nodebb-plugin-github-issue

Adds an "Open GitHub issue" item to the post options menu. Authorized users can send a post's content to a new issue in a configured GitHub repository, after editing the title and body in a dialog.

Features

• Post menu button — shown only to users holding the plugin's category privilege, and only when a repository + token are configured.
• Edit before sending — a dialog opens with the issue title (prefilled with the topic title) and body (prefilled with the raw post content and a link back to the post), both editable.
• Write-only token — the GitHub personal access token is stored server-side and can never be viewed again after saving; the admin page only shows whether a token is set and when.
• Token expiry — when saving the token, set a validity period in days (free text) or leave empty for no expiry. Administrators receive a notification 10 days before expiry and again when the token expires; issue creation is blocked while expired.
• Topic sidebar — every topic shows a sidebar panel listing the issues that were opened from its posts, each linking to the issue on GitHub and back to the originating post. Each issue shows a live status icon like on GitHub itself (green = open, purple check = closed, grey = closed as not planned); the status is fetched from GitHub server-side with the configured token and cached for 10 minutes. Visible only to users holding the plugin's privilege; it appears in the theme's sticky topic sidebar (large screens) or, on themes without one, in the widget sidebar area.
• Permissions — uses NodeBB's regular global privileges: grant the "Open GitHub issue from post" privilege (Manage → Privileges → Global Privileges, under the other section) to groups or individual users. Users also need read access to the post. Administrators always have it.

Setup

1. Activate the plugin and rebuild.
2. In the ACP page (Plugins → GitHub Issue from Post) set the repository (owner/repo), optional labels, the token, and its validity in days.
3. Grant the privilege in Manage → Privileges → Global Privileges.

The token needs the issues: write (fine-grained) or repo/public_repo (classic) scope.

Labels with a token that has no push access

GitHub only honours the labels field of the create-issue API when the token's account has push/triage access to the repository — otherwise the labels are silently dropped. To make labels work with an unprivileged token, the plugin also embeds the configured labels as a hidden marker in the issue body:

<!-- forum-labels: bug, from-forum -->

Add this workflow to the target repository as .github/workflows/forum-labels.yml (one-time setup by someone with write access to the repo). It runs with the repository's own GITHUB_TOKEN, which is always allowed to set labels:

name: Apply forum labels

on:
  issues:
    types: [opened]

permissions:
  issues: write

jobs:
  label:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/github-script@v7
        with:
          script: |
            const body = context.payload.issue.body || '';
            const match = body.match(/<!--\s*forum-labels:\s*([^>]*?)\s*-->/);
            if (!match) return;
            const labels = match[1].split(',').map(s => s.trim()).filter(Boolean).slice(0, 10);
            if (!labels.length) return;
            await github.rest.issues.addLabels({
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              issue_number: context.payload.issue.number,
              labels,
            });

Notes:

• When the token does have push access the labels are applied twice (API field + workflow) — that is harmless, the result is the same.
• The marker is plain issue-body text, so anyone who can open issues in the repo could add such a marker by hand to label their own issue. If that matters, whitelist the allowed labels inside the workflow script.
• addLabels creates labels that do not exist yet in the repository.