feat: add github-repo-monitor skill

[tofarr]

Summary

Adds a new github-repo-monitor skill that creates a cron automation to monitor a GitHub repository for issue and PR comments.

This skill mirrors the structure and conventions of the existing slack-channel-monitor skill, adapted for the GitHub API.

What the skill does

When invoked, the skill guides the agent through a 9-step setup workflow:

1. Verifies GITHUB_TOKEN is set in OpenHands Secrets
2. Checks the token has comment-posting permissions on the target repo
3. Collects the repository (owner/repo format)
4. Collects the trigger phrase (default: @OpenHands)
5. Collects event types to monitor (issue_comment, pr_review_comment, or both)
6. Collects the cron schedule (default: every minute)
7. Customises and validates main.py
8. Packages, uploads, and creates the automation
9. Confirms with the automation ID and state file location

Runtime behaviour (per poll)

Each cron run executes GET /repos/OpenHands/extensions/issues/comments?since={last_poll} (and/or PR review comments). For each comment containing the trigger phrase:

• Fetches full issue/PR context (title, body, labels, last 10 comments)
• Creates a new OpenHands conversation (or re-opens a closed one; falls back to new if deleted)
• Posts a GitHub acknowledgement c- Posts a GitHubconversation URL and an AI disclosure
• Forwards subsequent trigger comments on the same issue/PR to the existing conversation
• When the conversation goes idle, posts a summary comment back to the issue/PR

Files added

skills/github-repo-monitor/
├── .claude-plugin              ← Claude plugin pointer
├── .codex-plugin               ← Codex plugin pointer
├── .plugin/plugin.json         ← Plugin metadata
├── README.md                   ← Human-readable overview
├── SKILL.md                    ← Agent setup workflow instructions
├── references/
│   ├── github-api.md           ← GitHub API endpoints, scopes, rate limits
│   └── state-schema.md         ← JSON state file schema and lifecycle diagram
└── scripts/
    └── main.py                 ← Automation script template

Screenshots

Create the automation using a conversation:

In my github repository I tag the agent:

And I get a conversation:

And a result posted back to github:

Design notes

• Single repo per automation — one automation instance monitors one owner/repo
• Cron-based polling — consistent with slack-channel-monitor; local- Cron-based polling — consistent with slack-channel-monitor; local- **Croversation still exists it is re-opened; if deleted a fresh one is created
• **Differentiated acknowled- **Dts- **Differentiated acknowlay "OpenHands is on it!"; resumed conversations say "Resuming work"
• Bot loop prevention — skips comments from accounts with user.type == "Bot" or logins ending in [bot]
• AI disclosure — every comment posted by the automation includes an AI agent disclosure note
• Draft PRs and closed issues — included by default (no artificial exclusions)

This PR was created by an AI agent (OpenHands) on behalf of the repository maintainer.

[all-hands-bot]

[CRITICAL ISSUES]

1. Marketplace Registration Missing: The skill is not registered in any marketplace JSON file. Per repo conventions, every skill under skills/ must be listed in a marketplace or CI will fail with Skills missing from marketplace: [github-repo-monitor]. Add an entry to marketplaces/openhands-extensions.json following the format of slack-channel-monitor.

2. Hardcoded Trigger Phrase: Line 552 hardcodes "@OpenHands mention" in the acknowledgement message, but TRIGGER_PHRASE is configurable. Users who set a custom trigger will see incorrect acknowledgements.

3. PR Description Typos: Multiple duplicated/malformed sentences: "Each cron run of the resulting autoEach cron run", "Forwards subsequent trigger comments on the same issue/PR to th - Forwards subsequent", "skips commenent posted by" (typo: commenent → comment).

[IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES]

See inline comments for suggestions on path handling and acknowledgement message clarity.

[RISK ASSESSMENT]

• [Overall PR] ⚠️ Risk Assessment: 🟡 MEDIUM

This adds a GitHub polling automation with API access and conversation management. The code quality is good with proper error handling and bot detection. Main risks: API rate limiting (mitigated by 1-min poll interval), state corruption (mitigated by atomic JSON writes), and feedback loops (mitigated by bot detection). The security model is sound - tokens from secrets, proper permission checks.

