GitHub notification janitor

Tired of github filling up your notifications about bot comments on your own PRs? Just fork this repo and all useless notifications will disappear.

A GitHub Actions workflow that marks selected notifications Done. It keeps the thread subscribed.

The included rules handle GitHub Actions comments on threads you created, your own pull request state changes, and release updates. Rules use @me, which resolves from the token at runtime. No account name is stored in the code.

Fork and set up

1. Fork this repository.
2. Create a classic personal access token with the repo scope. Authorize it for each SAML SSO organization you use.
3. Add the token to the fork as the NOTIFICATIONS_TOKEN Actions secret.
4. Edit .github/notification-janitor.json for your rules.
5. Run Notification janitor from the Actions tab with dry-run. Review the workflow summary.
6. Run it with apply when the result is correct.

The scheduled job runs every day at 04:17 UTC. The included configuration runs in apply mode. Set dryRun to true while you tune your rules.

Rules

commentAuthors contains GitHub logins. Login matching ignores letter case. threadAuthors: ["@me"] limits a rule to issues and pull requests you created. Remove that field to allow a rule on threads from any author.

The janitor checks human activity after the last read time. It keeps the notification when a human comment or review appears. It also keeps the newest release notification from each repository for each week.

GitHub returns read and Done records through its notifications API. The janitor uses a 30-hour activity window. This catches a new notification after you open it, and avoids replaying old Done records every day.

Test

node --experimental-transform-types --test .github/scripts/notification-janitor.test.ts

Security

The workflow only reads repository activity and calls GitHub's Mark Done notification endpoint. Logs hash notification references and omit repository names, issue titles, and pull request titles.