Fabric Bot Services

Fabric Bot Services platform is being utilized in the Windows Community Toolkit repository as an automation tool to ease the workflow and improve productivity. You will see the Bot in action whether you plan to open an Issue, Submit a Pull Request, Make a Comment, label the PR's or issues, etc

To activate the bot you will have to reach out to the team via email regarding the permission to be added in the repo that you are looking to automate.

Once the request is approved the Fabric Bot link will be provided by the team in the email thread (if not you can ask for the link). Now you will be able to select a certain repository from the list and customize the tasks that need to be performed by applying certain conditions and actions. All the conditions are customizable and can be adjusted based on the need or task you want to perform.

Below are the essential tasks that the Windows Community Toolkit team currently uses to automate the issues in the repository 🤖

Needs Triage label

Needs Triage is the most used label which can be observed in all the issues of the repo. As the name suggests it is used to triage the issues, features, or any requests whenever first opened in the WCT. The purpose of the label is to create visibility and ensure the author that the issue has been received and will be triaged to the appropriate team to ensure faster response and possible resolution. @Msftbot will automatically apply the Needs triage label and a welcome message by setting the following conditions and actions in the Fabric Bot page.

Event responder - issues

Conditions	Actions
Condition: Is Action	Action: Opened
Condition: Not: Is part of any project
Condition: Not: Is assigned to someone
Condition: Has Label	Label: bug 🐛

Actions	Triggers
Action: Add Label	Label: needs triage 🔍
Action: Add Reply	Label: I have automatically added a "needs triage" label to help get things started. Our team will analyze and investigate the issue, and escalate it to the relevant team if possible. Other community members may also look into the issue and provide feedback 🙌

Replace needs author feedback label with needs attention label when the author comments on an issue

The purpose of replacing the label with needs attention 👋 is to set faster responses to the issue and be certain that there are no delays from the stakeholders that are helping to solve the problem. Therefore, when the Author will comment on the issue, the @Msftbot bot will automatically apply the "needs attention 👋" label to alert other parties to respond back to the author and expedite the issue.

Event responder - issue comments

Conditions	Actions
Condition: Is Action	Action: Created
Condition: Is Activity Sender	User: Author
Condition: Has Label	Label: needs author feedback 📝
Condition: Is Open

Actions of the conditions applied above.

Actions	Triggers
Action: Add Label	Label: needs attention 👋
Action: Remove Label	Label: needs author feedback 📝

Add Voting to a New Feature Request

When the author will first open the feature request to introduce an idea or suggestions that can either improve the performance or innovate WCT, @Msftbot will respond back with the Welcome Message and Add Thumbs Up 👍 as a way to vote for the feature. Then the rest of the community will test the feature whether it's worth implementing in WCT or not. If the community likes the feature they will add more thumps up 👍 on top of the initial one or comment to ensure the feature request must be adopted.

Event responder - issues

Conditions	Actions
Condition: Is action	Action: Opened
Condition: Not: Is part of any project
Condition: Not: Is assigned to someone
Condition: Has Label	Label: feature request 📫

Actions	Actions
Action: Add Reaction	Reaction: 👍
Action: Add reply	Reply: Hello, '${issueAuthor}! Thanks for submitting a new feature request. I've automatically added a vote 👍 reaction to help get things started. Other community members can vote to help us prioritize this feature in the future!

Add No Recent Activity label to issues where the author has not responded

no-recent-activity 📉 label will be tagged to the issues with existing needs author feedback 📝 label and no activity of 15 days. It is used to alert the author that there has not been any activity performed for 15 days. @Msftbot will also trigger a warning message that the issue will be closed if it continues to be untouched or left without activity. The label provides greater visibility to the community to make certain there are no delays.

Scheduled search

Conditions	Actions
Frequency: Every 3 hours, 8 times a day
Search term: Is issue
Search term: Is open
Search term: Has Label	Label: needs author feedback 📝
Search term: No activity since	Days since last activity: 15
Search term: Does not have label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉

Actions	Triggers
Action: Add Label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉
Action: Add Reply	Reply: This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for 15 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 30 days of this comment.