VERDICT:
❌ Needs rework: Add marketplace registration and fix hardcoded trigger phrase before merging.

KEY INSIGHT:
Clean state management and sensible conversation lifecycle (create → forward → close → re-open), but missing marketplace entry will block CI.

---

Improve this review? If any feedback above seems incorrect or irrelevant to this repository, you can teach the reviewer to do better:

1. Add a .agents/skills/custom-codereview-guide.md file to your branch (or edit it if one already exists) with the /codereview trigger and the context the reviewer is missing (e.g., "Security concerns about X do not apply here because Y"). See the customization docs for the required frontmatter format.
2. Re-request a review - the reviewer reads guidelines from the PR branch, so your changes take effect immediately.
3. When your PR is merged, the guideline file goes through normal code review by repository maintainers.

Resolve with AI? Install the iterate skill in your agent and run /iterate to automatically drive this PR through CI, review, and QA until it's merge-ready.

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[openhands-ai]

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[openhands-ai]

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[all-hands-bot]

🟡 Acceptable - Core implementation is solid but has testing gaps.

The github-repo-monitor skill follows good patterns from slack-channel-monitor, uses proper state management, and correctly handles the trigger phrase configuration. Previous review feedback (pathlib usage, differentiated acknowledgements, marketplace registration) has been addressed.

Key concerns: lacks automated tests and end-to-end verification evidence (see inline comments).

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[all-hands-bot]

🟡 Acceptable - Solid implementation following established patterns.

The github-repo-monitor skill is well-structured, mirrors slack-channel-monitor conventions, and includes comprehensive test coverage (29 tests, all passing). Previous review feedback has been fully addressed.

One minor optimization opportunity noted inline, but it's a pragmatic trade-off that won't impact typical use cases.

[RISK ASSESSMENT]

• [Overall PR] ⚠️ Risk Assessment: 🟢 LOW

This is a new skill addition that doesn't modify existing functionality. It has comprehensive unit tests, follows established automation patterns, proper error handling, and secure secret management. The implementation is straightforward and the blast radius is limited to users who explicitly enable this automation.

VERDICT:
✅ Worth merging: Core logic is sound, well-tested, and ready for production use.

KEY INSIGHT:
This PR demonstrates good engineering judgment by reusing proven patterns from slack-channel-monitor while adapting them appropriately for GitHub's API model.

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[all-hands-bot]

🟡 Suggestion: This fetches ALL comments via pagination then takes the last 10. For issues with 1000+ comments, this consumes unnecessary API quota and bandwidth.

However, this is a pragmatic trade-off:

• Simpler logic
• Most issues have < 100 comments
• Only happens once per trigger (not on every poll)
• GitHub API doesn't have native "last N comments" support

Consider adding a comment documenting this behavior and the trade-off. No action required unless targeting repos with extremely high-volume issues.

[all-hands-bot]

🟢 Good taste - Clean implementation following proven patterns.

The github-repo-monitor skill is well-structured and mirrors the slack-channel-monitor conventions effectively. Previous review feedback has been fully addressed: marketplace registration ✓, pathlib usage ✓, differentiated acknowledgements ✓, comprehensive test coverage (29 tests) ✓, bot detection ✓, trigger phrase handling ✓.

The unresolved pagination comment (line 322) represents a pragmatic trade-off that won't impact typical use cases.

[RISK ASSESSMENT]

• [Overall PR] ⚠️ Risk Assessment: 🟢 LOW

This is a new skill addition with no impact on existing functionality. The implementation follows established patterns, includes comprehensive unit test coverage, and has been through multiple review cycles. The only runtime risk is to users who opt-in by creating this automation.

VERDICT:
✅ Worth merging: Solid implementation with good test coverage.

KEY INSIGHT:
The skill demonstrates good architectural taste by extracting focused helper functions (_ensure_conversation, _post_acknowledgement, _is_bot_comment, _has_trigger) that keep complexity low and make the code maintainable.

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[enyst]

@OpenHands read this PR; clone yourself agent-sdk and automation repos from the same org to investigate the code as you may need.

Does this skill or anything in the code enforce that the automation set up by this skill ONLY responds to particular logins? e.g. if “enyst” sets it up on their local machine using this skill, is the agent told to only do it for the github_token’s login, or is the code enforcing any of that somehow?

