Add Auto-Labeling for Issues using GitHub Actions #5136

Vineet1101 · 2025-02-20T05:24:49Z

Automatic Issue and PR Labeling System

Overview

This feature provides an automated labeling system for GitHub issues and pull requests based on standardized tags in their titles. The system automatically detects bracketed keywords in titles and applies corresponding labels, streamlining triaging and categorization of contributions.

How It Works

When an issue or pull request is created or edited, the GitHub Action workflow analyzes its title for bracketed keywords (e.g., [bug], [feature], [core]) and automatically applies the relevant labels to the item. This reduces manual labeling work for maintainers and ensures consistent categorization.

Screencast.from.2025-03-08.06-23-23.mp4

Supported Tags

For Both Issues and PRs

The system recognizes the following tags in both issue and PR titles:

[core] → "core"
[midend] → "core"
[parser] → "core"
[dpdk] → "dpdk"
[bmv2] → "bmv2"
[P4Testgen] → "p4tools"
[P4Smith] → "p4tools"
[P4tools] → "p4tools"
[Tofino] → "tofino"
[p4tc] → "p4tc"
[p4fmt] → "p4fmt"
[p4-spec] → "p4-spec"
[control-plane] → "control-plane"
[P4runtime] → "control-plane"
[docs] / [documentation] → "documentation"

Additional Tags for Issues Only

Issues also support:

[bug] → "bug"
[feature] → "enhancement"
[frontend] → "core"

Usage Guide

For Contributors

When creating an issue or pull request:

Include relevant bracketed tags in your title
You can include multiple tags if necessary (e.g., [bug][core] Fix memory leak in parser)
Tags are case-insensitive, so [bmv2], [BMV2], and [Bmv2] all work
Only include tags that accurately represent the content of your issue or PR

Example issue title:

[bug][bmv2] Parser fails on malformed headers

Example PR title:

[p4tc][core] Implement packet processing pipeline

For Maintainers

The system automatically applies labels upon issue/PR creation and title edits
Manual label adjustments can still be made if needed
The workflow can be manually triggered via workflow_dispatch if necessary

Benefits

Reduces manual labeling work for project maintainers
Ensures consistent labeling across issues and PRs
Improves searchability and organization of the project
Helps contributors properly categorize their submissions
Streamlines the triage process for new issues and PRs

Technical Implementation

The feature is implemented as a GitHub Action workflow using the GitHub Script action. The workflow is triggered on issue and PR creation/editing events and uses the GitHub API to apply appropriate labels.

The workflow:

Detects whether it's processing an issue or PR
Applies the appropriate label mapping based on the content type
Scans the title for bracketed keywords
Applies all matching labels via the GitHub API

Signed-off-by: Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

I, Vineet1101 <[email protected]>, hereby add my Signed-off-by to this commit: 796accb Signed-off-by: Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

Vineet1101 · 2025-02-20T05:39:24Z

@fruffy @jafingerhut please review this pr

fruffy · 2025-02-20T19:10:07Z

.github/workflows/auto-label.yml

+
+            // Define keyword-label mapping
+            const labelMappings = {
+              "bug": "bug",


Let's use brackets here, eg [frontend]. Is this case insensitive? Also do not use the body. The title is good enough. Otherwise you will get many, many false positives with this approach.

Also, only use labels that make sense. For example, why would someone tag their issue [duplicate] or [question]?

There are some other ones which are useful.

[P4Testgen] -> p4tools tag.
[P4Smith] -> p4tools tag.
[P4tools] -> p4tools tag.

In general, try to take a look at how the labels are currently used for issues and try to reflect this mapping.

@fruffy I don't get what exactly you mean by [frontend] like the actions should check for [bug] in the title instead of bug??
Yes it is case sensitive but I have updated the code so now it is case insensitive and I have also included more labels

For example, this PR uses frontend and the label is core.
#5133

Because the frontend, midend, parser, etc are all part of the compiler core.

so if we apply [frontend] like this I think it will not work properly as many people will not mention [] while writing the title for their issue

Well, we can use frontend or front end in the title, but we have to be careful about false positives. [Frontend] is rather safe.

Another example is this issue:

#5138

This issue can be tagged tofino and bug because it has a compiler bug label and tofino in the title.

How about we apply regex to match exactly from the tittle. For false positive maybe we can use a priority list so that the one's with higher priority gets label and one more thing I would like to ask is I don't get your point with [Frontend] I mean while writing the title of a issue people will simple write frontend they will not enclose it in brackets.

one more solution that I can think is using weighted keyword matching
const labelMappings = { "compiler-core": { keywords: ["frontend", "midend", "parser", "backend"], threshold: 1 }, "networking": { keywords: ["dpdk", "ebpf", "switching"], threshold: 1 }, };

in this if threshold crosses 1 the compiler-core will get applied if not then parser or whatever written in the title will get applied. We can apply strict checking using regex to avoid false positive.
What are your thoughts on this idea @fruffy

mean while writing the title of a issue people will simple write frontend they will not enclose it in brackets.

A lot of developers actually do this. Especially once a keyword will automatically lead to labelling.

What are your thoughts on this idea @fruffy

Multiple labels are actually ok. I would take a look at the current labels we have and then decide how these should be assigned. Feel also free to ask on what these labels mean.

This could also be part of documentation.

ok for now I will add brackets also and once you have checked and decided tell me I will make changes according to that. I think we should also mention somewhere this thing in docs or something that one should use [] to auto add labels

Yes, let's do that!

Signed-off-by: Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

fruffy · 2025-02-23T00:36:21Z

.github/workflows/auto-label.yml

+              "[p4c]": "p4c",
+              "[bmv2]": "bmv2",
+              "[compiler]": "compiler",
+              "[test]": "testing",


This is not a label.

