Cherry-Pick Action

Cherry-pick pull requests to other branches by commenting /cherry-pick <target-branch>.

Usage

Add the following workflow to your repository (e.g. .github/workflows/cherry-pick.yml):

name: Cherry-pick
on:
  pull_request_target:
    types: [closed]
  issue_comment:
    types: [created]

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  cherry-pick:
    name: Cherry-pick
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: >
      (
        github.event_name == 'pull_request_target' &&
        github.event.pull_request.merged
      ) || (
        github.event_name == 'issue_comment' &&
        github.event.issue.pull_request &&
        contains(github.event.comment.body, '/cherry-pick')
      )
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Cherry-pick pull request
        uses: creydr/cherry-pick-action@v1

Then, on any merged pull request, add a comment:

/cherry-pick release-1.0

The action will cherry-pick the PR's commits into a new branch and open a pull request targeting release-1.0.

Multiple branches

Specify multiple target branches in a single command:

/cherry-pick release-1.0 release-1.1

Or use multiple commands in one comment:

/cherry-pick release-1.0
/cherry-pick release-2.0

Trigger behavior

• issue_comment (created): When a /cherry-pick comment is posted on a merged PR, the action processes that comment immediately.
• pull_request_target (closed/merged): When a PR is merged, the action scans all existing comments for /cherry-pick commands and processes each unique target.

Inputs

Input	Description	Default
github_token	Token to authenticate requests to GitHub. Either GITHUB_TOKEN or a repo-scoped Personal Access Token (PAT).	${{ github.token }}
github_workspace	Working directory for the action.	${{ github.workspace }}
comment_pattern	Regex pattern to match cherry-pick commands. Must contain a capture group for the target branch(es). The captured group is split by whitespace.	^\/cherry-pick (.+)$
cherry_picking	Determines which commits are cherry-picked. auto detects the merge method (squash, rebase, merge commit). pull_request_head always uses the PR's commits.	auto
merge_commits	How to handle merge commits. fail aborts on merge commits. skip ignores them.	fail

Pull request options

Input	Description	Default
pull_title	Template for the cherry-pick PR title.	[${target_branch}] ${pull_title}
pull_description	Template for the cherry-pick PR body.	# Description\nCherry-pick of #${pull_number} to \${target_branch}`.`
branch_name	Template for the cherry-pick branch name.	cherry-pick-${pull_number}-to-${target_branch}

Template placeholders

The following placeholders can be used in pull_title, pull_description, and branch_name:

Placeholder	Description
${pull_number}	Number of the original pull request
${pull_title}	Title of the original pull request
${pull_author}	Login of the original pull request author
${pull_description}	Body of the original pull request
${target_branch}	Target branch for the cherry-pick
${issue_refs}	Space-separated issue references mentioned in the original PR body

Labels

Input	Description	Default
add_labels	Comma-separated labels to add to the cherry-pick PR.	(none)
copy_labels_pattern	Regex pattern to match labels to copy from the original PR.	(none)

Assignees

Input	Description	Default
copy_assignees	Copy assignees from the original PR.	false
add_author_as_assignee	Set the original PR author as an assignee.	false

Reviewers

Input	Description	Default
copy_requested_reviewers	Copy requested reviewers from the original PR.	false
copy_all_reviewers	Copy all reviewers (requested + submitted) from the original PR.	false
add_author_as_reviewer	Request a review from the original PR author.	false
add_reviewers	Comma-separated list of reviewers to add.	(none)
add_team_reviewers	Comma-separated list of team reviewers to add.	(none)

Milestone

Input	Description	Default
copy_milestone	Copy the milestone from the original PR.	false

Auto-merge

Input	Description	Default
auto_merge_enabled	Enable auto-merge on the cherry-pick PR.	false
auto_merge_method	Merge method for auto-merge: merge, squash, or rebase.	merge

Git committer

Input	Description	Default
git_committer_name	Name of the committer for cherry-picked commits.	github-actions[bot]
git_committer_email	Email of the committer for cherry-picked commits.	github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com

Advanced

Input	Description	Default
source_pr_number	Explicitly specify the PR number to cherry-pick. When not set, the action determines it from the event payload.	(none)
experimental	JSON object for experimental features. See Conflict resolution.	{"conflict_resolution": "fail"}

Outputs

Output	Description
was_successful	true if all cherry-picks succeeded, false otherwise.
was_successful_by_target	Per-target results in the format target=true|false, one per line.
created_pull_numbers	Space-separated list of created PR numbers.

Triggering CI on cherry-pick PRs

By default, pull requests created by GITHUB_TOKEN do not trigger further workflow runs. This means CI checks won't run automatically on cherry-pick PRs. There are two ways to solve this:

Option 1: Use a GitHub App token

Create a GitHub App and use actions/create-github-app-token to generate a token. This is the recommended approach for organizations since the token is scoped, short-lived, and not tied to a personal account:

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

...

steps:
  - uses: actions/create-github-app-token@v2
    id: app-token
    with:
      app-id: ${{ vars.APP_ID }}
      private-key: ${{ secrets.APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - name: Cherry-pick pull request
    uses: creydr/cherry-pick-action@v1
    with:
      github_token: ${{ steps.app-token.outputs.token }}

The GitHub App needs Contents (read/write) and Pull requests (read/write) permissions.

Option 2: Use a Personal Access Token (PAT)

Pass a Personal Access Token as github_token. PRs created with a PAT trigger CI normally:

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

...

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - name: Cherry-pick pull request
    uses: creydr/cherry-pick-action@v1
    with:
      github_token: ${{ secrets.PAT }}

The PAT needs Contents (read/write) and Pull requests (read/write) permissions on the repository.

Conflict resolution

By default, the action fails when a cherry-pick encounters a conflict. To instead create a draft PR with the conflict committed, set:

- uses: creydr/cherry-pick-action@v1
  with:
    experimental: '{"conflict_resolution": "draft_commit_conflicts"}'

When a conflict is committed, the action posts instructions on how to resolve it locally:

git fetch origin <branch>
git worktree add --checkout .worktree/<branch> <branch>
cd .worktree/<branch>
git reset --hard HEAD^
git cherry-pick -x <commits>

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

This project was inspired and is based on backport-action.