Close inactive issues/PRs workflow (thinkst/opencanary)

The Close inactive issues/PRs workflow from thinkst/opencanary, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

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Source: thinkst/opencanary.github/workflows/stale_issues.ymlLicense BSD-3-ClauseView source

What it does

This is the Close inactive issues/PRs workflow from the thinkst/opencanary 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 inactive issues/PRs
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 12 * * *"

jobs:
  stale:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      issues: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/stale@v9
        with:
          days-before-issue-stale: 14
          days-before-issue-close: 14
          stale-issue-label: "stale"
          stale-issue-message: "This issue is stale because it has been open for 14 days with no activity."
          close-issue-message: "This issue was closed because it has been inactive for 14 days since being marked as stale."
          days-before-pr-close: -1
          exempt-all-pr-assignees: true
          exempt-issue-labels: "exempt"
          exempt-pr-labels: "exempt"
          start-date: '2023-08-21T00:00:00Z'
          repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

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

name: Close inactive issues/PRs
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 12 * * *"
 
jobs:
  stale:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      issues: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/stale@v9
        with:
          days-before-issue-stale: 14
          days-before-issue-close: 14
          stale-issue-label: "stale"
          stale-issue-message: "This issue is stale because it has been open for 14 days with no activity."
          close-issue-message: "This issue was closed because it has been inactive for 14 days since being marked as stale."
          days-before-pr-close: -1
          exempt-all-pr-assignees: true
          exempt-issue-labels: "exempt"
          exempt-pr-labels: "exempt"
          start-date: '2023-08-21T00:00:00Z'
          repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

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