Remove no recent label when an issue is commented on

Once the comment has been made in the existing issue with no-recent-activity 📉 label the no-recent-activity 📉 will automatically be removed by @Msftbot. This is a great step and reflects that productivity has improved.

Event responder - issue comments

Conditions	Actions
Condition: Has Label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉

Actions	Triggers
Action: Remove Label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉

Issue Needs Attention

@Msftbot will trigger needs attention 👋 label with the message to alert all the stakeholders that are involved in issues where there has been no activity for 15 days. This action alerts the stakeholders and ensures transparency that the issue has been sitting without any activity for 15 days. Therefore, it is essential to establish procedures that will either provide further guidance or triage the issue to the appropriate team that can resolve the issue in a timely manner.

Scheduled search

Conditions	Actions
Frequency: Every 3 hours, 8 times a day
Search term: Is issue
Search term: Is open
Search term: Has Label	Label: needs triage 🔍
Search term: No activity since	Days since last activity: 15

Actions	Triggers
Action: Add Label	Label: needs attention 👋
Action: Add Reply	Reply: This issue has been marked as "needs attention 👋" due to no activity for 15 days. Please triage the issue so the fix can be established.

Close Stale Issues

@Msftbot runs the search with conditions that if there has been any activity to the issue that has needs author feedback 📝, no-recent-activity 📉 labels, and no activity for 60 days. @Msftbot will close the issue if it matches these conditions. It shows that at this point many labels and alerts have been made by the bot to encourage and perform an action but there has been a lack of participation from the stakeholders. The action of closing the Stale PR is performed to better manage the repo and to ensure the PR's are not cluttered and block the focus on active ones.

Scheduled search

Conditions	Actions
Frequency: Every 3 hours, 8 times a day
Search term: Is issue
Search term: Is open
Search term: Has Label	Label: needs author feedback 📝
Search term: Has Label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉
Search term: No activity since	Days since last activity: 60

Actions	Triggers
Action: Add Reply	Reply: This issue has been automatically closed because it was marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for over 60 days.
Action: Close

Close Duplicate Issues

The conditions of this action run regularly to ensure if there is an open issue with the duplicate 👥 label. If the conditions are matched then @Msftbot responds to the issue with the message and closes the issue. This action is taken to ensure the issues are not cluttered in the repo and block the focus on issues that are active.

Scheduled search

Conditions	Actions
Frequency: Every 3 hours, 8 times a day
Search term: Is issue
Search term: Is open
Search term: Has Label	Label: duplicate 👥
Search term: No activity since	Days since last activity: 1

Actions	Triggers
Action: Add Reply	Reply: This issue has been marked as duplicate and has not had any activity for 1 day. It will be closed for housekeeping purposes.
Action: Close

Issues that are closed due to inactivity, reopens an issue if the author posts a reply within 7 days of the closing

If an author responds to the issue that was closed earlier due to lack of participation or inactivity, @Msfbot runs the following conditions and see if it was within 7 days and fulfills all the requirements. Then @Msftbot automatically reopens the issue and adds the needs attention 👋 label to provide a fresh start so there is a possible resolution this time. It also deletes any label such as no-recent-activity 📉 and needs author feedback 📝 to ensure the issue looks clean and will be solved.

Event responder - issue comments

Conditions	Actions
Condition: Not Is open
Condition: Is action	Action: Created
Condition: Has label	Label: needs author feedback 📝
Condition: Has label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉
Condition: Not: No activity since...	Days ago: 7
Condition: Not: Is 'close and comment' action
Condition: Is activity sender	User: Author
Condition: Not: Activity sender has permissions	Permissions: None

Actions	Triggers
Action: Reopen issue
Action: Remove label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉
Action: Remove label	Label: needs author feedback 📝
Action: Add label	Label: needs attention 👋

Issues that are closed with no activity for over 7 days, ask the non-contributor to consider opening a new issue instead

The issue that was closed for over 7 days and if a non-contributor attempts to open that issue then the following condition will be applied to make certain that the issue does not re-open. When the non-contributor will comment on this closed issue @Msftbot will respond to the non-contributor that they will have to open a new issue instead. Such action is triggered to make certain that not everyone can open the closed issue since it could be closed for any reason. The action is used to mitigate unwanted issues to be open.

