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TODO to Issue Action

This action will convert newly committed TODO comments to GitHub issues on push. It will also optionally close the issues if the TODOs are removed in a future commit.

TODO to Issue works with almost any programming language.

Usage

Simply add a comment starting with TODO, followed by a colon and/or space. Here's an example for Python that creates an issue named after the TODO:

    def hello_world():
        # TODO Come up with a more imaginative greeting
        print('Hello world!')

Multiline TODOs are supported, with additional lines inserted into the issue body. A range of options can also be provided to apply to the new issue:

    def hello_world():
        # TODO Come up with a more imaginative greeting
        #  Everyone uses hello world and it's boring.
        #  labels: enhancement, help wanted
        #  assignees: alstr, bouteillerAlan, hbjydev
        #  milestone: 1
        print('Hello world!')

Setup

Create a workflow.yml file in your .github/workflows directory like:

name: "Run TODO to Issue"
on: ["push"]
jobs:
    build:
        runs-on: "ubuntu-latest"
        steps:
            - uses: "actions/checkout@v3"
            - name: "TODO to Issue"
              uses: "alstr/todo-to-issue-action@v4"

See Github's workflow syntax for further details on this file.

The workflow file takes the following optional inputs:

Input Required Description
CLOSE_ISSUES No Optional boolean input that specifies whether to attempt to close an issue when a TODO is removed. Default: true.
AUTO_P No Optional boolean input that specifies whether to format each line in multiline TODOs as a new paragraph. Default: true.
IGNORE No Optional string input that provides comma-delimited regular expressions that match files in the repo that we should not scan for TODOs. By default, we will scan all files.
AUTO_ASSIGN No Optional boolean input that specifies whether to assign the newly created issue to the user who triggered the action. If users are manually assigned to an issue, this setting is ignored. Default: false.
ISSUE_TEMPLATE No You can override the default issue template by providing your own here. Markdown is supported, and you can inject the issue title, body, code URL and snippet. Example: "This is my issue title: **{{ title }}**\n\nThis is my issue body: **{{ body }}**\n\nThis is my code URL: **{{ url }}**\n\nThis is my snippet:\n\n{{ snippet }}"
IDENTIFIERS No A list of dictionaries specifying the identifiers for the action to recognise. TODO is the default, but you can override this here, and specify default labels to be applied when creating issues for each identifier. JSON string must be valid with double quoted keys/values and itself single-quoted (or double-quoted and escaped). Example: '[{"name": "TODO", "labels": ["help wanted"]}, {"name": "FIXME", "labels": ["bug"]}]' (labels should be an empty list if no default labels are wanted)

These can be specified in with in the workflow file, as below:

name: "Run TODO to Issue"
on: ["push"]
jobs:
    build:
        runs-on: "ubuntu-latest"
        steps:
            - uses: "actions/checkout@v3"
            - name: "TODO to Issue"
              uses: "alstr/todo-to-issue-action@v4"
              with:
                  AUTO_ASSIGN: true

Considerations

  • TODOs are found by analysing the difference between the new commit and its previous one (i.e., the diff). That means that if this action is implemented during development, any existing TODOs will not be detected. For them to be detected, you would have to remove them, commit, put them back, and commit again, or run the action manually.
  • Should you change the TODO text, this will currently create a new issue.
  • Closing TODOs is still somewhat experimental.

Supported Languages

  • ABAP
  • ABAP CDS
  • AutoHotkey
  • C
  • C++
  • C#
  • CSS
  • Crystal
  • Clojure
  • Dart
  • Elixir
  • Go
  • Handlebars
  • HCL
  • Haskell
  • HTML
  • Java
  • JavaScript
  • JSON5
  • Julia
  • Kotlin
  • Less
  • Markdown
  • Objective-C
  • Org Mode
  • PHP
  • Python
  • R
  • Razor
  • Ruby
  • Rust
  • Sass
  • Scala
  • SCSS
  • Shell
  • SQL
  • Swift
  • TeX
  • TSX
  • Twig
  • TypeScript
  • Vue
  • YAML

New languages can easily be added to the syntax.json file used by the action to identify TODO comments. When adding languages, follow the structure of existing entries, and use the language name defined by GitHub in languages.yml. PRs adding new languages are welcome and appreciated. Please add a test for your language in order for your PR to be accepted. See Contributing.

TODO Options

Unless specified otherwise, options should be on their own line, below the initial TODO declaration.

assignees:

Comma-separated list of usernames to assign to the issue.

labels:

Comma-separated list of labels to add to the issue. If any of the labels do not already exist, they will be created. The todo label is automatically added to issues to help the action efficiently retrieve them in the future.

milestone:

Milestone ID to assign to the issue. Only a single milestone can be specified and this must already have been created.

