CI PR Template Validation: Streamlining Pull Request Quality and Consistency

The Challenge

While contributing to the popular open-source project js-org/js.org, I observed a recurring issue: many pull requests (PRs) were submitted without properly completing the required PR template. This inconsistency created several problems, including:

• Missing or unchecked mandatory checkboxes.
• Absence of meaningful content descriptions.
• Invalid or placeholder URLs submitted.
• PR descriptions that failed to follow the prescribed format.

These oversights significantly increased the review workload for maintainers and introduced risks such as incomplete or incorrect domain additions, potentially compromising the project’s integrity.

💡 My Contribution

To tackle this challenge head-on, I developed a Continuous Integration (CI) check that automatically verifies whether the PR template has been correctly and fully completed before merging. The GitHub Action I implemented performs rigorous validation by ensuring:

• ✅ PR Description Format: The submitted description strictly adheres to the required template structure.
• ✅ Mandatory Checkboxes: All essential checkboxes (such as acknowledging contribution guidelines and confirming site accessibility) are checked.
• ✅ Valid URLs: URLs provided for content locations are properly formatted and valid.
• ✅ Meaningful Descriptions: The description field is neither empty nor filled with placeholder text.

This proactive validation approach helps maintain high-quality contributions and streamlines the review process. You can check out the implementation here: js-org/js.org#9782.

🔧 How I Solved It

I crafted a custom GitHub Action using JavaScript that:

• Fetches the body of each PR dynamically through the GitHub API.
• Utilizes robust regular expressions to inspect the required fields and checkbox states.
• Fails the CI check immediately if any portion of the template is incomplete, malformed, or invalid.

By integrating this CI step into the PR validation pipeline, I ensured that contributors adhere to standards upfront, reducing back-and-forth during reviews and making the maintainers’ job much easier.

🚀 What I Learned

This experience was invaluable for me to:

• Gain hands-on expertise in creating custom GitHub Actions tailored for specific workflow needs.
• Master the use of regex for advanced pattern matching and validation tasks.
• Automate quality control processes to enhance contribution workflows in open-source projects.

Overall, solving this real-world problem was deeply rewarding and contributed to smoother, more reliable collaboration within a widely-used open-source community.