autoprat

Stop clicking through GitHub PRs one by one.

autoprat finds the PRs you care about and generates the commands to act on them in bulk.

The Problem

You maintain a busy repository. Every day you need to:

• Approve PRs from trusted contributors like Dependabot
• Give /ok-to-test to PRs that need it
• Comment on failing PRs to restart CI
• Find PRs missing reviews

Opening each PR in a browser tab gets old fast.

The Solution

# Find PRs that need approval.
autoprat -r owner/repo --needs-approve

# Generate approval commands for Dependabot PRs.
autoprat -r owner/repo --author dependabot --approve
gh pr comment 123 --repo owner/repo --body "/approve"
gh pr comment 456 --repo owner/repo --body "/approve"

# Execute those commands.
autoprat -r owner/repo --author dependabot --approve | sh

autoprat queries GitHub once, applies your filters, and outputs standard gh commands you can review before running.

Quick Start

# Install.
cargo install --git https://github.com/frobware/autoprat.git

# See what needs your attention.
autoprat -r your-org/your-repo --needs-approve --needs-lgtm

# Focus on specific PRs by number or URL.
autoprat -r your-org/your-repo --detailed 123 456
autoprat --detailed https://github.com/your-org/your-repo/pull/123

# Exclude specific PRs from processing.
autoprat -r your-org/your-repo --needs-approve --exclude 123,456 --approve
autoprat -r your-org/your-repo --exclude https://github.com/your-org/your-repo/pull/789 --lgtm

# Query multiple repositories with the same filters.
autoprat -r your-org/repo1 -r your-org/repo2 --failing-ci

# Monitor specific PRs across multiple repositories.
autoprat --detailed https://github.com/org/repo1/pull/123 https://github.com/org/repo2/pull/456

# Approve trusted bot PRs.
autoprat -r your-org/your-repo --author dependabot --approve | sh

# Handle PRs needing testing permission.
autoprat -r your-org/your-repo --needs-ok-to-test --ok-to-test | sh

Common Workflows

Daily Maintenance

# What needs my attention today?
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --needs-approve --needs-lgtm

# Bulk approve Dependabot PRs.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --author dependabot --approve | sh

# Give testing permission to community PRs.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --needs-ok-to-test --ok-to-test | sh

CI Firefighting

# Find failing PRs.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --failing-ci

# See detailed failure info with logs.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --failing-ci --detailed-with-logs

# Comment on all failing PRs.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --failing-ci --comment "Investigating CI failures" | sh

# Retest failing PRs.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --failing-ci --retest | sh

# Override specific failing check across multiple PRs.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --failing-check "ci/test-flaky" \
  --comment "/override ci/test-flaky" | sh

# Close stale PRs with failing CI, excluding specific ones.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --failing-ci --author "external-contributor" \
  --exclude 123,456 --close | sh

Advanced Filtering

# PRs from specific author that need LGTM.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --needs-lgtm --author "dependabot"

# High priority bugs without holds.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --label "priority/high" --label "kind/bug" --label "-do-not-merge/hold"

# PRs missing approval from specific author, excluding some.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --author "trusted-contributor" --needs-approve --exclude 789

# Raw GitHub search queries for complex filtering.
# Note: 'is:pr' and 'is:open' are automatically added if not present
autoprat --query "repo:myorg/myrepo author:dependabot created:>2024-01-01"
autoprat --query "repo:myorg/myrepo status:failure comments:>5"
autoprat --query "repo:myorg/myrepo label:bug -label:wontfix updated:>2024-01-01"

Multi-Repository Workflows

# Query multiple repositories with the same filters.
autoprat -r myorg/backend -r myorg/frontend --failing-ci

# Bulk approve Dependabot PRs across multiple repositories.
autoprat -r myorg/repo1 -r myorg/repo2 -r myorg/repo3 \
  --author dependabot --approve | sh

# Monitor PRs needing approval across related repositories.
autoprat -r myorg/backend -r myorg/frontend -r myorg/docs \
  --needs-approve --needs-lgtm

