Automatically apply labels to github pull requests

Question

I'm trying to find some resources on how to add a label automatically when creating a new pull request. So far, I haven't found any documentation on this. Any pointers?

Answer 1

It really depends on what and when you want to label those pull requests. Since there is no rule engine directly on GitHub for this to auto-label issues or pull requests, you have two options:

1. Find something on the GitHub Marketplace tagged with label. The most used (and Verified) option is Labeler. Here is what a simple setup might look like:

# .github/workflows/auto-labeler.yml
name: Auto Label PRs

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, ready_for_review]

jobs:
  label:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Auto Label PR
        uses: actions/labeler@v5
        with:
          repo-token: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"

Then define your logic for how you want labels to be applied. In the case below add the db-migration label anytime a file is created/modified in the db/migrate/* directory

# .github/labeler.yml
db-migration:
  - "db/migrate/*"

2. Or of course you could write your own script, GitHub Application or GitHub Action that interfaces with the GitHub API to set those labels based on your specific requirements.