GH Dynamic Assignee

A lightweight GitHub Action that automatically assigns pull requests to a designated maintainer.

How It Works

1. Create a MAINTAINER.txt file in your repository root containing a single GitHub username
2. Configure the action to run on PR label events and/or pushes
3. When triggered, PRs are automatically assigned to the maintainer

Triggers

Event	Behavior
pull_request with labeled action	Assigns that PR to the maintainer
push	Removes previous maintainer and assigns new maintainer on all open labeled PRs

Tip

On push events, utilize the paths: filter in your calling workflow to only run when MAINTAINER.txt changes. See the example workflow below.

Usage

1. Create MAINTAINER.txt

Add a file named MAINTAINER.txt to your repository root with the maintainer's GitHub username:

octocat

2. Create Workflow

Create .github/workflows/assign-maintainer.yml:

name: Assign PRs to Maintainer

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [labeled]
  push:
    branches: [master]
    paths: ['MAINTAINER.txt']  # Only trigger when maintainer changes

permissions:  # Required for the action to modify PRs
  contents: read
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  assign:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 2  # Required for push event to detect previous maintainer
      - uses: ExodusMovement/gh-dynamic-assignee@v2

3. Customize Label (Optional)

By default, the action triggers on the "Ready to Merge" label. To use a different label:

- uses: ExodusMovement/gh-dynamic-assignee@v2
  with:
    label_name: 'needs-review'

Inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
label_name	No	Ready to Merge	Label that triggers assignment

Permissions

Your workflow must grant these permissions for the action to work:

permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: write