Create a GitHub App that detects first-time comments and responds with links to how to contribute

[stevepiercy]

We get way too many comments from first-time visitors to Plone's repositories on GitHub who don't read the contributing guidelines. We want to point them to these guidelines before they waste their and our time. @stevepiercy patiently responds to most of these lost souls with a GitHub Saved Reply, depending on the repository as follows.

Documentation

please read and follow [First-time contributors](https://6.docs.plone.org/contributing/first-time.html), especially [Things not to do](https://6.docs.plone.org/contributing/first-time.html#things-not-to-do), [Contributing to Plone](https://6.docs.plone.org/contributing/index.html), and [Contribute to documentation](https://6.docs.plone.org/contributing/documentation/index.html). 

Volto

please read and follow [First-time contributors](https://6.docs.plone.org/contributing/first-time.html), especially [Things not to do](https://6.docs.plone.org/contributing/first-time.html#things-not-to-do), [Contributing to Plone](https://6.docs.plone.org/contributing/index.html), and [Contributing to Volto](https://6.docs.plone.org/contributing/volto.html). 

Plone

please read and follow [First-time contributors](https://6.docs.plone.org/contributing/first-time.html), especially [Things not to do](https://6.docs.plone.org/contributing/first-time.html#things-not-to-do), and [Contributing to Plone](https://6.docs.plone.org/contributing/index.html). 

It would be nice to automate this process to help these first-timers. Probot appears to have a good tutorial that could help create a bot to do this.

https://probot.github.io/docs/

[hello-Rahul24]

Hi @stevepiercy I’d like to work on automating this with a Probot app.

One question before I start: should a “first-time commenter” be detected per repository or across all Plone repositories?

Thank you!

[stevepiercy]

@hello-Rahul24 thank you for volunteering! This should be across all Plone repositories, which is the Plone GitHub organization.

[hello-Rahul24]

Thanks for the clarification! @stevepiercy
I’m starting to work on this now and will share updates as I make progress.

[stevepiercy]

Thank you, @hello-Rahul24. At some point, we'll need to coordinate granting appropriate permissions to the app, which I can do. To start, I'd suggest creating a fork of this repo and testing it under own GitHub organization, which is any repo under your username.

[hello-Rahul24]

It’s working locally now — I’ve tested the Probot app with a dummy repo under my own GitHub account.
I’ll need your help later to connect it to the Plone organization @stevepiercy, Thanks !

[stevepiercy]

@hello-Rahul24 nice! Would you please open a pull request or somehow share that with me? I'd like to try it locally, too. If you have any security or privacy concerns before doing so, let's discuss how to proceed.

It also occurred to me, where would be the best place to host the code for the bot? I think its own repository under the Plone organization would be the best location, instead of under plone/documentation.

We'll also need to consider security and access in the Plone GitHub organization, such as any secrets or tokens that are required to configure the bot to work. Can you provide a list of security matters that would need to be addressed? I can look them up in the GitHub API after I see the code, but since I assume you've already gone through that process for your personal repo, I'd appreciate the help. Thank you!

[hello-Rahul24]

@stevepiercy Thanks! I’ll push the working version to a public repo under my GitHub account and share the link so you can try it locally. The required environmental variables are described in .env.example.

I agree that this should live in its own repo under the Plone organization later. The app currently needs basic GitHub App permissions to read issues and post comments.

GIthub link :
https://github.com/hello-Rahul24/plone-first-timer-bot.git

I’m happy to make any changes if needed. Please let me know your suggestions or feedback.

[hello-Rahul24]

Hey @stevepiercy !! Just a gentle follow-up in case this got missed. Happy to make any changes or adjustments based on your feedback. Thanks!