Newbie Contributor¶

Review documentation from a new contributor's perspective and automatically fix gaps.

Newbie Contributor Patrol reads all contributor-facing documentation as if it were a new contributor's first encounter with the project — following getting-started paths, checking for missing prerequisites, and flagging blocking gaps. An External variant also cross-references published Elastic documentation. Newbie Contributor Fixer picks up patrol issues and opens PRs with documentation improvements. Most runs end with noop.

Quick install¶

Patrol only (human reviews issues)¶

mkdir -p .github/workflows && curl -sL \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/ai-github-actions/v0/gh-agent-workflows/newbie-contributor-patrol/example.yml \
  -o .github/workflows/newbie-contributor-patrol.yml

Full loop (patrol + fixer)¶

mkdir -p .github/workflows && \
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/ai-github-actions/v0/gh-agent-workflows/newbie-contributor-patrol/example.yml \
  -o .github/workflows/newbie-contributor-patrol.yml && \
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/ai-github-actions/v0/gh-agent-workflows/newbie-contributor-fixer/example.yml \
  -o .github/workflows/newbie-contributor-fixer.yml

All three (patrol + external + fixer)¶

mkdir -p .github/workflows && \
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/ai-github-actions/v0/gh-agent-workflows/newbie-contributor-patrol/example.yml \
  -o .github/workflows/newbie-contributor-patrol.yml && \
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/ai-github-actions/v0/gh-agent-workflows/newbie-contributor-patrol-external/example.yml \
  -o .github/workflows/newbie-contributor-patrol-external.yml && \
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/ai-github-actions/v0/gh-agent-workflows/newbie-contributor-fixer/example.yml \
  -o .github/workflows/newbie-contributor-fixer.yml

Newbie Contributor Patrol (detector)¶

Reads all contributor-facing documentation (README, CONTRIBUTING, DEVELOPING, etc.) as if it were a new contributor's first encounter with the project. Follows getting-started paths, checks for missing prerequisites, and flags blocking gaps. Only files issues for high-impact problems.

Trigger¶

Event	Schedule
`schedule`	Weekly (Monday)
`workflow_dispatch`	Manual

Inputs¶

Input	Description	Default
`additional-instructions`	Repo-specific instructions appended to the agent prompt	`""`
`setup-commands`	Shell commands run before the agent starts	`""`

Safe outputs¶

create-issue — file a new contributor docs review (max 1, auto-closes older reports)

Example workflow¶

name: Newbie Contributor Patrol
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 11 * * 1"
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read
  issues: write
  pull-requests: read

jobs:
  run:
    uses: elastic/ai-github-actions/.github/workflows/gh-aw-newbie-contributor-patrol.lock.yml@v0
    secrets:
      COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Newbie Contributor Patrol External (detector variant)¶

Like Newbie Contributor Patrol, but also cross-references the repo's documentation against published Elastic documentation on elastic.co/docs. Contradictions between the repo and published docs are treated as blocking issues.

Trigger¶

Event	Schedule
`schedule`	Weekly (Monday)
`workflow_dispatch`	Manual

Inputs¶

Input	Description	Default
`additional-instructions`	Repo-specific instructions appended to the agent prompt	`""`
`setup-commands`	Shell commands run before the agent starts	`""`

Safe outputs¶

create-issue — file an external new contributor docs review (max 1, auto-closes older reports)

Example workflow¶

name: Newbie Contributor Patrol External
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 11 * * 1"
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read
  issues: write
  pull-requests: read

jobs:
  run:
    uses: elastic/ai-github-actions/.github/workflows/gh-aw-newbie-contributor-patrol-external.lock.yml@v0
    secrets:
      COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Newbie Contributor Fixer¶

Picks up open issues filed by the patrol (labeled newbie-contributor or with [newbie-contributor] in the title), applies the suggested documentation improvements, and opens a PR. Focuses on filling gaps in the contributor onboarding path — missing prerequisites, broken commands, undocumented requirements.

Trigger¶

Event	Schedule
`schedule`	Weekdays
`workflow_dispatch`	Manual

Inputs¶

Input	Description	Default
`additional-instructions`	Repo-specific instructions appended to the agent prompt	`""`
`setup-commands`	Shell commands run before the agent starts	`""`

Safe outputs¶

create-pull-request — open a PR with documentation fixes (max 1)

Example workflow¶

name: Newbie Contributor Fixer
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 14 * * 1-5"
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read
  issues: read
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  run:
    uses: elastic/ai-github-actions/.github/workflows/gh-aw-newbie-contributor-fixer.lock.yml@v0
    secrets:
      COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN }}