A GitHub Action that fails a pull request if there are any incomplete checklists in the issue body and/or comments. The action is triggered when a pull request is opened or its first comment (the main pull request message) is edited.

Create a file named .github/workflows/require-checklist.yaml (or any name in that directory), this file will contain the body of your GitHub Action.

This action will default to using the pull_request or issue number when used inside a workflow triggered by one of those events. Below is an example of how to use it.

name: Require Checklist

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, edited, synchronize]
  issues:
    types: [opened, edited, deleted]

jobs:
  job1:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: mheap/require-checklist-action@v2
        with:
          requireChecklist: false # If this is true and there are no checklists detected, the action will fail

If you would like to use this action outside of a pull_request or issue trigger. You can pass in the issue number manually. Note that "issue number" is used even in the context of pull requests.

name: Require Checklist

on:
  workflow_run:
    workflows: ["Other Workflow"]
    types:
      - completed

jobs:
  job1:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: mheap/require-checklist-action@v2
        with:
          requireChecklist: false # If this is true and there are no checklists detected, the action will fail
          issueNumber: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.pull_requests[0].number }}

Optional checkboxes can be applied with the skipDescriptionRegex and skipDescriptionRegexFlags arguments, which correspond to the first and second constructor arguments of Javascript's RegExp class.

Here is an example of skipping any description with including "(Optional)". (case-insensitive).

# ...

jobs:
  job1:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: mheap/require-checklist-action@v2
        with:
          skipDescriptionRegex: .*\(optional\).*
          skipDescriptionRegexFlags: i

In case there are some items that are not applicable in given checklist they can be stroked through and this action will ignore them. For example:

• Applicable item
• Inapplicable item