Auto Update Project Fields on Issue Close

This GitHub Action automatically updates custom fields of items in an Organization Project (GitHub Projects v2) when an issue is closed. It is designed for organizations using GitHub Projects (v2) to track issues and automate field updates based on configurable rules.

Features

• Automated Field Updates: Updates custom fields for project items when issues are closed.
• Supports Multiple Field Types: Number, SingleSelect, Date, and Text fields are supported.
• Configurable: Supports custom field configuration via a JSON file.
• Secure: Requires a GitHub token for authentication.

Usage

Add the following to your workflow YAML:

on:
  issues:
    types: [closed]

env:
  GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}

jobs:
  update-custom-fields:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Update Project Item Custom Fields
        uses: DevOpsVisions/project-fields-updater@main
        with:
          org: ${{ github.repository_owner }}
          project_number: 52
          owner: ${{ github.repository_owner }}
          repo: ${{ github.event.repository.name }}
          issue_number: ${{ github.event.issue.number }}
          config_path: configs/fields-config.json

Inputs

Name	Description	Required	Default
org	The organization name	Yes	-
project_number	The project number	Yes	-
owner	The repository owner	Yes	-
repo	The repository name	Yes	-
issue_number	The issue number	Yes	-
config_path	Path to the fields-config.json file	No	fields-config.json

Field Configuration

Supported field types: Number, SingleSelect, Date, and Text.

Create a fields-config.json file in your repository to specify which fields to update and how. Example:

[
  {
    "field_name": "Week",
    "field_type": "number",
    "field_value": "30"
  },
  {
    "field_name": "Month",
    "field_type": "singleSelect",
    "field_value": "Jul"
  },
  {
    "field_name": "Date",
    "field_type": "date",
    "field_value": "2025-07-22"
  },
  {
    "field_name": "Reason",
    "field_type": "text",
    "field_value": "Reason for the change"
  }
]

Organization Default Use Case

In our organization, we initially created this action to automatically update the following fields when closing an issue:

• Week: with the current week number
• Month: with the current month (e.g., "Jul")
• Date: with the current date

If this matches your use case, set the field_value to auto for these fields in your config, and the action will update them with the current values automatically.

Example (fields-config.json):

[
  {
    "field_name": "Week",
    "field_type": "number",
    "field_value": "auto"
  },
  {
    "field_name": "Month",
    "field_type": "singleSelect",
    "field_value": "auto"
  },
  {
    "field_name": "Date",
    "field_type": "date",
    "field_value": "auto"
  }
]

How It Works

1. Install GitHub CLI: The action installs the GitHub CLI (gh) for API access.
2. Find Project Item: Locates the project item for the closed issue.
3. Update Fields: Updates the specified fields using the configuration file.

Requirements

• Organization Projects (GitHub Projects v2)
• GitHub CLI (gh)
• GITHUB_TOKEN with the following permissions:
  • Organization permissions: Read and Write access to issue fields and organization projects
  • Repository permissions: Read access to code, issues, and metadata

Scripts

Scripts are located in src/scripts/:

• entrypoint.sh: Main entry point
• get-project-info.sh: Fetches project info
• find-item-id.sh: Finds the project item ID
• update-fields.sh: Updates custom fields

License

MIT

Author

DevOpsVisions