[Hector Hernandez (hectorhdzg)]

Aligns issue and PR auto-close automation across the Azure Monitor repositories so they all follow the same rules. The same three workflow files are used in each repo.

Rules

Workflow	Trigger	Behavior
needs-author-feedback	needs-author-feedback label added / author comments	Pings the author when the label is added. When the author replies, removes the label, and reopens the issue if it was auto-closed for missing feedback
needs-author-feedback-followup	daily	Reminder at 7 days, closes at 14 days without an author reply (issues only; keep opts out)
stale	daily	Issues: no activity for 90 days → stale, closed 14 days later. PRs: 30 days → stale, closed 14 days later. Oldest first and throttled so existing backlogs are worked down gradually

stale intentionally uses a single actions/stale invocation: the action persists its progress under one fixed cache key, so multiple invocations would overwrite each other's progress.

Exempt from inactivity closure: keep, needs-team-attention, waiting labels (waiting, waiting-external, waiting for backend fix, waiting - CDN deployment, fixed - waiting release), and milestoned items. Issues are also exempt when labeled bug or needs-author-feedback (the latter is handled by the follow-up workflow). Any comment or update resets the clock.

Feedback flow safeguards: the follow-up re-checks state, label round and author replies right before closing, removes the label only after a successful close (failures retry next run), and reopens if a reply races the close. The reply handler ignores replies older than the latest label, skips bot-authored issues, and never reverses a maintainer's manual close.

Repo-specific

• Updates the existing needs-author-feedback workflows to the shared version (adds keep opt-out, reopen on author reply, and race/retry safeguards) and adds stale. Workflow-only change, so skip-changelog is applied.

[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

Late-reply recovery can reopen an issue after a maintainer has manually closed it.

1 open issue

• Prevent late-reply recovery from reopening manual closures · New

What changed in this PR

Aligns issue and pull request auto-close automation with the shared Azure Monitor repository policy.

Changes:

• Adds throttled inactivity handling with separate issue and PR timelines and configured exemptions.
• Extends author-reply handling to reopen feedback-closed issues while checking closure history.
• Adds feedback follow-up safeguards for opt-outs, label rounds, retries, and replies arriving during closure.

File	Description
.github/​workflows/​stale.yml	Adds scheduled inactivity reminders and closure rules.
.github/​workflows/​needs-author-feedback.yml	Adds current-state and closure-history checks for author replies.
.github/​workflows/​needs-author-feedback-followup.yml	Adds opt-outs, pre-close checks, and late-reply recovery.

_{Review effort: Balanced}

[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

A label-cleanup failure can bypass late-reply recovery and leave an answered issue automatically closed.

1 open issue

• Prevent label cleanup failures from skipping late-reply recovery · New

1 resolved since last review

• Prevent late-reply recovery from reopening manual closures

_{Review effort: Balanced}