This is a GitHub Action that searches for issues/pull requests/discussions in a repository, measures several metrics, and generates a report in form of a GitHub issue. The issues/pull requests/discussions to search for can be filtered by using a search query.
This action, developed by GitHub OSPO for our internal use, is open-sourced for your potential benefit. Feel free to inquire about its usage by creating an issue in this repository.
Metric | Description |
---|---|
Time to First Response | The duration from creation to the initial comment or review.* |
Time to Close | The period from creation to closure.* |
Time to Answer (Discussions Only) | The time from creation to an answer. |
Time in Label | The duration from label application to removal, requires LABELS_TO_MEASURE env variable. |
*For pull requests, these metrics exclude the time the PR was in draft mode.
*For issues and pull requests, comments by issue/pull request author's and comments by bots are excluded.
To find syntax for search queries, check out the documentation on searching issues and pull requests or searching discussions.
The output of this action is a report in form of a GitHub issue. Below you see a sample of such a GitHub issue.
Create a workflow file (ie. .github/workflows/issue-metrics.yml
) in your repository with the following contents:
Note: repo:owner/repo
is the repository you want to measure metrics on
name: Monthly issue metrics
on:
workflow_dispatch:
schedule:
- cron: '3 2 1 * *'
permissions:
issues: write
pull-requests: read
jobs:
build:
name: issue metrics
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Get dates for last month
shell: bash
run: |
# Calculate the first day of the previous month
first_day=$(date -d "last month" +%Y-%m-01)
# Calculate the last day of the previous month
last_day=$(date -d "$first_day +1 month -1 day" +%Y-%m-%d)
#Set an environment variable with the date range
echo "$first_day..$last_day"
echo "last_month=$first_day..$last_day" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
- name: Run issue-metrics tool
uses: github/issue-metrics@v2
env:
GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
SEARCH_QUERY: 'repo:owner/repo is:issue created:${{ env.last_month }} -reason:"not planned"'
- name: Create issue
uses: peter-evans/create-issue-from-file@v5
with:
title: Monthly issue metrics report
token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
content-filepath: ./issue_metrics.md
- As a maintainer, I want to see metrics for issues and pull requests on the repository I maintain in order to ensure I am giving them the proper amount of attention.
- As a first responder on a repository, I want to ensure that users are getting contact from me in a reasonable amount of time.
- As an OSPO, I want to see how many open source repository requests are open/closed, and metrics for how long it takes to get through the open source process.
- As a product development team, I want to see metrics around how long pull request reviews are taking, so that we can reflect on that data during retrospectives.
If you need support using this project or have questions about it, please open up an issue in this repository. Requests made directly to GitHub staff or support team will be redirected here to open an issue. GitHub SLA's and support/services contracts do not apply to this repository.
- Create a repository to host this GitHub Action or select an existing repository. This is easiest if it is the same repository as the one you want to measure metrics on.
- Select a best fit workflow file from the examples directory for your use case.
- Copy that example into your repository (from step 1) and into the proper directory for GitHub Actions:
.github/workflows/
directory with the file extension.yml
(ie..github/workflows/issue-metrics.yml
) - Edit the values (
SEARCH_QUERY
,assignees
) from the sample workflow with your information. See the SEARCH_QUERY section for more information on how to configure the search query. - If you are running metrics on a repository other than the one where the workflow file is going to be, then update the value of
GH_TOKEN
. Do this by creating a GitHub API token with permissions to read the repo and write issues. Then take the value of the API token you just created, and create a repository secret where the name of the secret isGH_TOKEN
and the value of the secret the API token. Then finally update the workflow file to use that repository secret by changingGH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
toGH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_TOKEN }}
. The name of the secret can really be anything. It just needs to match between when you create the secret name and when you refer to it in the workflow file. - If you want the resulting issue with the metrics in it to appear in a different repository other than the one the workflow file runs in, update the line
token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
with your own GitHub API token stored as a repository secret. This process is the same as described in the step above. More info on creating secrets can be found here. - Commit the workflow file to the default branch (often
master
ormain
) - Wait for the action to trigger based on the
schedule
entry or manually trigger the workflow as shown in the documentation.
Below are the allowed configuration options:
field | required | default | description |
---|---|---|---|
GH_TOKEN |
True | The GitHub Token used to scan the repository. Must have read access to all repository you are interested in scanning. | |
SEARCH_QUERY |
True | The query by which you can filter issues/prs which must contain a repo: , org: , owner: , or a user: entry. For discussions, include type:discussions in the query. |
|
LABELS_TO_MEASURE |
False | A comma separated list of labels to measure how much time the label is applied. If not provided, no labels durations will be measured. Not compatible with discussions at this time. | |
HIDE_AUTHOR |
False | If set to any value, the author will not be displayed in the generated markdown file. | |
HIDE_TIME_TO_FIRST_RESPONSE |
False | If set to any value, the time to first response will not be displayed in the generated markdown file. | |
HIDE_TIME_TO_CLOSE |
False | If set to any value, the time to close will not be displayed in the generated markdown file. | |
HIDE_TIME_TO_ANSWER |
False | If set to any value, the time to answer a discussion will not be displayed in the generated markdown file. | |
HIDE_LABEL_METRICS |
False | If set to any value, the time in label metrics will not be displayed in the generated markdown file. | |
IGNORE_USERS |
False | A comma separated list of users to ignore when calculating metrics. (ie. IGNORE_USERS: 'user1,user2' ). To ignore bots, append [bot] to the user (ie. IGNORE_USERS: 'github-actions[bot]' ) |
- Example workflows
- Measuring time spent in labels
- Assigning teams instead of individuals
- Example using the JSON output instead of the markdown output
- Configuring the
SEARCH_QUERY
- Local usage without Docker
We would ❤️ contributions to improve this action. Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for how to get involved.
Looking for more resources for your open source program office (OSPO)? Check out the github-ospo
repo for a variety of tools designed to support your needs.