Stale Issues Remediator

Process stale-labeled issues: handle objections and close after a 30-day grace period.

Workflow source: gh-aw-stale-issues-remediator.md

How it works

A scripted prep step fetches all open issues carrying the configured stale label, their recent comments, and label timeline events. The agent then processes each issue:

1. Objections — If someone commented "not stale", "still relevant", etc. after the label was added, the stale label is removed.
2. 30-day expiry — Issues that have carried the label for 30+ days without objection are automatically closed with an explanatory comment.
3. Grace period — Issues still within the 30-day window are left alone.

Quick Install

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

Trigger

Event	Schedule
schedule	Weekdays (1h after investigator)
workflow_dispatch	Manual

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
additional-instructions	Repo-specific instructions appended to the agent prompt	No	""
setup-commands	Shell commands run before the agent starts	No	""
allowed-bot-users	Allowlisted bot actor usernames (comma-separated)	No	github-actions[bot]
stale-label	Label used to mark stale issues	No	stale

Safe Outputs

• remove-labels — remove the stale label when an objection is found
• close-issue — close issues that have been labeled stale for 30+ days

Pairing

This workflow is the remediation companion to Stale Issues Investigator. The investigator finds and labels stale candidates; the remediator handles objections and closes expired ones.

Example Workflow

name: Stale Issues Remediator
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 16 * * 1-5"
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read
  issues: write

jobs:
  run:
    uses: elastic/ai-github-actions/.github/workflows/gh-aw-stale-issues-remediator.lock.yml@v0
    secrets:
      COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN }}