Automating projects (beta)

Note: Projects (beta) is currently in public beta and subject to change.

Introduction

You can add automation to help manage your project. Projects (beta) includes built-in workflows that you can configure through the UI. Additionally, you can write custom workflows with the GraphQL API and GitHub Actions.

Built-in workflows

Projects (beta) includes built-in workflows that you can use to update the Status of items based on certain events. For example, you can automatically set the status to Todo when an item is added to your project or set the status to Done when an issue is closed.

When your project initializes, two workflows are enabled by default: When issues or pull requests in your project are closed, their status is set to Done, and when pull requests in your project are merged, their status is set to Done.

You can enable or disable the built-in workflows for your project.

In your project, click .
Under Default workflows, click on the workflow that you want to edit.
If the workflow can apply to both issues and pull requests, next to When, check the item type(s) that you want to act on.
Next to Set, choose the value that you want to set the status to.
If the workflow is disabled, click the toggle next to Disabled to enable the workflow.

GitHub Actions workflows

This section demonstrates how to use the GraphQL API and GitHub Actions to add a pull request to an organization project. In the example workflows, when the pull request is marked as "ready for review", a new task is added to the project with a "Status" field set to "Todo", and the current date is added to a custom "Date posted" field.

You can copy one of the workflows below and modify it as described in the table below to meet your needs.

A project can span multiple repositories, but a workflow is specific to a repository. Add the workflow to each repository that you want your project to track. For more information about creating workflow files, see "Quickstart for GitHub Actions."

This article assumes that you have a basic understanding of GitHub Actions. For more information about GitHub Actions, see "GitHub Actions."

For more information about other changes you can make to your project through the API, see "Using the API to manage projects."

Note: GITHUB_TOKEN is scoped to the repository level and cannot access projects (beta). To access projects (beta) you can either create a GitHub App (recommended for organization projects) or a personal access token (recommended for user projects). Workflow examples for both approaches are shown below.

Example workflow authenticating with a GitHub App

Create a GitHub App or choose an existing GitHub App owned by your organization. For more information, see "Creating a GitHub App."
Give your GitHub App read and write permissions to organization projects. For more information, see "Editing a GitHub App's permissions."

Note: You can control your app's permission to organization projects and to repository projects. You must give permission to read and write organization projects; permission to read and write repository projects will not be sufficient.
Install the GitHub App in your organization. Install it for all repositories that your project needs to access. For more information, see "Installing GitHub Apps."
Store your GitHub App's ID as a secret in your repository or organization. In the following workflow, replace APP_ID with the name of the secret. You can find your app ID on the settings page for your app or through the App API. For more information, see "Apps."
Generate a private key for your app. Store the contents of the resulting file as a secret in your repository or organization. (Store the entire contents of the file, including -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY----- and -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----.) In the following workflow, replace APP_PEM with the name of the secret. For more information, see "Authenticating with GitHub Apps."
In the following workflow, replace YOUR_ORGANIZATION with the name of your organization. For example, octo-org. Replace YOUR_PROJECT_NUMBER with your project number. To find the project number, look at the project URL. For example, https://github.com/orgs/octo-org/projects/5 has a project number of 5.

YAML

# This workflow uses actions that are not certified by GitHub.
# They are provided by a third-party and are governed by
# separate terms of service, privacy policy, and support
# documentation.

name: Add PR to project
on:
  pull_request:
    types:
      - ready_for_review
jobs:
  track_pr:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Generate token
        id: generate_token
        uses: tibdex/github-app-token@36464acb844fc53b9b8b2401da68844f6b05ebb0
        with:
          app_id: ${{ secrets.APP_ID }}
          private_key: ${{ secrets.APP_PEM }}

      - name: Get project data
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ steps.generate_token.outputs.token }}
          ORGANIZATION: YOUR_ORGANIZATION
          PROJECT_NUMBER: YOUR_PROJECT_NUMBER
        run: |
          gh api graphql -f query='
            query($org: String!, $number: Int!) {
              organization(login: $org){
                projectNext(number: $number) {
                  id
                  fields(first:20) {
                    nodes {
                      id
                      name
                      settings
                    }
                  }
                }
              }
            }' -f org=$ORGANIZATION -F number=$PROJECT_NUMBER > project_data.json

          echo 'PROJECT_ID='$(jq '.data.organization.projectNext.id' project_data.json) >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo 'DATE_FIELD_ID='$(jq '.data.organization.projectNext.fields.nodes[] | select(.name== "Date posted") | .id' project_data.json) >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo 'STATUS_FIELD_ID='$(jq '.data.organization.projectNext.fields.nodes[] | select(.name== "Status") | .id' project_data.json) >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo 'TODO_OPTION_ID='$(jq '.data.organization.projectNext.fields.nodes[] | select(.name== "Status") |.settings | fromjson.options[] | select(.name=="Todo") |.id' project_data.json) >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Add PR to project
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ steps.generate_token.outputs.token }}
          PR_ID: ${{ github.event.pull_request.node_id }}
        run: |
          item_id="$( gh api graphql -f query='
            mutation($project:ID!, $pr:ID!) {
              addProjectNextItem(input: {projectId: $project, contentId: $pr}) {
                projectNextItem {
                  id
                }
              }
            }' -f project=$PROJECT_ID -f pr=$PR_ID --jq '.data.addProjectNextItem.projectNextItem.id')"
          
          echo 'ITEM_ID='$item_id >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Get date
        run: echo "DATE=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d")" >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Set fields
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ steps.generate_token.outputs.token }}
        run: |
          gh api graphql -f query='
            mutation (
              $project: ID!
              $item: ID!
              $status_field: ID!
              $status_value: String!
              $date_field: ID!
              $date_value: String!
            ) {
              set_status: updateProjectNextItemField(input: {
                projectId: $project
                itemId: $item
                fieldId: $status_field
                value: $status_value
              }) {
                projectNextItem {
                  id
                  }
              }
              set_date_posted: updateProjectNextItemField(input: {
                projectId: $project
                itemId: $item
                fieldId: $date_field
                value: $date_value
              }) {
                projectNextItem {
                  id
                }
              }
            }' -f project=$PROJECT_ID -f item=$ITEM_ID -f status_field=$STATUS_FIELD_ID -f status_value=${{ env.TODO_OPTION_ID }} -f date_field=$DATE_FIELD_ID -f date_value=$DATE --silent

Example workflow authenticating with a personal access token

Create a personal access token with org:write scope. For more information, see "Creating a personal access token."
Save the personal access token as a secret in your repository or organization.
In the following workflow, replace YOUR_TOKEN with the name of the secret. Replace YOUR_ORGANIZATION with the name of your organization. For example, octo-org. Replace YOUR_PROJECT_NUMBER with your project number. To find the project number, look at the project URL. For example, https://github.com/orgs/octo-org/projects/5 has a project number of 5.