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GitHub Agentic Workflows

Command Triggers

GitHub Agentic Workflows add the convenience command: trigger to create workflows that respond to /my-bots in issues and comments.

on:
  command:
    name: my-bot  # Optional: defaults to filename without .md extension

This automatically creates:

  • Issue and PR triggers (opened, edited, reopened)
  • Comment triggers (created, edited)
  • Conditional execution matching /command-name mentions

You can combine command: with other events like workflow_dispatch or schedule:

on:
  command:
    name: my-bot
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 9 * * 1"

Note: You cannot combine command with issues, issue_comment, or pull_request as they would conflict.

Note: Using this feature results in the addition of .github/actions/check-team-member/action.yml file to the repository when the workflow is compiled. This file is used to check if the user triggering the workflow has appropriate permissions to operate in the repository.

Example command workflow

Section titled “Example command workflow”
---
on:
  command:
    name: summarize-issue
permissions:
  issues: write
tools:
  github:
    allowed: [add_issue_comment]
---


# Issue Summarizer


When someone mentions /summarize-issue in an issue or comment,
analyze and provide a helpful summary.


The current context text is: "${{ needs.task.outputs.text }}"

Context Text (needs.task.outputs.text)

Section titled “Context Text (needs.task.outputs.text)”

All workflows have access to a special computed needs.task.outputs.text value that provides context based on the triggering event:

# Analyze this content: "${{ needs.task.outputs.text }}"

How text is computed:

  • Issues: title + "\n\n" + body
  • Pull Requests: title + "\n\n" + body
  • Issue Comments: comment.body
  • PR Review Comments: comment.body
  • PR Reviews: review.body
  • Other events: Empty string

Note: Using this feature results in the addition of .github/actions/compute-text/action.yml file to the repository when the workflow is compiled.

Reactions

Section titled “Reactions”

Command workflows can provide immediate visual feedback by adding reactions to triggering comments and automatically editing them with workflow run links:

on:
  command:
    name: my-bot
  reaction: "eyes"

When someone mentions /my-bot in a comment, the workflow will:

  1. Add the specified emoji reaction (👀) to the comment
  2. Automatically edit the comment to include a link to the workflow run

This provides users with immediate feedback that their request was received and gives them easy access to monitor the workflow execution.

See Reactions for the complete list of available reactions.

Section titled “Related Documentation”