PR Dependency Check Action

This GitHub Action enforces PR dependencies as stated in a PR's opening comment.

The bot parses the first comment of a PR looking for the key phrases "depends on" or "blocked by" followed by an issue number specified by # and the issue or PR number (e.g. #5).

Supported link styles

The action can detect links in the following styles:

• Quick Link: #5
• Partial Link: gregsdennis/dependencies-action#5
• Partial URL: gregsdennis/dependencies-action/pull/5
• Full URL: https://github.com/gregsdennis/dependencies-action/pull/5
• Markdown: [markdown link](https://github.com/gregsdennis/dependencies-action/pull/5)

Works for both issues and PRs!

Also supports custom domains for use with GitHub Enterprise!

See it in action:

• PR to be landed first
• PR to be landed second

Example usage

Just add the following to a .yml file in your .github/workflows/ folder.

on:
  pull_request_target:
    types: [opened, edited, closed, reopened]

jobs:
  check_dependencies:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Check Dependencies
    steps:
    - uses: gregsdennis/dependencies-action@main
      with:
        custom-domains: my-custom-domain.io another.domain.com
      env:
        GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Retry Behavior

The action automatically retries GitHub API calls that fail due to transient errors (network issues, 5xx responses, rate limiting). This improves reliability when GitHub's API experiences temporary issues.

Default behavior:

• 3 retry attempts with exponential backoff
• Retries on: network errors, 5xx server errors, rate limit errors
• Each retry adds ~1-7 seconds of delay

Custom configuration:

- uses: gregsdennis/dependencies-action@main
  with:
    max-retries: 5  # Override default of 3
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Troubleshooting:

• Retry attempts are logged in the action output
• If all retries fail, the action will fail with the last error
• Set max-retries: 0 to disable retries (not recommended)