Looks like compiler and testing are still there, both of these are not labels.

fruffy · 2025-02-23T00:36:30Z

.github/workflows/auto-label.yml

+              "[feature]": "enhancement",
+              "[docs]": "documentation",
+              "[dpdk]": "dpdk",
+              "[p4c]": "p4c",


This is also not an existing label.

I have removed that non existing labels

fruffy · 2025-02-23T00:36:43Z

.github/workflows/auto-label.yml

+              "[bug]": "bug",
+              "[error]": "bug",
+              "[fix]": "bug",
+              "[feature]": "enhancement",


Could also be feat

you mean in addition to [feature] we should also add [feat] and both will map to enhancement??

For example, yes. You could have multiple variants.

.github/workflows/auto-label.yml

fruffy · 2025-02-23T00:37:52Z

.github/workflows/auto-label.yml

+              "[Tofino]":"tofino",
+              "[p4tc]": "p4tc",
+              "[p4fmt]": "p4fmt",
+              "[core]":"core",


This list is missing some more labels:

https://github.com/p4lang/p4c/issues/labels

Do i need to add them in the auto label list????

@fruffy can you please clear this doubts so that I can make changes accordingly

I am currently traveling with limited access to internet. I will give this a thorough look later. run-xyz you do not need to map.

For the other labels you should take a look at the issues that are being tagged with them and see whether you can find a mapping that works.

Vineet1101 · 2025-02-28T09:23:57Z

@fruffy any suggestions you would like to give

I will give this a thorough look later. run-xyz you do not need to map.

fruffy · 2025-03-02T12:41:12Z

@fruffy any suggestions you would like to give

I will give this a thorough look later. run-xyz you do not need to map.

You do not have to worry about labels such as run-ubuntu18 or run-sanitizer. These are for pull request to run specific workflows.

Signed-off-by: Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

Vineet1101 · 2025-03-02T13:11:32Z

@fruffy I have made the changes

fruffy

This looks ready to me. @Vineet1101 could you update the video to reflect the latest version?

This should get a pair of second eyes, too. @jafingerhut this PR adds an auto-labelling feature for issues and PRs. Using certain keywords in the title should automatically add tags now.

Vineet1101 · 2025-03-03T19:50:04Z

@fruffy ya sure I will update the video but I thing i would like to suggest is that we should mention somewhere that one can use [bug] like this thing title to automatically add labels

fruffy · 2025-03-03T19:55:26Z

@fruffy ya sure I will update the video but I thing i would like to suggest is that we should mention somewhere that one can use [bug] like this thing title to automatically add labels

The best way to do this is probably as a hint in an issue template. We do not have these templates yet.

Vineet1101 · 2025-03-03T19:56:23Z

@fruffy one more thing for now this file only self tags issue do you want this on pull request also??

Vineet1101 · 2025-03-07T19:12:43Z

Hey @fruffy can you please tell if you want this auto labelling feature on pr also so that I can modify the code a little bit

fruffy · 2025-03-07T22:05:24Z

Hey @fruffy can you please tell if you want this auto labelling feature on pr also so that I can modify the code a little bit

Yeah for PRs these tags also make sense. Except bug, question, enhancement or similar.

Signed-off-by: Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

Vineet1101 · 2025-03-08T00:43:25Z

@fruffy I modified to the code to auto label pr as well you can review it whenever you have time. I have also updated the pr description

Vineet1101 added 3 commits February 20, 2025 10:20

Add auto-label workflow

796accb

Added some more label

bd41571

Signed-off-by: Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

DCO Remediation Commit for Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

f23b433

I, Vineet1101 <[email protected]>, hereby add my Signed-off-by to this commit: 796accb Signed-off-by: Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

fruffy added the infrastructure Topics related to code style and build and test infrastructure. label Feb 20, 2025

fruffy reviewed Feb 20, 2025

View reviewed changes

Vineet1101 requested a review from fruffy February 21, 2025 08:46

Added some more labels with brackets

3b7e8dc

Signed-off-by: Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

fruffy reviewed Feb 23, 2025

View reviewed changes

Vineet1101 added 2 commits February 24, 2025 17:34

Merge branch 'main' into vineet-work

031a601

Merge branch 'main' into vineet-work

61d3c13

Vineet1101 and others added 3 commits March 2, 2025 18:17

Merge branch 'main' into vineet-work

baf2aec

Added some more labels

643b48e

Signed-off-by: Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

Added some labels and removed the non-existing labels

1024bc9

Signed-off-by: Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

Vineet1101 requested a review from fruffy March 2, 2025 13:11

Merge branch 'main' into vineet-work

162172b

fruffy reviewed Mar 3, 2025

View reviewed changes

Vineet1101 added 2 commits March 4, 2025 12:58

Merge branch 'main' into vineet-work

d78ace3

Merge branch 'main' into vineet-work

c18583e

Added auto-label for pr also

363d284

Signed-off-by: Vineet1101 <[email protected]>

Merge branch 'main' into vineet-work

b086521

Vineet1101 requested a review from fruffy March 8, 2025 00:42

Merge branch 'main' into vineet-work

fde4323

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Add Auto-Labeling for Issues using GitHub Actions #5136

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Vineet1101 commented Feb 20, 2025 • edited Loading

Automatic Issue and PR Labeling System

Overview

How It Works

Supported Tags

For Both Issues and PRs

Additional Tags for Issues Only

Usage Guide

For Contributors

For Maintainers

Benefits

Technical Implementation

Vineet1101 commented Feb 20, 2025

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