`remove_labels` and `assign_to_user` safe output handlers do not support target-repo for cross-repository operations

[benvillalobos]

🤖: Bug report submitted by AI

Summary

Follow-up to #15027 — the same context.repo hardcoding bug that was fixed in add_labels.cjs and close_issue.cjs also exists in remove_labels.cjs and assign_to_user.cjs. Both handlers ignore the target-repo config and always operate against the workflow's own repository.

Affected Files

actions/setup/js/remove_labels.cjs

• Lines 11-12: Only imports safe_output_validator.cjs and error_helpers.cjs — does NOT import repo_helpers.cjs
• Line 124: Hardcoded ...context.repo in the removeLabel API call:

  await github.rest.issues.removeLabel({
    ...context.repo,
    issue_number: itemNumber,
    name: label,
  });

actions/setup/js/assign_to_user.cjs

• Lines 8-9: Only imports safe_output_processor.cjs and error_helpers.cjs — does NOT import repo_helpers.cjs
• Lines 104-105: Hardcoded context.repo.owner / context.repo.repo in the addAssignees API call:

  await github.rest.issues.addAssignees({
    owner: context.repo.owner,
    repo: context.repo.repo,
    issue_number: issueNumber,
    assignees: uniqueAssignees,
  });

Root Cause

When #15027 was fixed, add_labels.cjs and close_issue.cjs were updated to use resolveTargetRepoConfig / resolveAndValidateRepo from repo_helpers.cjs. The same fix was not applied to remove_labels.cjs and assign_to_user.cjs.

The Plumbing Already Works

Everything upstream of the handler JS is wired correctly:

1. Go compiler structs: Both RemoveLabelsConfig and AssignToUserConfig embed SafeOutputTargetConfig (which provides TargetRepoSlug and AllowedRepos)
2. Config generation (compiler_safe_outputs_config.go): The remove_labels builder calls AddIfNotEmpty("target-repo", c.TargetRepoSlug) and AddStringSlice("allowed_repos", c.AllowedRepos). The assign_to_user builder similarly extracts the config via addRepoParameterIfNeeded in safe_outputs_config_generation.go (line 894-898).
3. Docs (.github/aw/github-agentic-workflows.md): Both remove-labels and assign-to-user document target-repo as a supported field.
4. MCP tool schema: The compiler correctly adds the repo parameter to the safe-outputs MCP tool description when allowed-repos is configured.

The config IS passed correctly at runtime — it's just never read by the handlers.

Fix

Apply the exact same pattern from add_labels.cjs (the fix from #15027):

For each handler:

1. Add the import:

   const { resolveTargetRepoConfig, resolveAndValidateRepo } = require("./repo_helpers.cjs");

2. In the main() factory function, resolve the target repo from config:

   const { defaultTargetRepo, allowedRepos } = resolveTargetRepoConfig(config);

3. In the message handler function, resolve and validate per-message:

   const repoResult = resolveAndValidateRepo(message, defaultTargetRepo, allowedRepos, "label"); // or "assignee"
   if (!repoResult.success) {
     core.warning(`Skipping: ${repoResult.error}`);
     return { success: false, error: repoResult.error };
   }
   const { repo: itemRepo, repoParts } = repoResult;

4. Replace context.repo / ...context.repo with repoParts.owner / repoParts.repo in the API call.

Reference implementation: actions/setup/js/add_labels.cjs lines 13, 24, 57, 65, 127-128

Use Case

We're building a stale-issue re-triage workflow in a side repo (gh-aw-test) that will eventually run cross-repo from microsoft/vscode-engineering against microsoft/vscode. The workflow needs to:

• Add area labels (works — add_labels was fixed in close_issue and add_labels safe output handlers do not support target-repo for cross-repository operations #15027)
• Remove the triage-needed label (broken — remove_labels ignores target-repo)
• Assign the suggested owner (broken — assign_to_user ignores target-repo)

Reproduction

1. Create a workflow with target-repo set to an external repo:

   safe-outputs:
     remove-labels:
       allowed: ["triage-needed"]
       target-repo: "org/other-repo"
     assign-to-user:
       max: 1
       target-repo: "org/other-repo"

2. Trigger the workflow and have the agent call remove_labels or assign_to_user on an issue in the external repo
3. Both will 404 because they operate on context.repo instead of the configured target repo