Auto-Close Duplicates

Automatically close confirmed duplicate issues after a grace period

Auto-Close Duplicates

The auto-close feature automatically closes issues labelled potential-duplicate after a configurable grace period, while respecting human override signals.

How it works

1. When Simili Bot detects a duplicate issue, it applies the potential-duplicate label and posts an analysis comment
2. A grace period begins (default: 72 hours)
3. At the end of the grace period, simili auto-close checks for human activity
4. If no human override signals are present, the issue is closed with a comment

Human activity detection

The auto-closer will not close an issue if any of the following occur after the potential-duplicate label was applied:

Signal	Description
Negative reaction	A non-bot user reacts with 👎 or 😕 on the bot’s comment
Issue reopened	A human reopens the issue after it was labelled
Non-bot comment	A non-bot user comments on the issue

Bot users (accounts ending in [bot], dependabot, renovate, and any accounts in bot_users config) are ignored for human activity detection.

Setup

1. Configure grace period

In .github/simili.yaml:

auto_close:
  grace_period_hours: 72   # 3 days (default)
  dry_run: false

2. Create a scheduled workflow

Create .github/workflows/simili-auto-close.yml:

name: Simili Auto-Close Duplicates

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 */6 * * *'  # Every 6 hours
  workflow_dispatch:         # Allow manual runs

jobs:
  auto-close:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      issues: write
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: similigh/simili-bot@v0.2.0
        with:
          command: "auto-close"
          config_path: ".github/simili.yaml"
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          QDRANT_URL: ${{ secrets.QDRANT_URL }}
          QDRANT_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.QDRANT_API_KEY }}
          GEMINI_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.GEMINI_API_KEY }}

Dry-run mode

Test auto-close without making any changes:

simili auto-close --repo owner/repo --dry-run

Or with an instant grace period for testing:

simili auto-close --repo owner/repo --grace-period-minutes 0 --dry-run

Output

The command outputs a JSON summary:

{
  "processed": 12,
  "closed": 3,
  "skipped_grace_period": 7,
  "skipped_human_activity": 2,
  "errors": 0,
  "details": [
    {
      "number": 45,
      "action": "closed",
      "reason": "grace period expired, no human activity"
    },
    {
      "number": 52,
      "action": "skipped",
      "reason": "human_activity: non-bot comment detected"
    },
    {
      "number": 67,
      "action": "skipped",
      "reason": "grace_period: 12h remaining"
    }
  ]
}

Tips

• Set an appropriate grace period — 72 hours gives authors time to respond. For fast-moving repos, consider 24-48 hours.
• Use workflow_dispatch in your workflow so you can trigger it manually when needed.
• Run in dry-run first to see which issues would be closed before enabling for real.
• Combine with issue notifications — users who open duplicates will see the bot comment and can react to prevent closure.

Next steps

Auto-close CLI reference

Full command options

Duplicate detection guide

How duplicates are detected