create-meeting-issue

Automatically create or update a meeting issue using .ics recurrence, timezone info, and agenda topics from the issue log and pull requests.

Why?

Meetings should be conducted the same way, with an opinion on the structure needed to support healthy and productive conversations.

Upon invocation, the action will:

• read and validate action input
• read the recurring .ics
  • find the next meeting occurrence date and useful timezone info

  • ⚠️ The recurrence does not know about any moved instances

  • read the location from the meeting, often a zoom, slack huddle, or teams link
• find all issues and pull requests labeled with the specified agenda label (default: agenda) and add them to the upcoming meeting agenda
• create an issue for the next meeting, or update the existing issue for that meeting with the latest agenda items
• output the issue url, location, and next meeting date for further use by downstream actions

Setup

1. Download the .ics associated with the recurring meeting series.
2. Place the .ics file at the root of your repository, or specify a different path using the MEETING_PATH input.
   • By default, the action will look for meeting.ics at the root of the repo.

Usage

Add the action to your repo as the following:

name: Create Meeting

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule:
    # Run every day at 12:00 UTC so the next meeting issue stays current.
    - cron: "0 12 * * *"

jobs:
  create-meeting:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    concurrency:
      group: create-meeting-${{ github.repository }}
      cancel-in-progress: false
    permissions:
      contents: read
      pull-requests: read
      issues: write

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4 # use an immutable SHA in production

      - uses: target/create-meeting-issue@v1 # use an immutable SHA in production
        id: create-meeting
        with:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Inputs

Name	Required	Default	Description
GITHUB_TOKEN	✅		A token with pull-request read access and issues write to the repository, used to create or update the meeting issue.
MEETING_PATH	✅	meeting.ics	The path to the recurring meeting.ics file.
TIMEZONES	✅	Etc/UTC	The comma-separated timezones to display for the next meeting. For example, America/Chicago,Asia/Kolkata. Use TZ Identifiers from this list.
SLACK_CHANNEL			The slack channel to mention within the issue body. This input is not used in any workflow dispatch logic mentioned later, that is a separate process governed by a webhook originating in Slack.
DRY_RUN		false	If true, only outputs the issue body instead of creating or updating the issue.
AGENDA_LABEL		agenda	The label used to identify agenda items to include in the meeting.
ORG_WIDE		false	If true, searches for agenda items across the entire organization instead of just the repository.

Outputs

Name	Example	Description
ISSUE_URL	https://github.com/octocat/example/issues/16	The url of the issue created or updated.
NEXT_MEETING_DATE	1/15/2025	The next meeting date from the .ics file.
LOCATION	https://example.zoom.us/j/foo	The meeting location from the .ics file.

The daily schedule removes the need to time the workflow just before a meeting. The first run creates an issue titled for the next meeting date. Later runs for that occurrence update the same issue, so newly labeled agenda items appear without creating duplicates. The concurrency group is suggested because the action's lookup-then-create operation cannot be made atomic by the action itself; without it, overlapping scheduled and manual runs can create duplicates. After the meeting passes, the calendar advances and the action creates an issue for the next occurrence.

Optional manual invocation

Run workflow directly within the Actions > Create Meeting Workflow screen.

Messaging Integration

Optionally, you can compose this action together with a messaging solution, such as slack-github-action to inform folks about the upcoming meeting and agenda.

name: Create Meeting

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 12 * * *"

jobs:
  create-meeting:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    concurrency:
      group: create-meeting-${{ github.repository }}
      cancel-in-progress: false
    permissions:
      pull-requests: read
      issues: write

    outputs:
      ISSUE_URL: ${{ steps.create-meeting.outputs.ISSUE_URL }}
      LOCATION: ${{ steps.create-meeting.outputs.LOCATION }}
      NEXT_MEETING_DATE: ${{ steps.create-meeting.outputs.NEXT_MEETING_DATE }}

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4 # use an immutable SHA in production

      - uses: target/create-meeting-issue@v1 # use an immutable SHA in production
        id: create-meeting
        with:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  # this is unaffiliated boilerplate and should be tailored to your needs
  # using https://github.com/slackapi/slack-github-action/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#technique-1-slack-workflow-builder is a pretty lightweight way to do this
  notify-slack:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: create-meeting
    # Avoid sending a message after every daily refresh. Run this job when the
    # workflow is manually invoked, or replace this with your desired cadence.
    if: github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch'
    permissions: {} # no extra permissions needed

    steps:
      - uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v2.0.0 # use an immutable SHA in production
        with:
          webhook: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
          webhook-type: webhook-trigger
          payload: |
            issue_url: ${{ needs.create-meeting.outputs.ISSUE_URL }}
            location: ${{ needs.create-meeting.outputs.LOCATION }}
            next_meeting_date: ${{ needs.create-meeting.outputs.NEXT_MEETING_DATE }}

Warning

GitHub may omit output like location if it thinks it contains a secret, such as a pre-authorized webinar link. If you encounter this, you can combine the steps into a single job, but it does provide more permissions to subsequent steps in the job. Consult security resources as prudent. See this GitHub discussion for status and potential workarounds.

Local Development

Ensure you have the following tools:

• git
• nvm recommended on a Mac or fnm for Windows

nvm use
corepack enable
corepack install
pnpm install
pnpm dev

Packaging Process

Run pnpm package prior to pushing new versions.

This action uses ncc to emit JavaScript - at least until:

• GH Actions support Node 22
• Node.js supports --experimental-strip-types within node_modules

If node22 is unblocked first, the action.yml line can be uncommented and TypeScript compilation can be evaluated for removal.