Acknowledge outside issues

When someone outside the project opens an issue, post a short comment so they know it was seen: “Thanks for raising this issue, a maintainer will look at it soon.” Nobody’s agent picks the issue up. A maintainer can still claim it later, by hand or by widening admit.

It is acknowledgement Work. The github entry observes each new issue’s opening a second time under a key of its own, and an acknowledgements route claims that copy as its own Work when admit.authors doesn’t admit the issue’s author. The Work never owns the issue, so the issue gets no agent-in-progress or status labels from it, and a later claim isn’t blocked.

Example config

The github entry sets acknowledge_issues. The issues route claims issues from the people admit trusts (the repository’s owner, members and collaborators by default) and starts the agent binding. The acks route takes every other new issue and runs the thanks shell binding, which comments once and exits. Exit status 0 completes the Work.

{
  "version": 1,
  "settings": {},
  "connections": [
    {"id": "github", "type": "github", "config": {}, "secret_refs": {"token": "cmd:gh auth token"}}
  ],
  "scopes": [
    {
      "id": "web",
      "name": "acme/web",
      "secret_refs": {},
      "authorization": {
        "connections": ["github"],
        "operations": ["@github.author"],
        "read_scopes": []
      },
      "extensions": [
        {"name": "web", "type": "github", "connection": "github", "secret_names": [],
         "config": {"namespace": "github/github.com/acme/web", "scope": "web", "repo": "acme/web", "acknowledge_issues": true}}
      ],
      "routes": [
        {"name": "issues", "handler": "github", "binding": "agent", "active_policy": "inject", "config": {}},
        {"name": "acks", "handler": "github", "binding": "thanks", "active_policy": "queue",
         "config": {"claim": "acknowledgements"}}
      ],
      "bindings": [
        {
          "name": "thanks",
          "executor": "shell",
          "requires": {"toolbelt": "cli"},
          "operations": ["github.issue.comment"],
          "secret_names": [],
          "config": {"command": "os call github.issue.comment --data '{\"body\": \"Thanks for raising this issue, a maintainer will look at it soon.\"}'"}
        },
        {
          "name": "agent",
          "executor": "claude-code",
          "connection": "github",
          "requires": {"toolbelt": "mcp", "inject": true, "resume": true, "workspace": true},
          "operations": ["@github.author"],
          "secret_names": [],
          "config": {"playbook": "work-issue", "branch": "agent/issue-{number}"},
          "resource": {"provider": "git", "config": {"checkout": "/path/to/web", "mode": "work"}}
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

The script needs to know nothing about keys or issue numbers: github.issue.comment from acknowledgement Work comments on the issue it acknowledges. The binding is granted only that operation, so the script can do nothing else. Swap the command for a script of your own to vary the message, say by reading the issue first with os call github.issue.view (grant that operation too).

What gets acknowledged

• Acknowledged: a new, open issue whose author’s association isn’t in admit.authors, such as CONTRIBUTOR, FIRST_TIME_CONTRIBUTOR or NONE with the default admit.
• Skipped by the route: an issue by someone admit trusts, which the issues route claims instead, and an issue by any bot, including this connection’s own follow-ups. open-conduit route '#12' shows the acks route’s verdict on issue 12 and its reason.
• Never observed: an issue opened more than 72 hours before Open Conduit saw it, so turning this on doesn’t thank the authors of old issues, and, until a later read succeeds, an issue whose author’s repository permission couldn’t be read, so a maintainer isn’t mistaken for an outsider. Nothing reaches the route for these, so route shows no acks verdict for them.
• Once per issue. A webhook redelivery, a reconcile or an edit doesn’t comment again, and neither does closing and reopening the issue.

The comment carries the acknowledgement Work’s marker, and run history links the issue’s Event, the acknowledgement Work and its Execution to it.

Claiming an acknowledged issue

The acknowledgement doesn’t own the issue, so a maintainer can still hand it to an agent: claim it with open-conduit claim <number> or the TUI’s c key, or add the author’s association to admit.authors before they open their next one.