Close stale issues and PRs workflow (easy-graph/Easy-Graph)

The Close stale issues and PRs workflow from easy-graph/Easy-Graph, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

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Source: easy-graph/Easy-Graph.github/workflows/stale.yamlLicense BSD-3-ClauseView source

What it does

This is the Close stale issues and PRs workflow from the easy-graph/Easy-Graph repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its BSD-3-Clause license.

Below, Latchkey shows a faster, safer version produced by its optimization engine.

The workflow

workflow (.yml)

name: "Close stale issues and PRs"
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "30 1 * * *"

jobs:
  stale:
    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
    steps:
      - uses: actions/stale@v4
        with:
          stale-issue-message: "This issue is stale because it has been open 30 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 5 days."
          stale-pr-message: "This PR is stale because it has been open 45 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 10 days."
          close-issue-message: "This issue was closed because it has been stalled for 5 days with no activity."
          close-pr-message: "This PR was closed because it has been stalled for 10 days with no activity."
          days-before-issue-stale: 30
          days-before-pr-stale: 45
          days-before-issue-close: 5
          days-before-pr-close: 10

The same workflow, on Latchkey

Removes redundant runs and caps runaway jobs. Added and changed lines are highlighted.

name: "Close stale issues and PRs"
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "30 1 * * *"
 
jobs:
  stale:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - uses: actions/stale@v4
        with:
          stale-issue-message: "This issue is stale because it has been open 30 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 5 days."
          stale-pr-message: "This PR is stale because it has been open 45 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 10 days."
          close-issue-message: "This issue was closed because it has been stalled for 5 days with no activity."
          close-pr-message: "This PR was closed because it has been stalled for 10 days with no activity."
          days-before-issue-stale: 30
          days-before-pr-stale: 45
          days-before-issue-close: 5
          days-before-pr-close: 10

What changed

Run on Latchkey managed runners with one line (runs-on), which apply the fixes below automatically and self-heal transient failures. This example uses latchkey-small; pick the runner size that fits the job.
Add a job timeout so a hung step cannot burn hours of runner time.

This workflow runs 1 job per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.

Actions used in this workflow

actions/stale