Pull Request Labeler

Pull request labeler triages PRs based on the paths that are modified in the PR.

Usage

Create .github/labeler.yml

Create a .github/labeler.yml file with a list of labels and minimatch globs to match to apply the label.

The key is the name of the label in your repository that you want to add (eg: "merge conflict", "needs-updating") and the value is the path (glob) of the changed files (eg: src/**/*, tests/*.spec.js) or a match object.

Match Object

For more control over matching, you can provide a match object instead of a simple path glob. The match object is defined as:

- any: ['list', 'of', 'globs']
  all: ['list', 'of', 'globs']

One or both fields can be provided for fine-grained matching. Unlike the top-level list, the list of path globs provided to any and all must ALL match against a path for the label to be applied.

The fields are defined as follows:

• any: match ALL globs against ANY changed path
• all: match ALL globs against ALL changed paths

A simple path glob is the equivalent to any: ['glob']. More specifically, the following two configurations are equivalent:

label1:
- example1/*

and

label1:
- any: ['example1/*']

From a boolean logic perspective, top-level match objects are OR-ed together and indvidual match rules within an object are AND-ed. Combined with ! negation, you can write complex matching rules.

Basic Examples

# Add 'label1' to any changes within 'example' folder or any subfolders
label1:
  - example/**/*

# Add 'label2' to any file changes within 'example2' folder
label2: example2/*

Common Examples

# Add 'repo' label to any root file changes
repo:
  - ./*
  
# Add '@domain/core' label to any change within the 'core' package
@domain/core:
  - package/core/*
  - package/core/**/*

# Add 'test' label to any change to *.spec.js files within the source dir
test:
  - src/**/*.spec.js

# Add 'source' label to any change to src files within the source dir EXCEPT for the docs sub-folder
source:
- any: ['src/**/*', '!src/docs/*']

# Add 'frontend` label to any change to *.js files as long as the `main.js` hasn't changed
frontend:
- any: ['src/**/*.js']
  all: ['!src/main.js']

Create Workflow

Create a workflow (eg: .github/workflows/labeler.yml see Creating a Workflow file) to utilize the labeler action with content:

name: "Pull Request Labeler"
on:
- pull_request_target

jobs:
  triage:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/labeler@main
      with:
        repo-token: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"

Note: This grants access to the GITHUB_TOKEN so the action can make calls to GitHub's rest API

Inputs

Various inputs are defined in action.yml to let you configure the labeler:

Name	Description	Default
repo-token	Token to use to authorize label changes. Typically the GITHUB_TOKEN secret	N/A
configuration-path	The path to the label configuration file	.github/labeler.yml
sync-labels	Whether or not to remove labels when matching files are reverted or no longer changed by the PR	false