build: add action to close stale PRs

.github/workflows/close-stale-pull-requests.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+name: Close stale feature requests
+on:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+    inputs:
+      endDate:
+        description: stop procesing PRs after this date
+        required: false
+        type: string 
+  schedule:
+    # Run every day at 1:00 AM UTC.
+    - cron: 0 1 * * *
+
+# yamllint disable rule:empty-lines
+env:
+  CLOSE_MESSAGE: >
+    This pull request was opened more than a year ago and there has
+    been no activity in the last 6 months. We value your contribution
+    but since it has not progressed in the last 6 months it is being
+    closed. If you feel closing this issue is not the right thing
+    to do, please leave a comment.
+
+
+    For more information on how the project manages pull requests,
+    please consult the
+    [pull requests](https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/main/doc/contributing/pull-requests.md#managing-stale-pull-requests).
+
+  WARN_MESSAGE: >
+    This pull request was opened more than a year ago and there has
+    been no activity in the last 5 months. We value your contribution
+    but since it has not progressed in the last 5 months it is being
+    marked stale and will be closed if there is no progress in the
+    next month. If you feel that is not the right thing to do please
+    comment on the pull request.
+
+
+    For more information on how the project manages pull requests,
+    please consult the
+    [pull requests](https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/main/doc/contributing/pull-requests.md#managing-stale-pull-requests).
+# yamllint enable
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
+jobs:
+  stale:
+    permissions:
+      pull-requests: write  # for actions/stale to close stale PRs
+    if: github.repository == 'nodejs/node'
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Set default end date which is 1 year ago
+        run: echo "END_DATE=$(date --date='525600 minutes ago' --rfc-2822)"  >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
+      - name: if date set in event override the default end date
+        env:
+          END_DATE_INPUT_VALUE: ${{ github.event.inputs.endDate }}
+        if: "${{ github.event.inputs.endDate != '' }}"
+        run: echo "END_DATE=$END_DATE_INPUT_VALUE"  >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
+#      - uses: actions/stale@1160a2240286f5da8ec72b1c0816ce2481aabf84  # v8.0.0
+      - uses: mhdawson/stale@453d6581568dc43dbe345757f24408d7b451c651  # PR to add support for endDate
+        with:
+          repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          end-date: ${{ env.END_DATE }}
+          days-before-issue-stale: -1
+          days-before-issue-close: -1
+          only-labels: test-stale-pr
+          days-before-stale: 150
+          days-before-close: 30
+          stale-issue-label: stale
+          close-issue-message: ${{ env.CLOSE_MESSAGE }}
+          stale-issue-message: ${{ env.WARN_MESSAGE }}
+          exempt-pr-labels: never-stale
+          # max requests it will send per run to the GitHub API before it deliberately exits to avoid hitting API rate limits
+          operations-per-run: 500
+          remove-stale-when-updated: true

doc/contributing/pull-requests.md

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
   * [Accept that there are different opinions about what belongs in Node.js](#accept-that-there-are-different-opinions-about-what-belongs-in-nodejs)
   * [Performance is not everything](#performance-is-not-everything)
   * [Continuous integration testing](#continuous-integration-testing)
+* [Managing stale pull request](#managing-stale-pull-requests)
 * [Notes](#notes)
   * [Commit squashing](#commit-squashing)
   * [Getting approvals for your pull request](#getting-approvals-for-your-pull-request)
@@ -523,6 +524,25 @@ to fail on specific platforms or for so-called "flaky" tests to fail ("be red").
 It is vital to visually inspect the results of all failed ("red") tests to
 determine whether the failure was caused by the changes in the pull request.
 
+## Managing stale pull requests
+
+Pull requests are a valuable contribution to the project and the collaborators
+work hard to make sure pull requests land as quickly as possible.
+
+Unfortunately not all pull requests land in a timely manner and after an
+extended amount of time without active progress the likelyhood of a pull
+request landing decreases significantly.
+
+For pull requests that are older than a year and for which there have been
+no updates for 5 months, the project uses a stale action to comment on the
+pull request and to mark it as stale. If there is no further updates on
+the pull request in the next month an additional comment is added and
+the pull request is closed.
+
+A simple comment on a pull request can be used to reset a pull request
+marked as stale and prevent it from being a candidate for closure for
+another 6 months.
+
 ## Notes
 
 ### Commit squashing