{ #github-issues }

Creating and Updating GitHub Issues

GitHub Issues are defined by getGitHubIssueSpec functions, which take a VersionContext and a FactStore, and return a GitHubIssueSpec.

Here's an example that covers the basics: skipping dependencies, routing to a repo, choosing between notification-only and SLA-enforced issues, assigning users, and reading from the FactStore.

import { dependicusCli, getUpdateType, FactKeys } from 'dependicus';

void dependicusCli({
    repoRoot,
    dependicusBaseUrl: 'https://mycompany.internal/dependicus',
    github: {
        getGitHubIssueSpec: (context, store) => {
            const { name, currentVersion, latestVersion } = context;
            const updateType = getUpdateType(currentVersion, latestVersion);

            // Skip dependencies you don't want issues for
            if (name === 'webpack') return undefined;

            // All issues go to a single repo
            const owner = 'myorg';
            const repo = 'myrepo';

            // Notification-only issues for major updates (no due date)
            if (updateType === 'major') {
                return { owner, repo, policy: { type: 'fyi' } };
            }

            // Read facts from the store
            const isDeprecated = store.getVersionFact<boolean>(
                name,
                latestVersion,
                FactKeys.IS_DEPRECATED,
            );
            if (isDeprecated) return undefined;

            // SLA-enforced issues for minor/patch
            return {
                owner,
                repo,
                policy: { type: 'dueDate' },
                // Assign GitHub users to patch updates
                assignment:
                    updateType === 'patch'
                        ? { type: 'assign', assignees: ['dependabot-helper'] }
                        : { type: 'unassigned' },
                // Add extra labels for categorization
                labels: ['dependencies'],
            };
        },
    },
}).run(process.argv);

CLI flags

The make-github-issues command accepts these flags in addition to --dry-run, --json-file, --github-owner, and --github-repo:

--cooldown-days <days> — days to wait before creating a new issue for a newly-published version. Overrides github.cooldownDays in the programmatic config.
--rate-limit-days <days> — default notification rate limit in days. Applied when per-policy rateLimitDays is not set. Overrides github.rateLimitDays.
--no-new-issues — prevent creation of new issues; only update existing ones. Overrides github.allowNewIssues.

dependicus make-github-issues --cooldown-days 5 --rate-limit-days 14 --no-new-issues

Due dates

Since GitHub Issues have no native due date field, the due date is appended to the issue title: Update react 18.2.0 → 19.0.0 (due 2025-03-15). The due date also appears in the issue body.

Token resolution

The make-github-issues command looks for GITHUB_TOKEN in the environment first. If not set, it falls back to gh auth token (the GitHub CLI). This means local development works without exporting a token if you've already run gh auth login.