feat: support explicit custom key for close-older matching by Copilot · Pull Request #21076 · github/gh-aw

Copilot · 2026-03-15T13:35:00Z

close-older-issues/close-older-discussions deduplication relies on gh-aw-workflow-id / gh-aw-workflow-call-id markers, which can collide when multiple caller workflows share a reusable workflow. This adds an optional close-older-key to give users a stable, explicit deduplication key that bypasses marker-identity inference entirely.

New config

safe-outputs:
  create-issue:
    close-older-issues: true
    close-older-key: "my-stable-key"   # optional

  create-discussion:
    close-older-discussions: true
    close-older-key: "my-stable-key"   # optional

Behavior

When close-older-key is set: the value is normalized to identifier style (lowercase, alphanumeric/dash/underscore only), then  is embedded in the body and used as the primary GitHub search term and exact-match filter — workflow-id markers are ignored for matching
When not set: existing behavior unchanged (backward compatible)
Invalid keys (empty or normalizing to empty, e.g. all-whitespace or all-special-characters) cause an explicit error instead of silently falling back to workflow-id matching

Changes

generate_footer.cjs — new normalizeCloseOlderKey() helper (identifier-style normalization), generateCloseKeyMarker() / getCloseKeyMarkerContent() helpers
close_older_issues.cjs / close_older_discussions.cjs — accept optional closeOlderKey; when set, substitute the close-key marker as the search term and exact-match predicate
create_issue.cjs — reads config.close_older_key, normalizes it, embeds marker in body, forwards to closeOlderIssues(); throws on empty-after-normalization
create_discussion.cjs — same; additionally wires in the previously-missing closeOlderDiscussions() call after successful direct discussion creation (existing gap)
Go structs (create_issue.go, create_discussion.go) — add CloseOlderKey string field
compiler_safe_outputs_config.go — emit close_older_key into JS handler config for both issue and discussion builders
main_workflow_schema.json — add close-older-key string property with pattern: "\\S" (rejects whitespace-only values) to both issue and discussion schemas
Tests — 16 new tests: 7 covering key-based search query construction, exact-match filtering, empty-workflowId fallback, and key-over-callerWorkflowId precedence; 9 covering normalizeCloseOlderKey normalization behavior
smoke-copilot.md — added close-older-key: "smoke-copilot" to both create-issue and create-discussion as a smoke test of the new feature

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…ion (#close-older-key) Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

pelikhan · 2026-03-15T13:43:07Z

@copilot set close-older-key on one of the smoke-* agentic workflow

Copilot

Pull request overview

Adds an explicit close-older-key configuration option to make close-older deduplication deterministic across reusable workflow callers, and wires discussion close-older behavior after successful discussion creation.

Changes:

Introduce close-older-key across schema, Go config structs, and safe-outputs compiler output.
Embed and search on a new  marker to drive close-older matching (issues + discussions).
Add/expand JS close-older logic and tests, including key precedence and empty-workflowId behavior.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 11 out of 11 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
pkg/workflow/create_issue.go	Adds `close-older-key` to issue config struct for YAML parsing.
pkg/workflow/create_discussion.go	Adds `close-older-key` to discussion config struct for YAML parsing.
pkg/workflow/compiler_safe_outputs_config.go	Emits `close_older_key` into JS handler configs for issues/discussions.
pkg/parser/schemas/main_workflow_schema.json	Extends workflow schema with `close-older-key` for issues/discussions.
actions/setup/js/generate_footer.cjs	Adds helper functions to generate/search the close-key marker.
actions/setup/js/create_issue.cjs	Parses `close_older_key`, embeds marker, forwards key to close-older logic.
actions/setup/js/create_discussion.cjs	Parses `close_older_key`, embeds marker, forwards to fallback issue creation, and calls close-older after creating a discussion.
actions/setup/js/close_older_issues.cjs	Uses close-key marker as primary search + exact-match predicate when provided.
actions/setup/js/close_older_discussions.cjs	Same close-key primary matching behavior for discussions.
actions/setup/js/close_older_issues.test.cjs	Adds tests for close-key search query construction and precedence.
actions/setup/js/close_older_discussions.test.cjs	Adds tests for close-key search query construction and empty-workflowId behavior.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

pkg/parser/schemas/main_workflow_schema.json:4252

The schema only enforces minLength: 1 for close-older-key, but the runtime code trims the value and treats all-whitespace as unset. Consider adding a pattern that requires at least one non-whitespace character (and optionally forbids newlines / -->) to prevent configurations that will silently disable key-based matching.

