[Fix] Stale PR clock resets on bot activity so stale PRs never close - #2077

​Created by Roomote. Follow up by mentioning @roomote, in the web UI, or in Discord.

Related GitHub Issue

Closes: #2076

Description

actions/stale uses the PR updated_at field as its inactivity clock. The label-pr-review-state.yml workflow updates PRs many times per day (review-status comments, awaiting-author and has-conflicts label flips). Each update resets updated_at, so actions/stale removed the stale label on every run and stale PRs never closed (see PR #28 in the issue).

This PR implements policy C from the issue: the review workflow owns the clock, and only author activity resets it.

Changes:

• .github/workflows/label-pr-review-state.yml: adds one step, "Reconcile stale PR clock", to the per-PR reconcile job. The step computes the last author activity for the PR: the latest commit by the author, the latest comment or review by the author, and the latest ready_for_review event. Opening the PR counts as author activity. Bot comments and label changes never move the clock. The step then applies the thresholds from stale.yml: stale-inactive after 60 days, stale-awaiting-author after 14 days with the awaiting-author label, and close after 7 more days. The close decision reads the author clock, not the label age, so a PR with new author activity never closes in the same run. The step removes stale-inactive and stale-awaiting-author when the author clock is inside the window. The exempt labels do-not-close, pinned, and work-in-progress never close and get stale labels cleared. Read-only fork pull_request_review runs write nothing, matching the existing review-state step.
• .github/workflows/stale.yml: both actions/stale jobs now run with debug-only: true, so the new step can be validated (for example with workflow_dispatch) before this workflow is removed.
• src/services/__tests__/stale-pr-clock-workflow.test.ts: new unit tests. They execute the embedded workflow step against mocked GitHub API responses, following the existing pr-review-state-workflow.test.ts pattern. Covered cases: close despite hourly bot activity, mark stale once, clear on author activity, exempt PRs never close, both awaiting-author thresholds, ready_for_review and author reviews reset the clock, maintainer commits do not, read-only fork runs write nothing, closed PRs are skipped.
• src/vitest.workflow.config.ts runs the new test file in the dedicated non-Turbo workflow lane; the unit and services lanes exclude it, same as the existing workflow test. src/eslint.config.mjs lists the new file next to the existing exception for tests that read root-level config.

Test Procedure

• pnpm --dir src run test:workflow — 218 tests pass, including the 12 new stale-clock tests.
• pnpm test from the repository root — full suite passes (10941 tests).
• pnpm --dir src run check-types — passes.
• ESLint on all touched files — passes with no new suppressions.
• Reviewers can repeat the workflow tests with pnpm --dir src run test:workflow. After merge, the issue suggests testing policy C with workflow_dispatch on a known-stale PR while stale.yml stays in debug-only mode.

Pre-Submission Checklist

• Issue Linked: This PR is linked to an approved GitHub Issue (see "Related GitHub Issue" above).
• Scope: My changes are focused on the linked issue (one major feature/fix per PR).
• Self-Review: I reviewed my own code with care.
• Writing Style: The PR title and description use Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100): short sentences, plain words, active voice, one idea per sentence, no contractions.
• Testing: New and/or updated tests have been added to cover my changes (if applicable).
• Visual Snapshot (UI changes only): If a user would notice this change at a glance (layout, theme tokens, brand elements, empty/error states), I added or updated a *.visual.tsx snapshot in webview-ui/. See webview-ui/AGENTS.md → "When a UI change needs a snapshot".
• Documentation Impact: I checked if my changes need documentation updates (see "Documentation Updates" section below).
• Contribution Guidelines: I read and agree to the Contributor Guidelines.

Visual Snapshots

No UI changes. This PR changes CI workflow automation only.

Videos (interaction / animation only)

No interaction or animation changes.

Documentation Updates

• No documentation updates are required. (Stale-PR behavior is CI automation and is not documented in the docs repository.)

Additional Notes

stale.yml stays in place with debug-only: true as a safety net. A follow-up PR can remove it once the new step is proven on live data.

Get in Touch

Discord: 0x7777777_