Add rate limiting protection to Issue Monster workflow #14379

Copilot · 2026-02-07T15:39:35Z

Add rate limiting detection to Issue Monster workflow
Check recent PRs for rate limit patterns before scheduling work
Skip assignments when rate limiting detected
Remove standalone rate-limit-pr-detector workflow
Remove documentation and skill files
Update workflow documentation
Fix timestamp formatting for GitHub search API compatibility
Merge main branch and recompile workflows

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Detect rate limited prs</issue_title>
<issue_description>This copilot PR failed because of rate limiting

#14368

Query the timeline and determine a seqmrch query/graphql query to find these PRs and read the message.</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

Fixes Detect rate limited prs #14374

💬 We'd love your input! Share your thoughts on Copilot coding agent in our 2 minute survey.

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

pelikhan · 2026-02-07T16:38:43Z

@copilot update issue monster with rate limiting detection to prevent scheduling work when rate limited. Remove other files

…tor files - Add rate limit check in Issue Monster to prevent scheduling work when rate limited - Check recent Copilot PRs for rate limit indicators before assigning issues - Skip all assignments if rate limiting detected in last hour - Remove standalone rate-limit-pr-detector workflow - Remove docs and skill files for standalone detector - Update Issue Monster documentation to reflect rate limiting protection Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot · 2026-02-07T16:45:07Z

@copilot update issue monster with rate limiting detection to prevent scheduling work when rate limited. Remove other files

Done! Updated Issue Monster with rate limiting detection and removed standalone detector files.

Changes in commit 48224bd:

Rate Limiting Protection Added: Issue Monster now checks recent Copilot PRs (last hour) for rate limit indicators before scheduling any work
Detection Pattern: Looks for "rate limit", "API rate limit", "secondary rate limit", "abuse detection", "429", "too many requests"
Auto-Skip: If rate limiting detected, workflow skips all assignments to prevent further API issues
Files Removed: Deleted standalone rate-limit-pr-detector workflow, docs, and skill directory

The workflow now automatically protects against scheduling work during rate limiting events.

Use full ISO timestamp instead of just date for accurate last-hour filtering Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Format timestamp as YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ without milliseconds Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

pelikhan · 2026-02-07T16:52:22Z

@copilot merge main recompile

Copilot

Pull request overview

Adds a pre-flight GitHub API rate-limit detection step to the Issue Monster workflow so it can skip scheduling/assigning work when recent Copilot PR activity indicates rate limiting, reducing cascading failures across scheduled runs.

Changes:

Add a “recent PR timeline scan” in the search_issues job to detect rate limiting patterns and short-circuit outputs to skip downstream work.
Update the workflow’s embedded instructions/documentation to describe the new rate limiting protection behavior.
Regenerate the compiled workflow lockfile to reflect the updated workflow source.

Reviewed changes

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

File	Description
.github/workflows/issue-monster.md	Adds rate-limit detection logic before issue search and documents the new protection behavior.
.github/workflows/issue-monster.lock.yml	Updates the compiled/locked workflow to include the new rate-limit detection logic.

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Copilot · 2026-02-07T16:55:09Z

.github/workflows/issue-monster.md

+
+                  if (rateLimitDetected) break;
+                } catch (error) {
+                  core.warning(`Could not check PR #${pr.number} for rate limiting: ${error.message}`);


If the GraphQL timeline query fails due to rate limiting, this code currently just logs a warning and continues, which can lead to a false “No rate limiting detected” and proceed to perform even more API calls. Consider treating rate-limit-shaped errors (e.g., message contains "rate limit"/"secondary rate limit" or HTTP 429/403 from the error response) as a positive detection and short-circuit the workflow like the comment-body match does.

Suggested change

core.warning(`Could not check PR #${pr.number} for rate limiting: ${error.message}`);

const errorMessage = (error && error.message) ? error.message : String(error);

const statusCode = (error && (error.status || (error.response && error.response.status))) || undefined;

const rateLimitErrorPattern = /rate limit|secondary rate limit/i;

const isRateLimitError =

(errorMessage && rateLimitErrorPattern.test(errorMessage)) ||

statusCode === 429 ||

statusCode === 403;

if (isRateLimitError) {

core.warning(`Rate limiting detected while checking PR #${pr.number}: ${errorMessage}`);

rateLimitDetected = true;

break;

} else {

core.warning(`Could not check PR #${pr.number} for rate limiting: ${errorMessage}`);

}

Copilot · 2026-02-07T16:55:10Z

.github/workflows/issue-monster.md

+
+                  for (const comment of comments) {
+                    if (comment.body && rateLimitPattern.test(comment.body)) {
+                      core.warning(`Rate limiting detected in PR #${pr.number}: ${comment.body.substring(0, 200)}`);


Logging a substring of comment.body into workflow logs can leak unrelated or sensitive content from PR comments if the regex matches something incidental (e.g., a user mentioning “429”). Safer approach: log only that a match occurred (PR number + comment timestamp/URL), or redact/sanitize the body before emitting it.

