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chore: add "stale branch" workflow - #6315

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copilot/remove-stale-branches
Sep 15, 2026
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chore: add "stale branch" workflow#6315
mark-wiemer merged 3 commits into
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copilot/remove-stale-branches

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Copilot AI commented Sep 15, 2026 •
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Mocha’s repository policy is to keep the repo free of long-lived, unreviewed branches, while ensuring active work and protected branches remain intact. This adds a scheduled workflow to automatically remove branches that have been inactive for 7+ days and are not protected or associated with an open PR.

  • Workflow

    • Adds .github/workflows/stale-branches.yml
    • Runs daily via cron and can also be triggered manually
    • Skips main, 11.x, and any branch that is still the head of an open PR
    • Deletes stale branch refs via the GitHub API once they exceed the inactivity threshold

  • Safety

    • Uses repository-scoped permissioning to allow ref deletion only for the cleanup job
    • Filters out protected branches and active PR branches before deletion
    • Logs warnings instead of failing hard when a branch cannot be removed
# Example behavior
# main, 11.x -> retained
# feature/old-repro -> deleted after 7+ days with no open PR
# feature/active-pr -> retained while the PR is open

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linux-foundation-easycla Bot commented Sep 15, 2026 •
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Copilot AI linked an issue Sep 15, 2026 that may be closed by this pull request
🛠️ Repo: Automatically remove stale branches #5790
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0f7c850 
Co-authored-by: mark-wiemer <7833360+mark-wiemer@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot AI changed the title [WIP] Automatically remove stale branches Add stale-branch cleanup automation Sep 15, 2026
Copilot AI requested a review from mark-wiemer September 15, 2026 14:04
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mark-wiemer commented Sep 15, 2026

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@copilot instead of deleting the branch, create an issue asking a maintainer to review the branch

@mark-wiemer
Create stale-branch review issues instead of deleting branches
c102b8e 
Co-authored-by: mark-wiemer <7833360+mark-wiemer@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI commented Sep 15, 2026

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@copilot instead of deleting the branch, create an issue asking a maintainer to review the branch

Updated the stale-branch workflow to open a maintainer review issue instead of deleting the branch directly. It skips protected branches and branches tied to open PRs, and avoids duplicate review issues. c102b8e

@mark-wiemer
mark-wiemer marked this pull request as ready for review September 15, 2026 14:35
@mark-wiemer mark-wiemer changed the title Add stale-branch cleanup automation chore: add "stale branch" workflow Sep 15, 2026
@mark-wiemer
mark-wiemer merged commit ad17f9f into main Sep 15, 2026
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mark-wiemer deleted the copilot/remove-stale-branches branch September 15, 2026 14:36
@github-actions github-actions Bot mentioned this pull request Sep 15, 2026
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🛠️ Repo: Automatically remove stale branches

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