[FEATURE] Direct Messages

[atvi-tmiller]

sending a direct message to users assigned to a pull request or requested for review when a pull request is opened. In addition to a scheduled job that notifies users of opened pull requests they are still assigned to or added for review. Ultimately I think direct messages would be more useful than scheduled dumps of opened PR's into a slack channel(s).

[atvi-tmiller]

so for example. in the morning sometime a scheduled action should run notifying users through direct message of a summary of opened pull requests they are added as assignee or reviewer

then throughout the day, when new pull requests are opened, the users added as assignee or for review are notified immediately via direct message

[coltenkrauter]

Appreciate the write-up—I'm into the direction and open to moving toward it. Here's how I’m thinking about the constraints and options.

Real-Time PR Notifications (when PR created)

The hardest part is the real-time piece. GitHub Actions can’t “listen” like a webhook server—they only react to emitted events (pull_request, pull_request_review, etc). There’s no persistent connection or centralized way to passively monitor PR activity across multiple repos.

To get truly real-time DMs when PRs are opened or reviewers are added, I expect we’d need to set up a hosted service to receive GitHub webhooks and handle messaging directly. That gives us full control and cross-repo visibility. This would be out of the scope of this project. (open to the discussion)

Alternatives

1. Scheduled polling job: We could run the job more frequently to check for open PRs and who needs to review. Works, but not efficient or real-time... But can get close to real-time.

2. GitHub Action in each repo: Another option is creating a reusable Action that teams add to their own repos. This would give real-time-ish notifications using the repo's own workflows. But teams managing hundreds of repos would have to maintain this in each one—not ideal.

Where I’m At

I’m definitely down to support direct messaging for reviewers—it’s a solid improvement. I’ll dig into what it would take to support this properly and keep it maintainable.

Curious to hear your thoughts here @atvi-tmiller.

[atvi-tmiller]

yeah I understand. I think alternative #2 seems most appropriate. It's not ideal, but I already have an existing dedicated repo with reusable workflows that other repos use.