closing-inactive-issues.md

title	shortTitle	intro	redirect_from	versions	type	topics
Closing inactive issues	Close inactive issues	You can use {% data variables.product.prodname_actions %} to comment on or close issues that have been inactive for a certain period of time.	/actions/guides/closing-inactive-issues	fpt ghes ghec * * *	tutorial	Workflows Project management

{% data reusables.actions.enterprise-github-hosted-runners %}

Introduction

This tutorial demonstrates how to use the actions/stale action to comment on and close issues that have been inactive for a certain period of time. For example, you can comment if an issue has been inactive for 30 days to prompt participants to take action. Then, if no additional activity occurs after 14 days, you can close the issue.

In the tutorial, you will first make a workflow file that uses the actions/stale action. Then, you will customize the workflow to suit your needs.

Creating the workflow

1. {% data reusables.actions.choose-repo %}

2. {% data reusables.actions.make-workflow-file %}

3. Copy the following YAML contents into your workflow file.

   name: Close inactive issues
   on:
     schedule:
       - cron: "30 1 * * *"
   
   jobs:
     close-issues:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
       permissions:
         issues: write
         pull-requests: write
       steps:
         - uses: {% data reusables.actions.action-stale %}
           with:
             days-before-issue-stale: 30
             days-before-issue-close: 14
             stale-issue-label: "stale"
             stale-issue-message: "This issue is stale because it has been open for 30 days with no activity."
             close-issue-message: "This issue was closed because it has been inactive for 14 days since being marked as stale."
             days-before-pr-stale: -1
             days-before-pr-close: -1
             repo-token: {% raw %}${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}{% endraw %}

4. Customize the parameters in your workflow file:

   • Change the value for on.schedule to dictate when you want this workflow to run. In the example above, the workflow will run every day at 1:30 UTC. For more information about scheduled workflows, see "AUTOTITLE."
   • Change the value for days-before-issue-stale to the number of days without activity before the actions/stale action labels an issue. If you never want this action to label issues, set this value to -1.
   • Change the value for days-before-issue-close to the number of days without activity before the actions/stale action closes an issue. If you never want this action to close issues, set this value to -1.
   • Change the value for stale-issue-label to the label that you want to apply to issues that have been inactive for the amount of time specified by days-before-issue-stale.
   • Change the value for stale-issue-message to the comment that you want to add to issues that are labeled by the actions/stale action.
   • Change the value for close-issue-message to the comment that you want to add to issues that are closed by the actions/stale action.

5. {% data reusables.actions.commit-workflow %}

Expected results

Based on the schedule parameter (for example, every day at 1:30 UTC), your workflow will find issues that have been inactive for the specified period of time and will add the specified comment and label. Additionally, your workflow will close any previously labeled issues if no additional activity has occurred for the specified period of time.

{% note %}

Note: {% data reusables.actions.schedule-delay %}

{% endnote %}

You can view the history of your workflow runs to see this workflow run periodically. For more information, see "AUTOTITLE."

This workflow will only label and/or close 30 issues at a time in order to avoid exceeding a rate limit. You can configure this with the operations-per-run setting. For more information, see the actions/stale action documentation.

Next steps

• To learn more about additional things you can do with the actions/stale action, like closing inactive pull requests, ignoring issues with certain labels or milestones, or only checking issues with certain labels, see the actions/stale action documentation.
• Search GitHub for examples of workflows using this action.