pr-checker

A GitHub Action that checks pull request labels, the milestone, and change-log items.

It runs two checks:

1. Labels and milestone. The PR must have:

   • exactly one docs label (docs-labels),
   • at least one component label (component-labels), if configured,
   • at least one type label (type-labels),
   • a milestone (require-milestone).

2. Release note. A PR comment must contain the PR template's ### Documentation checklist section, with a filled-in sub-bullet under - [ ] Write a release note. Only comments by the PR author, or by a repo owner, member or collaborator, count. PRs with the skip-release-note-label label (default docs-not-needed) skip this check.

   If openai-api-key is set, the note is also sent to an LLM for a quality check:

   • pass: an earlier advisory comment, if any, is marked as resolved.
   • advise: an advisory comment is posted on the PR, and the check passes.
   • block: an advisory comment is posted on the PR, and the check fails.

   If the key is missing or the API call fails, the quality check is skipped.

The PR's labels, milestone and comments are fetched from the API when the check runs, so a re-run sees the PR as it is now, not as it was when the original event fired. If fetching the PR fails, the check logs a warning and uses the event payload instead, which can be stale on a re-run.

Usage

name: Pre-merge checks

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, reopened, synchronize, labeled, unlabeled, milestoned, demilestoned]

jobs:
  pr-checker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: memgraph/pr-checker@<commit-sha> # v1
        with:
          github-token: ${{ github.token }}
          openai-api-key: ${{ secrets.OPENAI_API_KEY }}
          component-labels: memgraph,memgraph-ha,memgraph-lab,memgraph-operator,infrastructure

The workflow should trigger on labeled, unlabeled, milestoned and demilestoned, so the check re-runs when those change. You don't need actions/checkout: the action reads only the event payload and the GitHub API.

Re-running after editing the release note

The release note lives in a PR comment, and adding or editing a comment doesn't trigger the check. After changing the note, re-trigger the check with any event that does run it: push a commit, add or remove a label, or change the milestone. You can also re-run the failed job from the PR's Checks tab. A re-run fetches the PR's labels and comments when it runs, so it sees the edited note.

Don't add an issue_comment trigger to work around this: it would start a workflow run for every comment on every issue and PR in the repo.

Merge queue

On merge_group events the action does nothing and passes, since the labels and release note were already checked on the PR. Add merge_group to the triggers if you make this a required check and use a merge queue.

Fork PRs

On pull_request events from forks, github.token is read-only. The checks still run, but the advisory comment can't be posted.

Inputs

Input	Default	Description
github-token	(required)	Token used to read the PR and its comments, and post the advisory comment. Use github.token or a GitHub App token: an advisory comment is only recognised, and later updated, if a bot posted it.
check-labels	true	Run the label and milestone check.
check-release-note	true	Run the release-note check.
docs-labels	docs-changelog-only,docs-needed,docs-not-needed	Exactly one is required. Empty disables this check.
component-labels	(empty)	At least one is required. Empty disables this check.
type-labels	bug,feature,infrastructure	At least one is required. Empty disables this check.
require-milestone	true	Require a milestone.
skip-release-note-label	docs-not-needed	PRs with this label skip the release-note check.
openai-api-key	(empty)	Enables the LLM quality check.
openai-model	gpt-5-mini	Model used for the quality check.
python-version	3.12	Python version to set up (3.10 or newer).

PR template

The release-note check expects a PR comment containing this section:

### Documentation checklist
- [ ] Write a release note, including added/changed clauses
    - What has changed? What does it mean for a user? What should a user do with it? [#{{PR_number}}]({{link to the PR}})

The placeholder sub-bullet doesn't count, with or without its link. Replace it with the real note, e.g. Added remote monitoring options. [#123](https://github.com/memgraph/helm-charts/pull/123). A note can wrap onto indented continuation lines; they're joined into one line. The first filled-in sub-bullet is the note.

Development

The scripts use only the Python standard library. Run the tests with:

python -m unittest discover -s tests -v

To run the label check locally, outside a PR event:

PR_LABELS="docs-needed,bug" PR_MILESTONE="v1" python scripts/check_labels.py

Releasing

Tag a release (v1.0.0) and move the major tag (v1) to it. Consumers should pin to the commit SHA, with the tag in a comment.