Suggested change

core.warning(`Rate limiting detected in PR #${pr.number}: ${comment.body.substring(0, 200)}`);

const commentTimestampInfo = comment.createdAt ? ` at comment createdAt=${comment.createdAt}` : '';

core.warning(`Rate limiting indicator detected in PR #${pr.number}${commentTimestampInfo}.`);

…etect-rate-limited-prs # Conflicts: # .github/workflows/issue-monster.lock.yml

- Merged main branch - Recompiled all workflows with updated configurations - Issue Monster schedule: every 10m -> every 30m - Issue Monster skip-if-match max: 9 -> 5 - Added mood.md import from main branch Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot · 2026-02-07T16:58:16Z

@copilot merge main recompile

Done! Merged main and recompiled all workflows in commit ccd3b88.

Changes:

Merged main branch successfully (resolved conflict in issue-monster.lock.yml)
Recompiled all 147 workflows
Issue Monster schedule updated: every 10m → every 30m
Issue Monster skip-if-match max: 9 → 5
Added mood.md import from main branch

Initial plan

d01bd47

Copilot AI assigned Copilot and pelikhan Feb 7, 2026

Copilot started work on behalf of pelikhan February 7, 2026 15:40 View session

Copilot AI and others added 3 commits February 7, 2026 15:47

Add rate-limit PR detector workflow and skill

da9e185

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Add documentation for detecting rate-limited PRs

f740a58

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Add quick start guide for rate-limited PR detection

e3f0d4e

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI changed the title ~~[WIP] Detect rate limited pull requests~~ Detect rate-limited PRs via timeline analysis Feb 7, 2026

Copilot AI requested a review from pelikhan February 7, 2026 15:53

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan February 7, 2026 15:53

Copilot started work on behalf of pelikhan February 7, 2026 16:39 View session

Copilot AI and others added 2 commits February 7, 2026 16:45

Fix rate limit date check to use full ISO timestamp

312ceb7

Use full ISO timestamp instead of just date for accurate last-hour filtering Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Improve timestamp format for GitHub search API compatibility

b7c7191

Format timestamp as YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ without milliseconds Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI changed the title ~~Detect rate-limited PRs via timeline analysis~~ Add rate limiting protection to Issue Monster workflow Feb 7, 2026

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan February 7, 2026 16:50

pelikhan approved these changes Feb 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

pelikhan marked this pull request as ready for review February 7, 2026 16:51

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings February 7, 2026 16:51

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of pelikhan February 7, 2026 16:52 View session

Copilot started work on behalf of pelikhan February 7, 2026 16:52 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Feb 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

Copilot AI and others added 2 commits February 7, 2026 16:57

Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/github/gh-aw into copilot/d…

d9f75c3

…etect-rate-limited-prs # Conflicts: # .github/workflows/issue-monster.lock.yml

Copilot AI requested a review from pelikhan February 7, 2026 16:58

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan February 7, 2026 16:58

pelikhan merged commit 9e3c31f into main Feb 7, 2026

pelikhan deleted the copilot/detect-rate-limited-prs branch February 7, 2026 17:31

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Feb 8, 2026

🌱 Daily Team Evolution Insights - February 8, 2026 #14451

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Add rate limiting protection to Issue Monster workflow #14379

Add rate limiting protection to Issue Monster workflow #14379

Copilot AI commented Feb 7, 2026 •

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-                  core.warning(`Could not check PR #${pr.number} for rate limiting: ${error.message}`);
+                  const errorMessage = (error && error.message) ? error.message : String(error);
+                  const statusCode = (error && (error.status || (error.response && error.response.status))) || undefined;
+                  const rateLimitErrorPattern = /rate limit|secondary rate limit/i;
+                  const isRateLimitError =
+                    (errorMessage && rateLimitErrorPattern.test(errorMessage)) ||
+                    statusCode === 429 ||
+                    statusCode === 403;
+                  if (isRateLimitError) {
+                    core.warning(`Rate limiting detected while checking PR #${pr.number}: ${errorMessage}`);
+                    rateLimitDetected = true;
+                    break;
+                  } else {
+                    core.warning(`Could not check PR #${pr.number} for rate limiting: ${errorMessage}`);
+                  }

	core.warning(`Rate limiting detected in PR #${pr.number}: ${comment.body.substring(0, 200)}`);
	const commentTimestampInfo = comment.createdAt ? ` at comment createdAt=${comment.createdAt}` : '';
	core.warning(`Rate limiting indicator detected in PR #${pr.number}${commentTimestampInfo}.`);

Add rate limiting protection to Issue Monster workflow #14379

Add rate limiting protection to Issue Monster workflow #14379

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