Add Stale action to TSC project issues and pull requests #1680

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1. bcantoni commented on Jul 20, 2026

   

   bcantoni

   on Jul 20, 2026

   Last edited by bcantoni

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   I dug into (meaning: Claude Code did all this!) the current state of open issues/PRs and the repo's git history to help pick settings rather than just going with the action's defaults. Here's what I found, plus a proposed stale.yml.

   What the repo looks like right now

   Issues (167 open):

   • 61 touched in the last 60 days, but 94 haven't been updated in over a year (54 in the 2–4yr range, 23 over 4 years old). The backlog really is old.
   • A big chunk of that "recent activity" is misleading: on 2026-06-18 there was a bulk relabel sweep that touched updated_at on 45 issues with zero actual discussion (checked Auto-Generated Count field unstable during TSC datasource publish #1625's timeline — the only event was a label removal). Since the stale action keys off updated_at, that kind of housekeeping silently resets the staleness clock. Worth knowing going in, since it means a chunk of the "recently active" issues aren't really active.
   • A stale label already exists in the repo and has been used manually 4 times (all by @jacalata) to close ancient, unclear issues (Hot to get or Update Datasource information for Teradata and Oracle data sources that use LDAP for authentication. #651, Download data source as .csv directly #318, Request R translation of Tableau Server Client Library #53, Enable setting tags on publish #34). So the concept is already validated here — just not automated yet.
   • Labels that signal real "keep this open" intent: good first issue (1 open), Design Proposal (2 open), in-progress (8 open), help wanted (12 open).

   PRs (9 open): all from the last 23 days, mostly from maintainers. The "3 from 2024" mentioned above is itself now stale — there's currently no old-PR problem. So the PR side of this config matters much less right now than the issue side.

   Recommendations (deltas from the action's defaults)

   1. Reuse the existing stale label instead of letting the action create a new one — it already has history/meaning in this repo.
   2. Add an exempt-labels list instead of inventing a new save label: exempt good first issue, Design Proposal, and in-progress from ever going stale — these are exactly the cases where "still valid, just not actively worked" is the point. Deliberately not exempting bug/enhancement/help wanted — that's the actual backlog we're trying to clear.
   3. Bump days-before-close for issues from 7 → 14 days. This is a one-time flood against an 8-year backlog; maintainers should get a fair shot to rescue anything mid-sweep. (operations-per-run defaults to 30/run, so the initial wave across the 94 old issues will naturally throttle over several days anyway.)
   4. Give PRs a longer runway than issues: 90 days before stale, 14 days before close. Community PRs represent real contributor effort; losing one to inactivity is costlier than losing a stale issue.
   5. close-issue-reason: not_planned instead of the default "completed" — closing for inactivity isn't the same signal as "fixed," and it keeps closed-reason data meaningful for later triage.

   One caveat: the numbers above (167 open issues, 9 open PRs) are current as of today, not the ~200/17 cited when this issue was opened — worth re-checking before merging in case the picture has shifted further.

   Proposed .github/workflows/stale.yml

   name: Mark stale issues and pull requests
   
   on:
     schedule:
       - cron: '30 1 * * *'
     workflow_dispatch:
   
   permissions:
     issues: write
     pull-requests: write
   
   jobs:
     stale:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
       steps:
         - uses: actions/stale@v9
           with:
             stale-issue-label: 'stale'
             stale-pr-label: 'stale'
             exempt-issue-labels: 'good first issue,Design Proposal,in-progress'
             exempt-pr-labels: 'in-progress'
   
             days-before-issue-stale: 60
             days-before-issue-close: 14
             days-before-pr-stale: 90
             days-before-pr-close: 14
   
             close-issue-reason: 'not_planned'
   
             stale-issue-message: >
               This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had
               recent activity. It will be closed in 14 days if no further activity occurs.
               If this is still relevant, please comment to keep it open.
             stale-pr-message: >
               This pull request has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had
               recent activity. It will be closed in 14 days if no further activity occurs.
               If this is still active work, please comment or push a new commit to keep it open.
             close-issue-message: >
               Closing due to inactivity. If this is still relevant, please reopen or file a new issue.
             close-pr-message: >
               Closing due to inactivity. Feel free to reopen if you'd like to continue this work.
2. bcantoni commented on Jul 20, 2026

   

   bcantoni

   on Jul 20, 2026

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   @jacalata @jorwoods let me know your thoughts on enabling Stale, and for any feedback on my initial configuration. Let's discuss and agree here, then I can add it in a PR.
3. jorwoods commented on Jul 20, 2026

   

   jorwoods

   on Jul 20, 2026

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   This approach makes sense to me.

   👍React with 👍1Reacted by Brian Cantoni
4. jacalata commented on Jul 20, 2026

   

   jacalata

   on Jul 20, 2026

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   It seems reasonable. I like the not_planned tag for closing. Go for it.
5. jacalata

   closed this as completedin #1827on Jul 23, 2026