TODO to Issue Action

This action will convert your # TODO comments to GitHub issues when a new commit is pushed.

The new issue will contain a link to the line in the file code containing the TODO, together with a code snippet.

It will also close an issue when a # TODO is removed in a pushed commit. A comment will be posted with the ref of the commit that it was closed by.

The # TODO comment is commonly used in Python, but this can be customised to whatever you want.

Usage

Create a workflow file in your .github/workflows directory as follows:

workflow.yaml

name: "Workflow"
on: ["push"]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: "ubuntu-latest"
    steps:
      - uses: "actions/checkout@master"
      - name: "TODO to Issue"
        uses: "alstr/todo-to-issue-action@master"
        with:
          REPO: ${{ github.repository }}
          BEFORE: ${{ github.event.before }}
          SHA: ${{ github.sha }}
          TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          LABEL: "# TODO"
          COMMENT_MARKER: "#"
        id: "todo"

Inputs

Input	Description
REPO	The path to the repository where the action will be used, e.g. 'alstr/my-repo' (automatically set)
BEFORE	The SHA of the last pushed commit (automatically set)
SHA	The SHA of the latest commit (automatically set)
TOKEN	The GitHub access token to allow us to retrieve, create and update issues (automatically set)
LABEL	The label that will be used to identify TODO comments (by default this is # TODO for Python)
COMMENT_MARKER	The marker used to signify a line comment in your code (by default this is # for Python)

Examples

Adding TODOs

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

This will create an issue called "Come up with a more imaginative greeting".

The action expects a space to follow the TODO label.

Should the title be longer than 50 characters, it will be truncated for the issue title.

The full title will be included in the issue body and a todo label will be attached to the issue.

Multiline TODOs

def hello_world():
    # TODO Come up with a more imaginative greeting
    #  Everyone uses hello world and it's boring.
    print('Hello world!')

You can create a multiline todo by continuing below the initial TODO declaration with a comment.

The extra line(s) will be posted in the body of the issue.

The COMMENT_MARKER input must be set to the correct syntax (e.g. # for Python).

Removing TODOs

def hello_world():
    print('Hello world!')

Removing the # TODO comment will close the issue on push.

Updating TODOs

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

Should you change the # TODO text, this will currently create a new issue, so bear that in mind.

This may be updated in future.

Thanks

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

https://www.jacobtomlinson.co.uk/posts/2019/creating-github-actions-in-python/