetsleep mktemp /usr/bin/mkfifo mkfifo (http block)
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/gh gh api /repos/actions/github-script/git/ref/tags/v8 --jq .object.sha /usr/bin/cut sleep /usr/bin/mktemp /usr/bin/rm cut /usr/bin/rm mktemp pipe�� -p /tmp /usr/bin/mkfifo /usr/bin/sleep rm /usr/bin/mkfifo mkfifo (http block)
• https://api.github.com/repos/github/gh-aw/git/ref/tags/v0.43.23
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/gh gh api /repos/github/gh-aw/git/ref/tags/v0.43.23 --jq .object.sha (http block)
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/gh gh api /repos/github/gh-aw/git/ref/tags/v0.43.23 --jq .object.sha --show-toplevel (http block)
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/gh gh api /repos/github/gh-aw/git/ref/tags/v0.43.23 --jq .object.sha /home/REDACTED/work/Thoth/Thoth/.github/workflows y, .value.used, .value.remaining] | @tsv /home/REDACTED/work/_temp/ghcca-node/node/bin/bash (http block)
• https://api.github.com/user
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/gh gh api user --jq .login (http block)
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/gh gh api user --jq .login /home/REDACTED/work/_temp/runtime-logs/user.env ame t[bot] (http block)
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/gh gh api user --jq .login --global credential.helper /usr/local/bin/git (http block)

If you need me to access, download, or install something from one of these locations, you can either:

• Configure Actions setup steps to set up my environment, which run before the firewall is enabled
• Add the appropriate URLs or hosts to the custom allowlist in this repository's Copilot coding agent settings (admins only)

Original prompt

Create a workflow for GitHub Agentic Workflows using https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gh-aw/main/create.md

The purpose of the workflow is to react to all pushes to pull requests. if the pull request is not a draft, and its branch only has pushes from renovate bot or the repository owner, and the changes only adjust dependencies or bump the version in the root level VERSION file, the pull request should be approved. the approval should only be issued if the above conditions are true beyond any reasonable doubt

---

✨ Let Copilot coding agent set things up for you — coding agent works faster and does higher quality work when set up for your repo.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR introduces an automated approval workflow for pull requests containing only dependency updates or version bumps from trusted sources (Renovate bot and repository owner). It uses GitHub Agentic Workflows (gh-aw v0.43.23) to implement an AI-powered approval agent with conservative safety criteria.

Changes:

• Added agentic workflow definition file (.github/workflows/auto-approve-renovate-prs.md) with AI agent instructions, trigger configuration, and custom safe-outputs job for PR approval
• Added compiled workflow file (.github/workflows/auto-approve-renovate-prs.lock.yml) auto-generated by gh-aw, containing the complete GitHub Actions workflow with agent execution, threat detection, and permission-separated approval job

Reviewed changes

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

File	Description
.github/workflows/auto-approve-renovate-prs.md	Workflow definition with AI agent instructions for verifying PR draft status, author trustworthiness, and dependency-only file changes. Includes custom safe-outputs job for PR approval via GitHub API.
.github/workflows/auto-approve-renovate-prs.lock.yml	Auto-generated compiled workflow with complete job orchestration: pre-activation (team membership check), agent execution (with firewall and MCP servers), threat detection, safe-outputs processing, approval job (pull-requests: write), and conclusion handling.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

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