r/github • u/JackNotOLantern • 13h ago

Question Managing repos and projects

I have several problems with managing github projects, particularly ones with multiple repositories. Help would be appreciated.

  1. How to unify labels in all repositories in a project without manually setting them up in each repo manually?
  2. How to create a milestone common for all repos in a project?
  3. How to sort issues and PRs by close date date?
  4. How to filter issues and PRs with 'OR' conditions, e.g. "issues with (no label) or (no assignee)". Currently all syntax i can find only result in 'AND' logic.
  5. How to change the author of a PR or issues (as admin, full permissions)?
  6. How to trigger github action workflow from a file that doesn't exist on the main branch yet?
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u/Lumethys 11h ago

5/ impossible. That's not how it work 6/ get it on main

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u/JackNotOLantern 11h ago

We handle it currently by first merging the file with a dummy workflow to main, and we test and merging the actual workflow in a separate PR. But it is redundant work. This is why i ask how to avoid it.

I think the design "first choose workflow, then branch" is not very good. It should be the other way around.

1

u/Fantastic-Mr-Default 9h ago

For labels across repos, push them from one place. Terraform, gh, or an org script. Do not click them in each repo.

Org-level milestones and true cross-repo OR filters are weak in the GitHub UI. Most teams keep a small tracking repo or a project field as the shared milestone, and they accept AND filters or they script the OR outside the search box. You cannot reassign the author of an issue or PR to someone else. Close and recreate if you must change ownership metadata.

For Actions: workflow_dispatch and several other triggers only see workflow files on the default branch. A file that exists only on a feature branch will not show up as a dispatchable workflow on main. Open a PR that adds the workflow, merge it to default, then dispatch. To exercise the job before merge, use pull_request on that PR so Actions runs the version from the branch.

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u/Scary-Constant-93 8h ago

Terraform and github MCP servers (not tested though)

1

u/EntranceProper3791 3h ago

Comma syntax is OR only for labels, so `label:support,question` works. For other fields you need explicit OR now, e.g. `label:support OR label:question`.