Event responder - issue comments

Conditions	Actions
Condition: Is Action	Action: Created
Not: Is Open
Condition: Activity Sender has permissions	Permissions: None
Condition: No activity Since	Days ago: 7
Condition: Not: Is 'close and comment' action

Actions
Action: Add reply

Lock closed issues without activity for over 60 days

The action of this task is self-explanatory that any issue that was closed for over 60 days will automatically be locked. This will ensure that no further activity is done in the closed issue since 60 days is used as a grace period where incase if any stakeholder still wants to comment or have questions. The conditions are run by @Msftbot every three hours to better manage the issues that are closed and to keep the repository clean and well managed.

Scheduled search

Conditions	Actions
Frequency: Every 3 hours, 8 times a day
Search term: Is closed
Search term: No activity since	Days since last activity: 60
Search term: Is unlocked
Search term: Is issue

Actions	Triggers
Action: Add Label	Reason: Resolved

In-PR Label

The In-PR 🚀 label feature is used as an indicator for the open issues that there is a relevant PR open in the repository which will be merged to solve the open issue. When the contributor opens a PR and includes an issue number in the PR Template as "#Fixes 1234" (Issue number = 1234 used for demo purposes). Once these steps are performed @Msftbot automatically detects the issue number mentioned in the PR and tags "In-PR 🚀" label in the relevant open issue to alert the author of the issue or stakeholders that the issue will be resolved soon.

Conditions	Actions
'In-PR' label: Label
Enable 'Fixed' Label? 'Fixed' Label: Label

Below are the essential tasks that the WCT team currently uses to automate the PR's in the repository 🤖

Opening Pull Request

When a contributor opens a Pull Request in the WCT repository, @Msftbot runs the conditions mentioned below to ensure the simplicity and ease of the process. Therefore, when the PR is opened, @Msftbot adds the welcome message by calling out their name detecting it via ${issueAuthor}, and reviewers from the WCT team are automatically tagged to perform the testing of the PR. The purpose of identifying and mentioning the author's name in the message is to acknowledge and recognize for their contribution. The procedure is performed to ensure that the author feels welcomed and the community appreciates the time that the author invested in to further enhance the Windows Community Toolkit.

Event responder - pull requests

Conditions	Actions
Condition: Is Action	Action: Opened

Actions	Triggers
Action: Add Reply	Reply: Thanks ${issueAuthor} for opening a Pull Request! The reviewers will test the PR and highlight if there is any conflict or changes required. If the PR is approved we will proceed to merge the pull request 🙌
Action: Request Reviewer	Reviewer: @user

Add Needs Author feedback label to PR When Changes are Requested

When the author opens the PR and the community members comment stating feedback or improvements; the bot runs the following conditions mentioned below and applies the needs author feedback 📝 label. The label is triggered to alert the Author that the activity has occurred in the submitted PR and the participants are seeking a response so the PR can be merged faster. The purpose of the task is to improve visibility, productivity, and to provide faster resolution.

Event responder - pull request reviews

Conditions	Actions
Condition: Is Action	Action: Submitted
Condition: Is review state	State: Changed requested

Actions	Triggers
Action: Add Label	Label: needs author feedback 📝

Remove Needs Author Feedback Label and Replace it with Needs Attention Label

The purpose of replacing the needs author feedback 📝 label with needs attention 👋 is to improve response timings in the PR and be certain that there are no delays from the stakeholders that are helping to solve the problem. Therefore, when the Author comments on the PR, the @Msftbot automatically applies the "needs attention 👋" label to alert other parties to respond back and to expedite the PR.

Event responder - pull requests

Conditions	Actions
Condition: Is activity sender	User: Author
Condition: Not: Is action	Is action: Closed
Condition: Has Label	Label: needs author feedback 📝

Actions	Triggers
Action: Remove Label	Label: needs author feedback 📝
Action: Add Label	Label: needs attention 👋
Action: Add Reply	Reply: This PR has been marked as "needs attention 👋" and awaiting a response from the team.

Remove No Recent Activity when PR is commented On

Once the comment has been made in the PR, the "no-recent-activity 📉" will be removed by the @Msftbot. This ensures that the productivity of the PR will continue and will proceed towards possible resolution.