# Monitor related PRs across multiple repositories using URLs.
autoprat --detailed \
  https://github.com/myorg/backend/pull/123 \
  https://github.com/myorg/frontend/pull/456

# Apply filters across multiple repositories using URLs.
autoprat --author dependabot --approve \
  https://github.com/myorg/repo1/pull/123 \
  https://github.com/myorg/repo2/pull/456

How It Works

Workflow: specify repository → apply filters → choose actions → select output format

1. Parallel API calls fetch all open PRs from specified repositories with labels, CI status, and recent comments
2. Filter in memory using your criteria (author, labels, CI status, etc.) applied globally across all repositories
3. Generate standard gh commands that you can review before executing
4. Execute selectively by piping to shell or running commands individually

autoprat never executes commands itself - it only generates gh pr comment commands for you to review and run.

Understanding the Output

CI Status Column

The CI column shows the current state of CI checks:

When checks are running:

• Shows detailed breakdown: S:4 F:0 C:1 X:1 Q:2 (5/8)
  • S:4 - 4 checks succeeded
  • F:0 - 0 checks failed
  • C:1 - 1 check cancelled
  • X:1 - 1 check in progress
  • Q:2 - 2 checks queued
  • P:0 - 0 checks pending (other pending states)
  • (5/8) - 5 completed out of 8 total

When all checks complete:

• Success - All checks passed
• F:1 C:1 - 1 failed, 1 cancelled
• F:2 C:1 (3/5) - 2 failed, 1 cancelled out of 5 total (with some successes)
• Failed: 2/5 - Some checks failed (no cancellations)

Note: Merge prerequisite checks (like Prow's tide) are not counted as "pending" - look at the label columns (LGTM, APP) to understand merge blockers.

Smart Features

Idempotent Actions

Built-in actions are smart and safe to run repeatedly:

# Safe to run multiple times - only acts when needed.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --approve | sh

The conditional actions (--approve, --lgtm, --ok-to-test) check existing labels and only generate commands when appropriate, whilst --close and --retest always execute when specified. Perfect for automation - no duplicate comments, no spam.

Comment Throttling

Prevent spam when running in loops:

# Only post if same comment wasn't posted in last 30 minutes.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --failing-ci \
  --comment "Restarting CI" --throttle 30m | sh

# Post multiple comments to each matching PR.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --failing-ci \
  --comment "Investigating failures" \
  --comment "/retest" | sh

Intelligent Detailed Output

Two levels of detail for different needs:

Basic detailed (-d) - Detailed PR tree view with URLs:

# See PR status, labels, and CI check results.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --detailed

# Focus on failing PRs with full status tree.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --failing-ci --detailed

Detailed with logs (-D) - Same as -d plus automatic error log extraction:

# See WHY CI checks are failing without clicking URLs.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --failing-ci --detailed-with-logs

# Get immediate failure insights for triage.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --detailed-with-logs

Safety First

Always review before executing:

# 1. See what would happen.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --needs-approve --approve

# 2. Execute if satisfied.
autoprat -r myorg/myrepo --needs-approve --approve | sh

All Options

Repository

• -r, --repo <REPO> - GitHub repository in format 'owner/repo' (can specify multiple to query across repositories)

Positional Arguments

• [PRS]... - Focus on specific PRs by number or URL (can specify multiple)
  • Numbers: 123 456 (requires --repo)
  • URLs: https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123
  • Mixed: 123 https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/456 (requires --repo for numeric args)
  • Multi-repo: https://github.com/org/repo1/pull/123 https://github.com/org/repo2/pull/456

Exclusions

• -E, --exclude <PR> - Exclude specific PRs from processing (can specify multiple or comma-separated)
  • Numbers: --exclude 123,456 (requires --repo)
  • URLs: --exclude https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123
  • Mixed: --exclude 123 --exclude https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/456
  • Spaces friendly: --exclude "123, 456" (automatically trimmed)
  • Empty values ignored: --exclude "" or --exclude "123,," (trailing commas OK)

