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Weekly

Get a weekly list of GitHub issues with no reply

Every Monday an email lists open GitHub issues where no maintainer has commented yet, oldest first, with how many days each has waited.

Runs
Weekly
Apps
GitHub
AI
Not needed
Access
Issues: read

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every Monday at 9am, email me open issues in acme/app and acme/cli that have no comment from a maintainer yet, oldest first, with days waiting.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Open issue counts hide the ones that matter most: issues nobody on the team has even acknowledged. A reporter who gets no reply for weeks rarely comes back, and the same problem gets filed again by someone else.

Every Monday this automation goes through the open issues in the repositories you list, reads their comments and keeps only the issues with no reply from an owner, member, collaborator or anyone on your maintainer list. The email shows them oldest first with the number of days each has waited.

Small maintainer teams use it to share out first replies at the start of the week, and companies with public repositories use it to keep an eye on response times.

What you get out of it

  • Unanswered, not just open

    An issue with a long discussion between maintainers is not on the list. One that nobody on the team has touched is.

  • Oldest first

    The issues that have waited longest are at the top, so the worst ones get a reply first.

  • Several repositories in one email

    List every repository you look after and get one combined message each week.

  • Your own definition of maintainer

    Add usernames of people who triage without write access so their replies count.

  • Silent when you are caught up

    If every issue has a reply, no email is sent.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every Monday the automation lists open issues in your repositories, leaving out pull requests.

  2. For each issue it reads the comments and checks whether anyone with write access, or a name on your maintainer list, has replied.

  3. Issues with no maintainer reply are sorted by age.

  4. You get one email per week with the title, link and days waiting for each.

Before it runs live

  • Connect GitHub

What you get

RunsWeekly
Get a weekly list of GitHub issues with no replytoday, 9:00Succeeded
Email · 9 GitHub issues waiting for a first reply41 days acme/app #988 Crash when config path has spaces 23 days acme/cli #212 Support XDG config dir 6 days acme/app #1031 Docs: wrong flag in quickstart …

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
  • Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other GitHub steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
get_a_weekly_list_of_github_issues_with_no_reply.pyexample
import datetime
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, notify

REPOS = ["acme/app", "acme/cli"]
MAINTAINERS = {"vlee", "kchen"}
TEAM = {"OWNER", "MEMBER", "COLLABORATOR"}

def gh(method, path, **kw):
    resp = http.request(method, f"https://api.github.com{path}", headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('github', 'work')}",
        "Accept": "application/vnd.github+json"}, **kw)
    resp.raise_for_status()
    return resp.json() if resp.content else None

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    now = datetime.datetime.utcnow()
    waiting = []
    for repo in REPOS:
        page = 1
        while True:
            issues = gh("GET", f"/repos/{repo}/issues", params={"state": "open", "per_page": 100, "page": page})
            for i in issues:
                if "pull_request" in i or i["user"]["login"] in MAINTAINERS:
                    continue
                comments = gh("GET", f"/repos/{repo}/issues/{i['number']}/comments", params={"per_page": 100}) if i["comments"] else []
                if any(c["author_association"] in TEAM or c["user"]["login"] in MAINTAINERS for c in comments):
                    continue
                age = (now - datetime.datetime.strptime(i["created_at"], "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")).days
                waiting.append((age, repo, i))
            if len(issues) < 100:
                break
            page += 1
    if not waiting:
        return {"waiting": 0}
    waiting.sort(key=lambda w: -w[0])
    lines = [f"{a} days  {r} #{i['number']}  {i['title']}\n    {i['html_url']}" for a, r, i in waiting]
    notify.email_me(f"{len(waiting)} GitHub issues waiting for a first reply", "\n".join(lines))
    return {"waiting": len(waiting)}

FAQ

Common questions

Who counts as a maintainer?
Anyone GitHub marks as owner, member or collaborator on the repository, plus any usernames you put in the MAINTAINERS list. Comments from the reporter or other users do not count as a reply.
Are pull requests included?
No. GitHub returns pull requests from the issues endpoint too, and they are filtered out. Ask your assistant for a separate list of pull requests without review if you want one.
Can it skip issues with a certain label?
Yes. Add a check that ignores issues labelled, for example, "needs-info" or "on-hold" so the list only shows issues that are really waiting on you.
What permissions does it need?
Issues: read. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it runs (weekly). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Get a weekly list of GitHub issues with no reply” from your assistant

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