pr-closer

Warn and close broken pull requests, and close old pull requests.

pr-closer is a GitHub Action for maintainers who want to keep stale pull requests from piling up while giving contributors a visible warning for failing checks and merge conflicts.

Usage

Create .github/workflows/pr-closer.yml in the repository you want to maintain:

name: pr-closer

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 0 * * *"
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  pr-closer:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      checks: read
      issues: write
      pull-requests: write
      statuses: read
    steps:
      - uses: jdx/pr-closer@v1

Options

- uses: jdx/pr-closer@v1
  with:
    close-after-days: 7
    max-age-days: 30
    ignored-authors: |
      jdx
      dependabot[bot]
      renovate[bot]
    ignored-labels: keep-open
    limit: 500
    dry-run: false

Input	Default	Description
close-after-days	7	Number of calendar days after the first warning before a pull request with failing checks or merge conflicts is closed.
max-age-days	30	Number of full days an otherwise healthy pull request with settled checks can remain open before it is closed.
ignored-authors	jdx, dependabot[bot], renovate[bot]	Comma-separated or newline-separated pull request authors to ignore.
ignored-author		Additional pull request author to ignore. Prefer ignored-authors for multiple authors.
ignored-labels	keep-open	Comma-separated or newline-separated pull request labels to ignore.
ignored-label		Additional pull request label to ignore. Prefer ignored-labels for multiple labels.
github-token	${{ github.token }}	Token used to list, comment on, and close pull requests.
limit	500	Maximum number of open pull requests to inspect.
dry-run	false	Log actions without commenting on or closing pull requests.

Behavior

Every run inspects open pull requests, skipping the configured authors and labels.

If a pull request has failing checks, merge conflicts, or both, the action comments once per day. Warnings are tracked with a hidden marker in the comment body and are tied to the pull request head SHA. Pushing new commits resets the warning window. Missed or delayed scheduled runs do not reset the warning window.

After the configured number of calendar days from the first warning, the action closes the broken pull request with a final comment.

If a pull request does not have failing checks, pending checks, or merge conflicts and was created at least max-age-days full days ago, the action closes it with a comment. Draft and non-draft pull requests are treated the same way.

Requirements

The workflow must grant:

permissions:
  checks: read
  issues: write
  pull-requests: write
  statuses: read

The action uses the GitHub CLI and jq, both of which are available on ubuntu-latest.

Releasing

The release-plz workflow runs after pushes to main. When there are unreleased changes, it updates VERSION on the release branch and opens or updates a pull request with the release label. The workflow uses RELEASE_PLZ_GITHUB_TOKEN so the generated pull request can trigger the release workflow when merged.

When a release pull request is merged, the release workflow creates the exact version tag, updates the major tag, and creates a GitHub release.

The workflow can also be run manually with an optional version input.

License

MIT