[Intermediate]: Create a workflow to copy over the issue labels, type to the PR labels

[exploreriii]

🧩 Intermediate Contributors

This issue is intended for contributors who already have some familiarity with the
Hiero Python SDK codebase and contribution workflow.

You should feel comfortable:

• navigating existing source code and examples
• understanding SDK concepts without step-by-step guidance
• following the standard PR workflow without additional onboarding

If this is your very first contribution to the project, we recommend starting with a few
Good First Issues before working on this one.

🐞 Problem Description

Our pull requests are not currently labelled.

Labels would be useful, for example, we can

• assign priority
• assign difficulty
  This means maintainers can focus on highly difficult/urgent tasks, and spent most of their time on those, and other team members that are building review skills can focus on easier PRs.
  By allocating review time more fruitfully, the SDK can progress more seemlessly

💡 Expected Solution

We do not want to manually label the PRs

We have a workflow in place that will remind users to link their PRs to the issue they are solving.

Once that is done, perhaps what we can do is copy over the labels from the issue they are solving.

• We already label issues by priority, difficulty, type, etc.

🧠 Implementation Notes

🧠 How it works
PR gets opened / updated
Existing workflow checks if they have linked an issue
User self-links issue
New workflow fetches labels from those issues
Applies the same labels to the PR

We need a trigger:

.github/workflows/sync-issue-labels.yml

This should identify if:

• has a linked issue

then it should trigger a logic script
and a logic script:
.github/scripts/sync-issue-labels.js

ensure:

• is a pull request
• is not a bot

it should copy over the labels

This should be tested as per
docs/sdk_developers/training/testing_forks.md

The idea is to merge your bot to your fork's main, enable issues in settings, create an issue (add and create labels exactly like ours), then create a PR, link it, and see if the labels copy over due to your workflow

Please make sure to keep the code tidy and maintainable
for example

• extract all hard coded variables to the top, think about changes in the future
• ensure things are separated out into small functions
• ensure there is suficient logging so the action workflow can be used to debug the output
• ensure the error handling has approrpiate logs or comments

✅ Acceptance Criteria

To merge this issue, the pull request must:

• Fully address the problem described above
• Follow existing project conventions and patterns
• Include tests or example updates where appropriate
• Pass all CI checks
• Include a valid changelog entry
• be a DCO and GPG key signed as git commit -S -s -m "chore: my change" with a GPG key set up

📚 Additional Context or Resources

• SDK Developer Docs
• SDK Developer Training

[github-actions]

@coderabbitai plan

[coderabbitai]

Coding Plan

Approach

Create a GitHub workflow and script that automatically copies labels from linked issues to their corresponding pull requests. When a PR includes "Fixes #123" (or similar) in its body, the workflow will fetch the labels from issue #123 and apply them to the PR, enabling maintainers to prioritize reviews based on difficulty and urgency.

Observations

The repository has 34+ GitHub workflows in .github/workflows/ and 18+ JavaScript scripts in .github/scripts/. All scripts follow a standard pattern using module.exports = async ({ github, context, core }) with pre-authenticated GitHub API access. The bot-pr-missing-linked-issue.yml workflow and its corresponding script provide the exact pattern for detecting linked issues in PR bodies using a regex that matches Fixes|Closes|Resolves #123``. Security is enforced via step-security/harden-runner and `pull_request_target` triggers checkout `main` to avoid executing untrusted code from forks. Scripts use try-catch error handling with console.log for debugging and fail-safe behavior on API errors.

Assumptions

Assumption 1: Should all labels be copied from issues to PRs, or should certain labels be filtered?

Options Considered:

1. Copy ALL labels from linked issues without filtering
2. Filter out difficulty labels (beginner, intermediate, advanced, Good First Issue) and only copy priority/type labels
3. Create a configurable allowlist/blocklist of labels to copy

Chosen Option: 1

Rationale: The ticket explicitly states the goal is to have priority AND difficulty labels on PRs so maintainers can allocate review time appropriately. This is a deliberate project decision. If filtering is needed later, it can be added as an enhancement.