Event responder Pull Request Comments

Conditions	Actions
Condition: Has Label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉

Actions	Triggers
Action: Remove Label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉

Remove No Recent Activity when PR is reviewed

If there is an existing no-recent-activity label in the PR and the PR is reviewed, the no-recent-activity 📉 label will be removed by the @Msftbot. This action reflects the improvement of participation and shows if the PR is successfully reviewed and tested without any error it will soon be merged.

Event responder - pull request reviews

Conditions	Actions
Condition: Has Label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉

Actions	Triggers
Action: Remove Label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉

Close Stale PR

@Msftbot runs the search with conditions that if there has been any activity to the PR that has needs author feedback 📝, no-recent-activity 📉 labels, and no activity for 60 days. @Msftbot will close the PR if it matches these conditions. It shows that at this point many labels and alerts have been made by the bot to encourage and perform an action but there has been a lack of participation from the stakeholders. The action of closing the Stale PR is performed to better manage the repo and to ensure the PR's are not cluttered and block the focus on active ones.

Scheduled search

Conditions	Actions
Frequency: Every 3 hours, 8 times a day
Search term: Is pull request
Search term: Is open
Search term: Has Label	Label: needs author feedback 📝
Search term: Has Label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉
Search term: No activity since	Days since last activity: 45

Actions	Triggers
Action: Close

Add No Recent Activity label to PR where the author has not responded

no-recent-activity 📉 label will be tagged to the PR that has needs author feedback 📝 label and no activity for 15 days. It is used to alert the author that there has not been any activity performed for 15 days. @Msftbot will also trigger a warning message that the issue will be closed if it continues to be untouched or left without an activity. The label provides greater visibility to the community to make certain that there are no delays.

Scheduled search

Conditions	Actions
Frequency: Every 3 hours, 8 times a day
Search term: Is pull request
Search term: Is open
Search term: Has Label	Label: needs author feedback 📝
Search term: No activity since	Days since last activity: 15
Search term: Does not have label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉

Actions	Triggers
Action: Add Label	Label: no-recent-activity 📉
Action: Add Reply	Reply: This pull request has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for 15 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 30 days of this comment.

Auto-merge Pull Requests

This is the label that is used in active Pull Requests to give commands to signoff once all the requirements are met. (In our repo by default 2 reviewers need to sign-off and three checks such as Toolkit/CI, WIP, and license/CLI need to be met). The wait time period for the PR is set for 8 hours since the time it was opened. Therefore once the 8 hours are completed and all the requirements are met, the PR will automatically be merged. If the 8 hours are not completed you can customize the actions that you want to perform.

When you will add Auto-merge label @Msftbot will trigger the following message and you can perform many actions before the PR is merged.

"Hello user! Because this pull request has the auto-merge label, I will be glad to assist with helping to merge this pull request once all check-in policies pass. p.s. you can customize the way I help with merging this pull request, such as holding this pull request until a specific person approves. Simply @mention me (@msftbot) and give me an instruction to get started! Learn more here."

You can customize the auto-merge now by commanding the bot via comments.

There are various scenarios that can be used. It is completely up to you however you want to customize the action.

• You can require limits of approval or a specific reviewer to proceed with the PR.
  For Example: Merge this Pull request once it is approved by 3 reviewers Or Only merge if "@user" approves the PR.

• You can require approval from a few people to several people.
  For Example: Only merge if @user1, @user2, and @user3 approve the Pull Request Or Merge the Pull Request if @user1, @user1, or @user1 approves.

• Additionally, you can also hold the PR for a certain time period.
  For Example: Hold the PR for another 8 hours, etc.

• You can also customize the phrases the way you like, and if the bot misinterprets the phrase that you mentioned, feel free to comment "Nevermind" and it will disregard the last change.

The following conditions and actions need to be set in the Fabric Bot Services to make this work.

• Auto-merge label: auto merge
• Minimum time in minutes pull request must be open before being auto-merged: 480
• Merge Strategy: Merge

• Auto delete branches when possible after merge?

• Remove auto-merge label when someone without write access pushes changes?

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If you have any feedback or questions regarding the fabric bot services please reach out to the team via email 🚀