cla-file-check GitHub action - check before again and again posting about the CLA that needs signing by the contributor.

[lukehalasy-anchorage]

Previously, the CLA workflow would post a comment asking the user to sign the CLA on every commit pushed to a PR. This created noise and made PR reviewing harder.

Now the workflow checks if a CLA comment already exists before posting, ensuring users only get notified once per PR.
above to be verified post-merge via opening a PR via my other GitHub account
testing of the bash within the new step orchestrated here -> https://github.com/anchorageoss/visualsign-parser/pull/168/changes#r2772045200

Fixes #54

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[lukehalasy-anchorage]

we can test at least the command within this.

gh pr view ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} --json comments --jq '.comments[] | select(.author.login == "github-actions[bot]") | .body' | grep -q "Contributor License Agreement"

the script, ( supposedly), if this is true will skip.
we can run this against a PR that has such a CLA comment like #162

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This pull request addresses issue #54 by preventing the CLA workflow from posting duplicate comments on every commit to a pull request. The workflow now checks if a CLA-related comment from the github-actions bot already exists before posting a new one.

Changes:

• Added a new step to check for existing CLA comments from the github-actions bot
• Modified the comment posting step to only execute when no existing CLA comment is found
• Reduced notification noise for contributors who haven't signed the CLA

---

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[Copilot]

This command pipeline will fail if no comments from github-actions bot exist yet, because grep returns a non-zero exit code when it finds no matches. This would prevent the workflow from ever posting the first CLA comment. Add error handling by appending || true to the end of the pipeline, or restructure to explicitly handle the exit code. For example: if gh pr view ... | grep -q "..." 2>/dev/null; then or wrap the entire condition in a way that handles the failure case.

Suggested change

	if gh pr view ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} --json comments --jq '.comments[] | select(.author.login == "github-actions[bot]") | .body' | grep -q "Contributor License Agreement"; then
	COMMENTS=$(gh pr view ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} --json comments --jq '.comments[] | select(.author.login == "github-actions[bot]") | .body' || true)
	if echo "$COMMENTS" | grep -q "Contributor License Agreement"; then

[lukehalasy-anchorage]

here's a simple test I ran for this ( copied this into a bash script with configurable pr passed in )

[03:06:26] /home/user/visualsign-parser (fix/cla-duplicate-comments=)
\─<")>< cat test.sh
#!/bin/bash

COMMENTS=$(gh pr view $PR_NUMBER --json comments --jq '.comments[] | select(.author.login == "github-actions") | .body')

if echo "$COMMENTS" | grep -q "Contributor License Agreement"; then
  echo "CLA comment already exists, skipping"
  echo "comment_exists=true" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
else
  echo "No CLA comment found, will post one"
  echo "comment_exists=false" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
fi
/─[03:06:28] /home/user/visualsign-parser (fix/cla-duplicate-comments=)
\─<")>< PR_NUMBER=162 ./test.sh 
CLA comment already exists, skipping
./test.sh: line 7: $GITHUB_OUTPUT: ambiguous redirect
/─1 [03:06:38] /home/user/visualsign-parser (fix/cla-duplicate-comments=)
\─<")>< PR_NUMBER=168 ./test.sh
No CLA comment found, will post one
./test.sh: line 10: $GITHUB_OUTPUT: ambiguous redirect
/─1 [03:06:53] /home/user/visualsign-parser (fix/cla-duplicate-comments=)

[lukehalasy-anchorage]

note that the $GITHUB_OUTPUT: ambiguous redirect can be ignored... this shouldn't occur when it runs within the Github Action vs my local machine. its a special variable not defined in my machine but yes defined within Github Actions ( proved by its usage in the previous step in this file )

[lukehalasy-anchorage]

test on recent changes to use URL as the grep key 🟢

[lukehalasy-anchorage]

we can test at least the command within this.

gh pr view ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} --json comments --jq '.comments[] | select(.author.login == "github-actions[bot]") | .body' | grep -q "Contributor License Agreement"

the script, ( supposedly), if this is true will skip. we can run this against a PR that has such a CLA comment like #162

see https://github.com/anchorageoss/visualsign-parser/pull/168/changes#r2772045200

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

---

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[Copilot]

The grep pattern "Contributor License Agreement" is fragile because it depends on exact matching of this phrase. If the comment text in the "Comment on PR if user is not signed" step (line 65-69) is ever modified to use different wording (e.g., abbreviated as "CLA" or rephrased), this check will fail to detect existing comments and duplicate comments will be posted. Consider using a more stable identifier or searching for a unique marker that's less likely to change, such as the CLA_URL environment variable value.

Suggested change

	if echo "$COMMENTS" | grep -q "Contributor License Agreement"; then
	if echo "$COMMENTS" | grep -Fq "${{ env.CLA_URL }}"; then

[lukehalasy-anchorage]

ya that's a good call.....

[prasanna-anchorage]

thanks