# Automated Stale Issue Management

## Description This PR introduces an automated stale issue management reflex script. The script identifies issues that have been inactive for more than 14 days and marks them as `stale` with a nudge to the author. If no further activity occurs for another 7 days, the issue is automatically closed. The script is "actor-aware" and will not mark an issue as stale if the last comment was from the community, ensuring we don't block users when we are the bottleneck. It also exempts issues labeled `help-wanted` or `🔒Maintainers only`. ## Why is this recommended? The repository currently has at least 1,000 open issues, many of which appear to be stale. This massive backlog masks the true health of the project and increases the mental load for maintainers. High latency for community issues (46.6h) suggests that follow-up is a bottleneck. Automating the closure of inactive issues will allow maintainers to focus on active, high-priority items. ## Target Metric `open_issues` ## Expected Improvement A reduction of `open_issues` by approximately 20-30% (200-300 issues) within the first 30 days of operation.
2026-05-14 13:53:02 -07:00 · 2026-04-27 17:03:02 +00:00
parent 1cdfeb6633
commit bf42547c92
1 changed files with 123 additions and 0 deletions
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+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright 2026 Google LLC
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ */
+
+import { exec } from 'node:child_process';
+import { promisify } from 'node:util';
+
+const execAsync = promisify(exec);
+
+const GITHUB_REPOSITORY = process.env.GITHUB_REPOSITORY || 'google-gemini/gemini-cli';
+const [GITHUB_OWNER, GITHUB_REPO] = GITHUB_REPOSITORY.split('/');
+
+const STALE_LABEL = 'stale';
+const EXEMPT_LABELS = ['help-wanted', '🔒Maintainers only'];
+const INACTIVE_DAYS_BEFORE_STALE = 14;
+const INACTIVE_DAYS_BEFORE_CLOSE = 7;
+
+async function runGh(args: string): Promise<string> {
+  try {
+    const { stdout } = await execAsync(`gh ${args}`);
+    return stdout.trim();
+  } catch (error: any) {
+    console.error(`Error running gh ${args}:`, error.message);
+    return '';
+  }
+}
+
+function isMaintainer(association: string): boolean {
+  return ['MEMBER', 'OWNER', 'COLLABORATOR'].includes(association);
+}
+
+async function processStaleIssues() {
+  console.log(`Fetching candidates for stale processing in ${GITHUB_REPOSITORY} via GraphQL...`);
+  
+  const thresholdDate = new Date();
+  thresholdDate.setDate(thresholdDate.getDate() - INACTIVE_DAYS_BEFORE_STALE);
+
+  // GraphQL query to get issues updated before the threshold
+  const query = `
+  query($owner: String!, $repo: String!) {
+    repository(owner: $owner, name: $repo) {
+      issues(first: 100, states: OPEN, orderBy: {field: UPDATED_AT, direction: ASC}) {
+        nodes {
+          number
+          updatedAt
+          labels(first: 10) { nodes { name } }
+          comments(last: 1) {
+            nodes {
+              authorAssociation
+            }
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  `;
+
+  const output = await runGh(`api graphql -F owner=${GITHUB_OWNER} -F repo=${GITHUB_REPO} -f query='${query}'`);
+  if (!output) return;
+
+  const data = JSON.parse(output);
+  const issues = data.data.repository.issues.nodes;
+
+  const tasks: Promise<any>[] = [];
+
+  for (const issue of issues) {
+    const { number, updatedAt, labels, comments } = issue;
+    
+    // Only process issues updated before our threshold
+    if (new Date(updatedAt) > thresholdDate) continue;
+
+    const labelNames = labels.nodes.map((l: any) => l.name);
+    
+    // Check exemptions
+    if (EXEMPT_LABELS.some(exempt => labelNames.includes(exempt))) {
+      console.log(`Issue #${number} is exempt due to labels.`);
+      continue;
+    }
+
+    // Actor-awareness: Ensure the script does not nudge if the bottleneck is waiting on maintainers.
+    // If there are no comments, it's likely waiting for triage.
+    if (comments.nodes.length === 0) {
+      console.log(`Issue #${number} has no comments; skipping to allow for maintainer triage.`);
+      continue;
+    }
+
+    // Check if the last comment was by a maintainer. If not, it's waiting for maintainer response.
+    const lastComment = comments.nodes[0];
+    if (!isMaintainer(lastComment.authorAssociation)) {
+      console.log(`Issue #${number} last comment was by community; skipping to avoid blocking them.`);
+      continue;
+    }
+
+    const hasStaleLabel = labelNames.includes(STALE_LABEL);
+
+    if (!hasStaleLabel) {
+      // Mark as stale
+      console.log(`Marking issue #${number} as stale.`);
+      const message = `This issue has been inactive for ${INACTIVE_DAYS_BEFORE_STALE} days and is being marked as stale. It will be closed in ${INACTIVE_DAYS_BEFORE_CLOSE} days if no further activity occurs.`;
+      tasks.push((async () => {
+        await runGh(`issue edit ${number} --add-label "${STALE_LABEL}"`);
+        await runGh(`issue comment ${number} --body "${message}"`);
+      })());
+    } else {
+      // Check if it's been stale long enough to close
+      const staleThresholdDate = new Date();
+      staleThresholdDate.setDate(staleThresholdDate.getDate() - INACTIVE_DAYS_BEFORE_CLOSE);
+      
+      if (new Date(updatedAt) < staleThresholdDate) {
+        console.log(`Closing stale issue #${number}.`);
+        const closeMessage = `This issue has been stale for ${INACTIVE_DAYS_BEFORE_CLOSE} days and is now being closed. Please feel free to reopen it if the issue persists or if you have more information to provide.`;
+        tasks.push(runGh(`issue close ${number} --comment "${closeMessage}"`));
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  await Promise.all(tasks);
+  console.log(`Processed ${tasks.length} actions.`);
+}
+
+processStaleIssues().catch(console.error);