Other Options

Reference

As per the Google Style Guide, you can provide a reference after the TODO label. This will be included in the issue title for searchability.

    def hello_world():
        # TODO(alstr) Come up with a more imaginative greeting
        print('Hello world!')

Don't include parentheses within the identifier itself.

Projects

Please note, the action currently only supports classic user and organisation projects, and not 'new' projects.

You can assign the created issue to columns within user or organisation projects with some additional setup.

The action cannot access your projects by default. To enable access, you must create an encrypted secret in your repo settings, with the value set to a valid Personal Access Token. Then, assign the secret in the workflow file like PROJECTS_SECRET: ${{ secrets.PROJECTS_SECRET }}. Do not enter the raw secret.

To assign to a user project, use the user projects: prefix. To assign to an organisation project, use org projects: prefix.

The syntax is <user or org name>/project name/column name. All three must be provided.

    def hello_world():
        # TODO Come up with a more imaginative greeting
        #  Everyone uses hello world and it's boring.
        #  user projects: alstr/Test User Project/To Do
        #  org projects: alstrorg/Test Org Project/To Do
        print('Hello world!')

You can assign to multiple projects by using commas, for example: user projects: alstr/Test User Project 1/To Do, alstr/Test User Project 2/Tasks.

You can also specify default projects in the same way by defining USER_PROJECTS or ORG_PROJECTS in your workflow file. These will be applied automatically to every issue, but will be overrode by any specified within the TODO.

Running the action manually

There may be circumstances where you want the action to run for a particular commit(s) already pushed.

You can run the action manually by adding support for the workflow_dispatch event to your workflow file:

name: "Run TODO to Issue"
on:
    push:
    workflow_dispatch:
        inputs:
            MANUAL_COMMIT_REF:
                description: "The SHA of the commit to get the diff for"
                required: true
            MANUAL_BASE_REF:
                description: "By default, the commit entered above is compared to the one directly before it; to go back further, enter an earlier SHA here"
                required: false
jobs:
    build:
        runs-on: "ubuntu-latest"
        steps:
            - uses: "actions/checkout@v3"
            - name: "TODO to Issue"
              uses: "alstr/todo-to-issue-action@master"
              env:
                  MANUAL_COMMIT_REF: ${{ inputs.MANUAL_COMMIT_REF }}
                  MANUAL_BASE_REF: ${{ inputs.MANUAL_BASE_REF }}

Head to the Actions section of your repo, select the workflow and then 'Run workflow'.

You can run the workflow for a single commit, whereby the action will compare the commit to the one directly before it. Enter the commit SHA in the first box.

You can also compare a broader range of commits. In this case, also enter the 'from'/base commit SHA in the second box.

Troubleshooting

No issues have been created

  • Make sure your file language is in syntax.json.
  • The action will not recognise existing TODOs that have already been pushed, unless you run the action manually.
  • If a similar TODO appears in the diff as both an addition and deletion, it is assumed to have been moved, so is ignored.
  • If your workflow is executed but no issue is generated, check your repo permissions by navigating to Settings -> Actions (General) -> Workflow permissions and enable "Read and write permissions".

Multiple issues have been created

Issues are created whenever the action runs and finds a newly added TODO in the diff. Rebasing may cause a TODO to show up in a diff multiple times. This is an acknowledged issue, but you may have some luck by adjusting your workflow file.

Contributing & Issues

If you do encounter any problems, please file an issue or submit a PR. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to contribute.

If submitting a request to add a new language, please ensure you add the appropriate tests covering your language. In the interests of stability, PRs without tests cannot be considered.

Running tests locally

To run the tests locally, simply run the following in the main repo:

python -m unittest

Customising

If you want to fork this action to customise its behaviour, there are a few steps you should take to ensure your changes run:

  • In workflow.yml, set uses: to your action.
  • In action.yml, set image: to Dockerfile, rather than the prebuilt image.
  • If customising syntax.json, you will want to update the URL in main.py to target your version of the file.

Thanks

The action was developed for the GitHub Hackathon. Whilst every effort is made to ensure it works, it comes with no guarantee.

Thanks to Jacob Tomlinson for his handy overview of GitHub Actions.

Thanks to GitHub's linguist repo for the languages.yml file used by the app to look up file extensions and determine the correct highlighting to apply to code snippets.

Thanks to all those who have contributed to the further development of this action.