Filters (combine with AND logic)

• -a, --author <AUTHOR> - Exact author match
• --label <LABEL> - Has label (prefix - to negate, can specify multiple)
• --failing-ci - Has failing CI checks
• --failing-check <FAILING_CHECK> - Specific CI check is failing (exact match)
• --needs-approve - Missing 'approved' label
• --needs-lgtm - Missing 'lgtm' label
• --needs-ok-to-test - Has 'needs-ok-to-test' label
• --query <QUERY> - Raw GitHub search query (automatically adds is:pr and is:open if not present, mutually exclusive with all other filters and repository specification)

Actions

• --approve - Generate /approve comments
• --lgtm - Generate /lgtm comments
• --ok-to-test - Generate /ok-to-test comments
• --close - Close PRs
• --retest - Generate /retest comments
• --comment <COMMENT> - Generate custom comment commands (can specify multiple)
• --throttle <THROTTLE> - Skip if same comment posted recently (e.g. 5m, 1h)

Output

• -d, --detailed - Show detailed PR information
• -D, --detailed-with-logs - Show detailed PR information with error logs from failing checks
• -q, --quiet - Print PR numbers only
• -L, --limit <LIMIT> - Limit the number of PRs to process [default: 30]
• --no-wrap - Enable title truncation when output is redirected (for use with watch, pagers, or pipes)

When to use --no-wrap: By default, autoprat detects terminal width only when stdout is a TTY. When using tools like watch or piping output, stdout is redirected and autoprat cannot detect the terminal width, causing long titles to wrap. The --no-wrap flag forces width detection by querying /dev/tty directly (the controlling terminal), ensuring titles are properly truncated even when output is redirected.

Debugging

Use the RUST_LOG environment variable for granular tracing:

# GitHub API operations only
RUST_LOG=autoprat::github=debug autoprat -r repo

# Error pattern matching and log analysis only
RUST_LOG=autoprat::log_fetcher=debug autoprat -r repo -D

# Rate limiting and API quota tracking only
RUST_LOG=autoprat::rate_limit=debug autoprat -r repo

# All autoprat debugging
RUST_LOG=autoprat=debug autoprat -r repo -D

# Multiple categories
RUST_LOG=autoprat::github=debug,autoprat::rate_limit=debug autoprat -r repo

Other

• -h, --help - Print help
• -V, --version - Print version

Installation

Prerequisites

• GitHub CLI (gh) installed and authenticated
• Rust 1.76+ (if building from source)
• Rust 1.89+ (if running clippy locally to match CI)

Install

# Install directly from Git (like go install).
cargo install --git https://github.com/frobware/autoprat.git

# Or build from source.
git clone https://github.com/frobware/autoprat.git
cd autoprat
cargo build --release

# The binary will be at target/release/autoprat
# You can copy it to your PATH:
cp target/release/autoprat ~/.local/bin/autoprat

Tips

1. Start with filters - Run without action flags to see which PRs match
2. Review before executing - Always check generated commands first
3. Focus on specific PRs - Add PR numbers or URLs as arguments: autoprat -r repo -d 123 456 or autoprat -d https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123 Multi-repository - Monitor PRs across repositories: autoprat -d https://github.com/org/repo1/pull/123 https://github.com/org/repo2/pull/456
4. Exclude problematic PRs - Use --exclude to skip specific PRs: autoprat -r repo --approve --exclude 123,456
5. Use throttling - Prevent spam with --throttle in automated workflows
6. Combine filters - Multiple filters use AND logic for precise targeting
7. Exact check names - Use --failing-check with exact CI check names for safety
8. Script the common cases - Save frequent filter combinations as shell aliases
9. Use with watch - Monitor PRs continuously: watch -n 180 "autoprat -r org/repo --no-wrap" or across multiple repos: watch -n 180 "autoprat -r org/repo1 -r org/repo2 --failing-ci --no-wrap" (180s interval recommended to avoid rate limiting)

License

MIT