💡 User Tips

Regenerate the plan with different choices with @coderabbitai <feedback>.

Implementation Steps

Create Label Sync Automation

This phase creates the complete label synchronization feature: a workflow that triggers on PR events and a script that extracts linked issue numbers, fetches their labels, and applies them to the PR.

Task 1: Create the Sync Issue Labels Workflow

Create the workflow file that triggers label synchronization when PRs are opened or updated.

• Create .github/workflows/sync-issue-labels.yml following the structure of bot-pr-missing-linked-issue.yml
• Use pull_request_target trigger with events: opened, edited, reopened (matches the linked issue detection workflow)
• Set minimal permissions: pull-requests: write, contents: read
• Include step-security/harden-runner with egress-policy: audit for supply chain security
• Add concurrency group using ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} to prevent race conditions
• Checkout main branch (not PR head) for security when using pull_request_target
• Call the script using actions/github-script pinned to commit SHA ed597411d8f924073f98dfc5c65a23a2325f34cd (v8.0.0)
• Support workflow_dispatch with optional pr_number and dry_run inputs for manual testing

Task 2: Create the Sync Issue Labels Script

Create the JavaScript script that handles label extraction and application logic.

• Create .github/scripts/sync-issue-labels.js following the standard module export pattern
• Implement bot detection to skip PRs authored by accounts ending in [bot] or dependabot
• Extract issue numbers from PR body using the proven regex pattern: /\b(Fixes|Closes|Resolves)\s*:?\s*(#\d+)(\s*,\s*#\d+)*/gi
• Modify the regex usage to extract all issue numbers (using matchAll and parsing #\d+ patterns) rather than just detecting presence
• Handle multiple linked issues by collecting labels from all of them and deduplicating
• Fetch labels from each linked issue using github.rest.issues.get(), handling 404 errors gracefully if an issue doesn't exist
• Collect unique label names from all linked issues into a single array
• Skip label application if no labels are found or PR already has all the labels
• Apply labels to the PR using github.rest.issues.addLabels() (PRs use the issues API for labels)
• Support DRY_RUN environment variable to log actions without making changes
• Implement comprehensive error handling: log errors but don't fail the workflow for non-critical issues
• Add extensive console.log statements for transparency and debugging

Task 3: Add Changelog Entry

Document the new feature in the changelog following project conventions.

• Add entry under [UNRELEASED] section in CHANGELOG.md
• Use appropriate category (likely Added for new feature)
• Reference the issue number being solved
• Keep description concise: "Added workflow to automatically copy labels from linked issues to PRs"

🤖 Prompt for AI agents

This phase implements the complete label synchronization feature that
automatically copies labels from linked issues to their corresponding PRs.

**Task 1.1: Create the Sync Issue Labels Workflow**

Create `.github/workflows/sync-issue-labels.yml` following the repository's
established pattern from `bot-pr-missing-linked-issue.yml`:

- Configure `pull_request_target` trigger with events: `opened`, `edited`,
`reopened`
- Add `workflow_dispatch` trigger with inputs: `pr_number` (string, optional),
`dry_run` (boolean, optional)
- Set minimal permissions: `pull-requests: write`, `contents: read`
- Add concurrency group: `${{ github.workflow }}-${{
github.event.pull_request.number }}` with `cancel-in-progress: true`
- Include `step-security/harden-runner` step with `egress-policy: audit`
- Checkout `main` branch (not PR head) for security
- Use `actions/github-script` pinned to SHA
`ed597411d8f924073f98dfc5c65a23a2325f34cd`
- Call `.github/scripts/sync-issue-labels.js` script
- Pass `DRY_RUN` environment variable from workflow_dispatch input if provided

**Task 1.2: Create the Sync Issue Labels Script**

Create `.github/scripts/sync-issue-labels.js` following the standard module
pattern `module.exports = async ({ github, context, core })`:

- Implement bot detection: skip if PR author username ends with `[bot]` or
includes `dependabot`
- Extract issue numbers from PR body using regex
`/\b(Fixes|Closes|Resolves)\s*:?\s*(#\d+)(\s*,\s*#\d+)*/gi`
- Use `matchAll` to find all matches, then parse `#\d+` patterns to extract
issue numbers
- For each linked issue number:
  - Fetch issue using `github.rest.issues.get()` with try-catch for 404 errors
  - Extract label names from the issue
  - Add to a deduplicated collection
- Skip if no labels found or PR already has all the labels
- Apply labels using `github.rest.issues.addLabels()` (PRs use issues API)
- Support `DRY_RUN` environment variable to log without applying changes
- Use comprehensive error handling with console.log for transparency
- Don't fail the workflow on non-critical errors

**Task 1.3: Add Changelog Entry**

Update `CHANGELOG.md`:

- Add entry in `[UNRELEASED]` section under `Added` category
- Content: "Added workflow to automatically copy labels from linked issues to
PRs"
- Reference the issue number being solved

---

🚀 Next Steps

🤖 All AI agent prompts combined

This phase implements the complete label synchronization feature that
automatically copies labels from linked issues to their corresponding PRs.

**Task 1.1: Create the Sync Issue Labels Workflow**

Create `.github/workflows/sync-issue-labels.yml` following the repository's
established pattern from `bot-pr-missing-linked-issue.yml`:

- Configure `pull_request_target` trigger with events: `opened`, `edited`,
`reopened`
- Add `workflow_dispatch` trigger with inputs: `pr_number` (string, optional),
`dry_run` (boolean, optional)
- Set minimal permissions: `pull-requests: write`, `contents: read`
- Add concurrency group: `${{ github.workflow }}-${{
github.event.pull_request.number }}` with `cancel-in-progress: true`
- Include `step-security/harden-runner` step with `egress-policy: audit`
- Checkout `main` branch (not PR head) for security
- Use `actions/github-script` pinned to SHA
`ed597411d8f924073f98dfc5c65a23a2325f34cd`
- Call `.github/scripts/sync-issue-labels.js` script
- Pass `DRY_RUN` environment variable from workflow_dispatch input if provided

**Task 1.2: Create the Sync Issue Labels Script**

Create `.github/scripts/sync-issue-labels.js` following the standard module
pattern `module.exports = async ({ github, context, core })`:

- Implement bot detection: skip if PR author username ends with `[bot]` or
includes `dependabot`
- Extract issue numbers from PR body using regex
`/\b(Fixes|Closes|Resolves)\s*:?\s*(#\d+)(\s*,\s*#\d+)*/gi`
- Use `matchAll` to find all matches, then parse `#\d+` patterns to extract
issue numbers
- For each linked issue number:
  - Fetch issue using `github.rest.issues.get()` with try-catch for 404 errors
  - Extract label names from the issue
  - Add to a deduplicated collection
- Skip if no labels found or PR already has all the labels
- Apply labels using `github.rest.issues.addLabels()` (PRs use issues API)
- Support `DRY_RUN` environment variable to log without applying changes
- Use comprehensive error handling with console.log for transparency
- Don't fail the workflow on non-critical errors

**Task 1.3: Add Changelog Entry**

Update `CHANGELOG.md`:

- Add entry in `[UNRELEASED]` section under `Added` category
- Content: "Added workflow to automatically copy labels from linked issues to
PRs"
- Reference the issue number being solved

💡 Iterate on the plan with: @coderabbitai <feedback>

Example Feedback
- `@coderabbitai` You can skip phase 3. Add a simple unit test case for phase 2.
- `@coderabbitai` For assumption 1 go ahead with option 3 and replan.

---

💬 Have feedback or questions? Drop into our discord!

[exploreriii]

If #1717 is merged in time, this workflow should also copy the assignees as well as the labels and type !