                "close-older-key": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "description": "Optional explicit deduplication key for close-older matching. When set, a `<!-- gh-aw-close-key: <value> -->` marker is embedded in the issue body and used as the primary key for searching and filtering older issues instead of the workflow-id markers. This gives deterministic isolation across caller workflows and is stable across workflow renames.",
                  "minLength": 1
                },

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pkg/parser/schemas/main_workflow_schema.json

+                "close-older-key": {
+                  "type": "string",
+                  "description": "Optional explicit deduplication key for close-older matching. When set, a `<!-- gh-aw-close-key: <value> -->` marker is embedded in the discussion body and used as the primary key for searching and filtering older discussions instead of the workflow-id markers. This gives deterministic isolation across caller workflows and is stable across workflow renames.",
+                  "minLength": 1


actions/setup/js/create_issue.cjs

  const { defaultTargetRepo, allowedRepos } = resolveTargetRepoConfig(config);
  const groupEnabled = parseBoolTemplatable(config.group, false);
  const closeOlderIssuesEnabled = parseBoolTemplatable(config.close_older_issues, false);
+  const closeOlderKey = config.close_older_key ? String(config.close_older_key).trim() : "";


actions/setup/js/create_discussion.cjs

  const fallbackToIssue = config.fallback_to_issue !== false; // Default to true
-  const closeOlderDiscussions = parseBoolTemplatable(config.close_older_discussions, false);
+  const closeOlderDiscussionsEnabled = parseBoolTemplatable(config.close_older_discussions, false);
+  const closeOlderKey = config.close_older_key ? String(config.close_older_key).trim() : "";


actions/setup/js/generate_footer.cjs

+function generateCloseKeyMarker(closeKey) {
+  return `<!-- gh-aw-close-key: ${closeKey} -->`;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Gets the close-key marker content (without XML comment wrapper) for searching.
+ * This is used when searching for issues/discussions by close-older-key.
+ *
+ * @param {string} closeKey - User-supplied close-older deduplication key
+ * @returns {string} Close-key marker content for search queries
+ */
+function getCloseKeyMarkerContent(closeKey) {
+  return `gh-aw-close-key: ${closeKey}`;
+}


pelikhan · 2026-03-15T13:45:40Z

@copilot apply comments. normalize older key before writing down (convert to identifier style string), fail for empty

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot · 2026-03-15T13:47:39Z

@copilot set close-older-key on one of the smoke-* agentic workflow

Done in d8cf827. Added close-older-key: "smoke-copilot" to both create-issue and create-discussion in smoke-copilot.md. The compiled lock file now includes "close_older_key":"smoke-copilot" in the handler config for both output types.

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot · 2026-03-15T13:56:51Z

@copilot apply comments. normalize older key before writing down (convert to identifier style string), fail for empty

Done in 1eb0cab. Added normalizeCloseOlderKey() to generate_footer.cjs which converts the key to identifier style (lowercase, alphanumeric/dash/underscore only, collapses consecutive dashes, strips leading/trailing dashes). Both create_issue.cjs and create_discussion.cjs now use this normalization and throw an error if the original key was provided but normalizes to empty. The schema also gains "pattern": "\\S" to reject whitespace-only keys at validation time. 9 new tests cover the normalization behavior.

Sets close-older-key from the title-prefix input on every workflow that creates issues, giving deterministic deduplication that won't collide when multiple caller workflows share a reusable workflow. Requires a compiler bump to a gh-aw version that includes github/gh-aw#21076 (close-older-key support). Made-with: Cursor

Copilot AI and others added 2 commits March 15, 2026 05:25

Initial plan

e9ed5c9

feat: add close-older-key support for create-issue and create-discuss…

3aa015f

…ion (#close-older-key) Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI assigned Copilot and pelikhan Mar 15, 2026

Copilot created this pull request from a session on behalf of pelikhan March 15, 2026 13:35 View session

Copilot AI linked an issue Mar 15, 2026 that may be closed by this pull request

Feature: support explicit custom key for close-older matching #21028

Closed

pelikhan marked this pull request as ready for review March 15, 2026 13:40

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings March 15, 2026 13:40

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of pelikhan March 15, 2026 13:40 View session

Copilot started work on behalf of pelikhan March 15, 2026 13:43 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Mar 15, 2026

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github-actions bot added the ai-inspected label Mar 15, 2026

smoke-test: add close-older-key to smoke-copilot workflow

d8cf827

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI requested a review from pelikhan March 15, 2026 13:48

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan March 15, 2026 13:48

Copilot started work on behalf of pelikhan March 15, 2026 13:48 View session

feat: normalize close-older-key to identifier style and fail on empty

1eb0cab

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan March 15, 2026 13:57

pelikhan merged commit 12a6436 into main Mar 15, 2026
58 checks passed

pelikhan deleted the copilot/add-custom-key-for-close-older branch March 15, 2026 14:28

strawgate mentioned this pull request Mar 15, 2026

Add close-older-key to all workflows with title-prefix elastic/ai-github-actions#703

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feat: support explicit custom key for close-older matching#21076

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