Allow Copilot bot to skip EasyCLA check across OpenTelemetry

[cijothomas]

EasyCLA bot now has the ability to skip Copilot bots, and is currently enabled for OTel Arrow and OTel Rust repos.

Opening an issue to track requesting this ability for every OpenTelemetry repos.
Note that even though bot bypass is requested, co-pilot enablement is still maintainer's choice (and is discussed already in #2851)

I opened a Jira ticket to Linux foundation to request this: https://jira.linuxfoundation.org/plugins/servlet/desk/portal/4/SUPPORT-36896

If there are any concerns/questions, please comment.

[trask]

I think allowing Copilot to pass EasyCLA is ok given the GC consensus here: #2851 (comment)

and I think makes sense to do this once across the whole org instead of opening EasyCLA tickets per repo

Importantly, this will not enable Copilot on all repos, which remains a repo-by-repo (maintainer) decision

[svrnm]

I think allowing Copilot to pass EasyCLA is ok given the GC consensus here: #2851 (comment)

For me, the consensus to use Copilot does not equate to bybass EasyCLA for me. I still do not feel comfortable to have a way around EasyCLA with complex PRs, especially since the situation is still unclear about the co-authors: #2851 (comment)

and I think makes sense to do this once across the whole org instead of opening EasyCLA tickets per repo

Importantly, this will not enable Copilot on all repos, which remains a repo-by-repo (maintainer) decision

We should notify maintainers about that upfront to avoid additional uncertainty.

[cijothomas]

For me, the consensus to use Copilot does not equate to bybass EasyCLA for me

Without EasyCLA bypass (or an alternate to it), Copilot enablement is not of much use, as PRs from Copilot cannot be merged.
If you do not support the bypass EasyCLA option, what is the alternate suggestion/solution?

We should notify maintainers about that upfront to avoid additional uncertainty.

As per #2851 Copilot enablement should be done on a repo-by-repo basis based on maintainers discretion. We can add about the EasyCLA part (once GC decision is clarified) in the doc https://github.com/open-telemetry/community/blob/main/guides/contributor/genai.md (which should be modified to talk about GitHub Copilot, once this is finalized)

[svrnm]

For me, the consensus to use Copilot does not equate to bybass EasyCLA for me

Without EasyCLA bypass (or an alternate to it), Copilot enablement is not of much use, as PRs from Copilot cannot be merged. If you do not support the bypass EasyCLA option, what is the alternate suggestion/solution?

Supporting co-authors in EasyCLA which @lukaszgryglicki is working on, as mentioned here: #2851 (comment) -- that's all I was hoping for

We should notify maintainers about that upfront to avoid additional uncertainty.

As per #2851 Copilot enablement should be done on a repo-by-repo basis based on maintainers discretion. We can add about the EasyCLA part (once GC decision is clarified) in the doc main/guides/contributor/genai.md (which should be modified to talk about GitHub Copilot, once this is finalized)

Yes, that's what I mean. Plus mentioning it in #otel-maintainers that this is an option (also for advertising it to more folks on the more positive site of it)

[lukaszgryglicki]

EasyCLA release: v2.2.0, highlights:

• Support skipping CLA checks for bots (configurable on the organization level - can be enabled/disabled per repository, list of repositories matching pattern or across the entire organization).
• Support checking CLA for co-authors (configurable on the organization level - can be enabled/disabled per repository, list of repositories matching pattern or across the entire organization).

User Documentation: co-authors, allowlisting bots.

Technical documentation (detailed): co-authors, allowlisting bots.

To request enabling co-authors/allowlisting bots on a GitHub organization (organization-wide or for repositories matching pattern or for a single repository) please create a support ticket.

[trask]

@lukaszgryglicki can we enable co-author checks only for Copilot PRs, or will enabling co-author checks apply to all PRs? (just want to understand the scope of the change, thanks)

[lukaszgryglicki]

Those features are independent so:

1. Co-authors - can be turned on/off on the repo/repo pattern/org level.
2. Skipping CLA checks for bots - same can be turned on/off on a repo/repo patterns/orgs level. If turned on - then you can specify which bots should be skipped according to documentation.

There is no option such as "if Copilot is the author" then check "co-authors" else don't check co-authors.

Possibly we could implement (feature request) something like "check co-authors only if any author's CLA check was skipped due to whitelisting" or something similar, but for that you will have to create a feature request for EasyCLA with exact specs, and then our team can review this and decide what to do.

[trask]

Closing, we have been rolling out EasyCLA co-author verification for repos that request to enable Copilot, which has been working fine.