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top-issues

GitHub Action that automatically ranks open feature request issues by reactions and generates a ranked Markdown report for your repository.

3 MIT Updated Jan 24, 2026
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Top Issues ✨

License: MIT <!-- Optional: Add a license badge --> Uses GitHub Actions <!-- Optional: Actions badge -->

A simple GitHub Action that automatically ranks open feature request issues in your repository based on 👍 reactions and generates a Markdown file listing them.

🤔 What it Does

This action runs on a schedule (or manually) to:

  1. Find all open issues in your repository with a specific label (e.g., feature-request).
  2. Count the number of 👍 (thumbs up) reactions on each of those issues.
  3. Sort the issues in descending order based on the reaction count.
  4. Generate (or update) a Markdown file (e.g., RANKED_FEATURES.md) in your repository listing the ranked issues with links.

🎉 Why Use It?

  • Automated Prioritization: Get a quick, data-driven overview of what features your community is most interested in.
  • Improved Visibility: Provides an easy-to-read list for maintainers and contributors.
  • Simple Setup: Just add two files to your repository.
  • Free & Integrated: Runs directly within GitHub using GitHub Actions (free for public repos).
  • No External Services: Keeps everything within your GitHub repository.

📊 Example Output

The action will generate a file (e.g., RANKED_FEATURES.md) that looks something like this:

➡️ See RANKED_FEATURES.md

Here's a static example of what the generated Markdown content looks like:

✨ Top Feature Requests (your-owner/your-repo)

Updated: 2025-05-05T15:00:00.000Z

Rank 👍 Feature Request Issue
1 42 Add dark mode support your-owner/your-repo#123
2 25 Integrate with Service X your-owner/your-repo#456
3 18 Improve performance | Optimize queries your-owner/your-repo#789
4 5 Add option for exporting data your-owner/your-repo#101

Generated with ❤️ by Top Issues Action

(Note: The actual file will contain the real data from your repository's issues.)

🚀 Installation & Setup

Setting this up in your repository is easy:

  1. Create Workflow Directory: If it doesn't exist, create the .github/workflows directory in the root of your repository.

  2. Copy Workflow File: Copy the contents of .github/workflows/rank-features.yml from this repository into a new file named rank-features.yml inside your repository's .github/workflows/ directory.

  3. Create Scripts Directory: If it doesn't exist, create the .github/scripts directory in the root of your repository.

  4. Copy Script File: Copy the contents of .github/scripts/rank_issues.ts from this repository into a new file named rank_issues.ts inside your repository's .github/scripts/ directory.

  5. Customize (Optional): Open your .github/workflows/rank-features.yml file and adjust the following settings if needed:

    • Schedule: The default schedule runs the action daily at midnight UTC. You can change the cron schedule under on: to run more or less frequently.
      • Default: cron: '0 0 * * *' (Daily at 00:00 UTC)
      See Cron Schedule Syntax for more options.
    • Label: Change the FEATURE_LABEL environment variable under env: if you use a different label for feature requests (e.g., enhancement).
    • Output File: Change the OUTPUT_FILE environment variable if you want to name the generated Markdown file differently or place it elsewhere.
    • Commit Branch: By default, the action commits to your repository's default branch. If you want to commit to a different branch (like gh-pages), add a COMMIT_BRANCH environment variable under env:.
    • Commit Message: Change the COMMIT_MESSAGE environment variable for a custom commit message.

  6. Commit & Push: Commit these two new files (.github/workflows/rank-features.yml and .github/scripts/rank_issues.ts) to your repository.

That's it! The action will run on the next scheduled time (daily at midnight UTC by default) or you can trigger it manually from the "Actions" tab in your repository (look for "Rank Feature Requests").

⚙️ Configuration Options (in rank-features.yml)

You can customize the action's behavior by modifying the env: section within your .github/workflows/rank-features.yml file:

  • FEATURE_LABEL: (Required) The label used to identify feature request issues.
  • Default: feature-request
  • OUTPUT_FILE: (Required) The path (relative to the repo root) where the Markdown report will be saved.
  • Default: RANKED_FEATURES.md
  • COMMIT_MESSAGE: (Optional) The commit message used when updating the report file.
  • Default: Update ranked features list
  • COMMIT_BRANCH: (Optional) The branch to commit the report file to. If not set, uses the repository's default branch.
  • Example: gh-pages

🙏 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request to improve this action.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.