Issue Monster: 10m schedule, pre-filter closed/active PRs

[Copilot]

Issue Monster now runs every 10 minutes (was 1h) and skips issues with closed/merged PRs or existing Copilot PRs before agent invocation.

Changes

Schedule & Concurrency

• Schedule: every 1h → every 10m
• Max concurrent PRs: Kept at 9 (unchanged)

Pre-Computation Filtering

Enhanced search_issues job with GraphQL timeline query to fetch linked PRs and filter before agent runs:

// Fetch linked PRs via timeline
timelineItems(first: 100, itemTypes: [CROSS_REFERENCED_EVENT]) {
  nodes {
    ... on CrossReferencedEvent {
      source {
        ... on PullRequest {
          number
          state
          isDraft
          author { login }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

// Filter out closed/merged PRs (treat as complete)
const closedPRs = issue.linkedPRs?.filter(pr => 
  pr.state === 'CLOSED' || pr.state === 'MERGED'
)

// Filter out open Copilot PRs (already being worked on)
const openCopilotPRs = issue.linkedPRs?.filter(pr => 
  pr.state === 'OPEN' && 
  (pr.author === 'copilot-swe-agent' || pr.author?.includes('copilot'))
)

Agent Instructions

Simplified agent steps to reflect pre-filtered data—no need to check PR status in agent code.

Impact

Agent only invoked for actionable issues. Issues with closed PRs automatically treated as complete. Prevents duplicate work on issues already being handled by Copilot.

Custom agent used: agentic-workflows
GitHub Agentic Workflows (gh-aw) - Create, debug, and upgrade AI-powered workflows with intelligent prompt routing

Original prompt

Update issue monster to run every 10 minutes and allow up to six concurrent pull-requests.

Improve the logic for skipping agent activation by moving as much pre-computation as possible to occur before entering the agent. Make this pre-computation more intelligent so the agent is only invoked when necessary.

Also improve handling of issues that have an attached pull-request that is already closed. Treat those issues as complete.

Custom agent used: agentic-workflows
GitHub Agentic Workflows (gh-aw) - Create, debug, and upgrade AI-powered workflows with intelligent prompt routing

---

💬 We'd love your input! Share your thoughts on Copilot coding agent in our 2 minute survey.

[pelikhan]

@copilot keep it at 9

[Copilot]

Reverted to max: 9 in commit f672921.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR updates the “Issue Monster” automation to run more frequently and pre-filter issues more intelligently so the Copilot agent is invoked only for actionable items.

Changes:

• Increased workflow schedule frequency from hourly to every 10 minutes.
• Enhanced the search_issues job to fetch linked PRs via GraphQL timeline events and filter out issues with closed/merged PRs and open Copilot-authored PRs.
• Updated agent instructions to reflect the new pre-filtering behavior.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File	Description
.github/workflows/issue-monster.md	Updates schedule, adds GraphQL PR-link extraction + filtering logic, and adjusts agent guidance to rely on pre-filtered results.
.github/workflows/issue-monster.lock.yml	Regenerated compiled workflow reflecting the updated schedule and filtering logic.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

.github/workflows/issue-monster.md:427

• This line says selected issues are pre-filtered to ensure no open/closed PRs exist, but the current filtering only guarantees no closed/merged PRs and no open Copilot-authored PRs. Please adjust the wording (or expand filtering) so the agent isn’t relying on an invariant that isn’t enforced.

For each selected issue (which has already been pre-filtered to ensure no open/closed PRs exist):
- Read the full issue body and any comments
- Understand what fix is needed
- Identify the files that need to be modified

---

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

[Copilot]

Workflow schedule is now set to every 10m, but the agent instructions later in this file still describe the process as running “every hour”. Please update the instructions to match the new cadence so run behavior and guidance are consistent.

[Copilot]

The linked PR extraction only records the PR number/state/author, but doesn’t capture which repository the PR belongs to. CrossReferencedEvent.source can include PRs from other repositories, and PR numbers are not globally unique—so this can incorrectly treat an issue as having a closed/merged PR and skip it. Consider including the PR’s repository (e.g., repository { nameWithOwner } / baseRepository { nameWithOwner } or url) in the GraphQL query and filtering linked PRs to the current ${owner}/${repo} before applying the closed/open PR filters.

[Copilot]

This section claims the pre-filtering excludes “issues with open PRs linked to them (from any author)”, but the filtering logic in search_issues only excludes open PRs authored by Copilot (and closed/merged PRs). Please either (a) update the documentation to match the implemented filters, or (b) add a filter for any open linked PRs if that’s the intended behavior.

This issue also appears on line 424 of the same file.

See below for a potential fix:

- Issues with open PRs from Copilot linked to them
- Issues with closed/merged PRs (treated as complete)
- **For "task" or "plan" labeled sub-issues**: Check if any sibling sub-issue (same parent) has an open PR from Copilot, and skip the current issue when such a PR exists

The list you receive has already been filtered to exclude all of these cases, so you can focus on the actual assignment logic.

### 3. Select Up to Three Issues to Work On

From the prioritized and filtered list (issues WITHOUT Copilot assignments or open Copilot-authored PRs):