Airtable automation actions: GitHub Issues

To start creating an automation, from the open base of your choice click on Automations in the upper left corner of your screen to open the automation configuration window. Click the + Create automation option to begin the setup process. If you would like, you can rename the automation right away to make it easier to understand what it does.

Next, you will need to click + Add trigger option. Once clicked, the available triggers will display for you to choose from. Click here to learn more about all available automation triggers. Once you have configured and tested the trigger, you can move on to the next step.

1. Click the + Add advanced logic or action option.

2. Scroll down in the menu that appears and find the “GitHub Issues” section.

3. While hovering over that option, click the Create issue or Update issue option.

1. Feel free to enter a description of what the action will do. You can always add one later if you prefer to skip this step.

2. Under “Configuration,” click the dropdown below the “GitHub account” section. From here, either select a previously connected account or connect a new account. For more on authentication and authorization, click to jump to that section below. More information on managing connected accounts is available here.

3. Once you have connected an account, you’ll need to select the Repository where your automation will either create or update the issue in GitHub.

4. From here the steps will differ depending on the action you are configuring:

   1. Create a new issue

      1. Under “Title” add either a static title (not recommended) or click the + button to add in a dynamic value from an earlier automation step so that the title will be different for each issue created.

      2. Next, under “Body” add in helpful information that will give context to the issue being created. You can use a mix of static and dynamic values here.

      3. Finally, optionally add static or dynamic Milestones, Labels, and/or Assignees.

   2. Update an issue

      1. You’ll need to input an “Issue number” so that Airtable can update the appropriate issue in GitHub. In most scenarios, you’ll want to store the issue number in Airtable and then be able to dynamically reference that value in the automation so that it can update different issues over time.

      2. Next, under the “Update fields” section click the + Choose field option. You can choose to add and configure one, many, or all of the options (Title, Body, Milestone, Labels, State, or Assignee). Keep in mind that adding a field and leaving it blank in the configuration will clear out any data currently held in that field in GitHub.

5. Once you’ve configured the automation action consider adding other following Airtable actions. For instance, you could use the Create record action to create and store a matching issue in Airtable in case you want to update the issue at a later point in time.

6. Test the automation action step. This is a good point to check your GitHub repository to see if everything is populating as intended. The process can be trial and error depending upon your setup. Once the action step has been tested successfully, you will see some information appear. Particularly, you'll see a link to the exact GitHub issue that was created at the bottom of the test.

Again, be sure to test all of the steps in the automation that you are building. Once every part of the automation has tested successfully, you’ll likely be ready to turn the automation on. Find the red colored “OFF” toggle and click it so the automation now appears as “ON” in green.