GitHub action that auto-assigns issues or PRs to users or team members

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
assignees	String	only if teams is not specified	n/a	Comma separated list of user names with optional weights. Issue will be assigned to those users.
teams	String	only if assignees is not specified	n/a	Comma separated list of team names without the org prefix with optional weights. Issue will be assigned to the team members. Important Requirement: if using the teams input parameter, you need to use a personal access token with read:org scope (the default GITHUB_TOKEN is not enough).
numOfAssignee	Number	false	n/a	Number of assignees that will be randomly picked from the teams or assignees. If not specified, assigns all users.
abortIfPreviousAssignees	Boolean	false	false	Flag that aborts the action if there were assignees previously.
removePreviousAssignees	Boolean	false	false	Flag that removes assignees before assigning them (useful the issue is reasigned).
allowNoAssignees	Boolean	false	false	Flag that prevents the action from failing when there are no assignees.
allowSelfAssign	Boolean	false	true	Flag that allows self-assignment to the issue author. This flag is ignored when working with PRs as self assigning a PR for review is forbidden by GitHub.
issueNumber	Number	false	n/a	Allows to override the issue number. This can be useful when context is missing.
teamIsPullRequestReviewer	Boolean	false	false	Sets team as the PR reviewer instead of a member of the team.

Examples

Working with Issues

This example auto-assigns new issues to two users randomly chosen from octocat, cat and dog. It won't self-assign to the issue author.

name: Issue assignment

on:
    issues:
        types: [opened]

jobs:
    auto-assign:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        permissions:
            issues: write
        steps:
            - name: 'Auto-assign issue'
              uses: pozil/auto-assign-issue@v2
              with:
                  assignees: octocat,cat,dog
                  numOfAssignee: 2
                  allowSelfAssign: false

Working with PRs

This example assigns PRs to a random member of the support team:

name: PR assignment

on:
    pull_request:
        types: [opened, edited, synchronize, reopened]

jobs:
    auto-assign:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        permissions:
            pull-requests: write
        steps:
            - name: 'Auto-assign PR'
              uses: pozil/auto-assign-issue@v2
              with:
                  repo-token: ${{ secrets.MY_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
                  teams: support
                  numOfAssignee: 1

Working with weighted assignements

When specifying assignees or teams values, you may provide weights to balance the randomness of the selection. The following formats are supported:

# No weights specified (same weight for all items)
assignees: a, b, c
# Weights specified
assignees: a:1, b:5, c:2
# Some weights specified (item weight defaults to 1 when not specified)
assignees: a, b:2, c

Let's look at a practical example:

assignees: octocat:4,cat

• octocat has a weight of 4.
• cat has a weight of 1 (default value).
• octocat has 4 chances out of 5 to be selected.

Working with Project Cards

Warning

project_card events are only supported on legacy Project (Classic) (see docs).

This example assigns a project card to the triage team when the card is moved. It removes previously assigned users.

name: Project card assignment

on:
    project_card:
        types: [moved]

jobs:
    auto-assign:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        permissions:
            issues: write
        steps:
            - name: 'Auto-assign card'
              uses: pozil/auto-assign-issue@v2
              with:
                  repo-token: ${{ secrets.MY_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
                  teams: triage
                  removePreviousAssignees: true

Specifying a dynamic user

Instead of hardcoding the user name in the workflow, you can use a repository variable:

• create a GitHub repo variable named DEFAULT_ISSUE_ASSIGNEE with the name of the user
• use this value ${{ vars.DEFAULT_ISSUE_ASSIGNEE }} instead of the username in the workflow.