In other words, if “tofarr” has the github monitor for “yeehaw!” on their machine, can “enyst” trigger a conversation by merely commenting with “yeehaw!” on the monitored repo?

Do not guess. Investigate. Respond directly on github here. Note that this PR is closed, you must not push code changes, although you can make changes locally if you need to test.

[openhands-ai]

I'm on it! enyst can track my progress at all-hands.dev

[enyst]

Investigated the PR diff, the merged github-repo-monitor files, and also cloned/checked OpenHands/software-agent-sdk and OpenHands/automation as requested.

Short answer: no, this skill/code does not enforce "only respond to the GitHub login that owns GITHUB_TOKEN" or any other allowed-login list.

What I found:

• The setup instructions verify GITHUB_TOKEN by calling /user, but only to prove the token is valid. The automation script's _verify_token_and_repo() also reads/prints/returns the authenticated username, but main() ignores that return value. There is no comparison to comment.user.login.
• The actual trigger loop is just:
  1. skip already-processed comment IDs,
  2. skip bot accounts (login.endswith("[bot]") or user.type == "Bot"),
  3. check whether the comment body contains TRIGGER_PHRASE case-insensitively,
  4. extract the issue/PR number and create/resume/forward the conversation.
• _build_initial_prompt() includes the triggering author in the prompt (Triggering comment by @...), but that is context only, not authorization.
• The docs/setup flow do not ask for an allowed login. In fact the confirmation text says to post the trigger phrase on any issue or PR in the monitored repo to test it.
• I checked the automation service repo too. For this skill, the automation is cron-based and the service just schedules/runs the uploaded tarball; it does not know the GitHub comment author. The event-triggered path in OpenHands/automation can evaluate an optional JMESPath filter, but this skill is not using that path and does not create a sender.login == ... filter.
• I checked the agent SDK/server side as well. The script creates/sends messages to conversations through the session API key. Those endpoints have no GitHub sender identity concept, so there is no hidden enforcement there either.

So for the concrete example: yes - assuming enyst can comment on the monitored repo and the automation is configured for TRIGGER_PHRASE = "yeehaw!" and the relevant event type, an enyst comment containing yeehaw! would pass the current code's filters and trigger a conversation. The main built-in exceptions are bot accounts, comments outside the poll window/already processed, or comments on event types the automation was not configured to monitor.

This PR comment was created by an AI agent (OpenHands) on behalf of the requester.

[enyst]

Follow-up recommendation: put the login restriction in the deterministic monitor script, not in the prompt, SDK, or automation service.

Best shape:

• Add explicit config near the top of skills/github-repo-monitor/scripts/main.py, e.g. ALLOWED_GITHUB_LOGINS = [] / None / sentinel for "token owner only".
• Capture the username returned by _verify_token_and_repo(github_token, REPO) in main().
• In the main event-processing loop, after the bot-account skip and before _has_trigger() / _process_trigger_comment(), reject comments whose comment.user.login is not allowed. Mark them processed and log a short skip message so the same unauthorized trigger comment is not reconsidered on later runs.
• Update SKILL.md to ask the setup user who may trigger the automation, with a safe default. My preferred default is token owner only, with an explicit option to allow additional GitHub logins or all repo commenters.

I would not put this solely in _build_initial_prompt() because that is only an instruction to the agent after the conversation has already been triggered. I also would not rely on the automation service/SDK for this particular skill because it is cron-polling GitHub directly; the service just runs the tarball and the SDK conversation API has no GitHub sender identity concept.

If this later becomes an event/webhook-based automation, an extra sender.login/comment.user.login filter at the automation trigger layer would be useful defense-in-depth, but the script should still enforce it before creating or resuming conversations.

This PR comment was created by an AI agent (OpenHands) on behalf of the requester.

[enyst]

I created a new branch from main and opened a nondraft PR with the deterministic login check here: #262

Summary: the monitor now defaults to allowing only the authenticated GITHUB_TOKEN owner to trigger conversations, with an explicit ALLOWED_GITHUB_LOGINS config for additional/exact logins or * for any non-bot commenter. The check happens in main.py before creating/resuming/forwarding conversations.

This PR comment was created by an AI agent (OpenHands) on behalf of the requester.