Implement a bot which subscribes/mentions multiple reviewers for merge requests
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	TheresNoTime
	May 20 2024, 11:18 AM

Description

GitLab does not allow multiple reviewers, which can be fairly annoying. I mentioned this on fedi, and mocked up a quick POC.

The idea being that if a user places the line

Reviewers: @samtar, @some, @others

in their merge request description, these users will be subscribed to the MR and a message similar to the below will be posted:

@samtar @some @others

You have been added as a reviewer to this MR. Please review it and provide your feedback.

Maybe this could be reworked to instead tag a group as a reviewer, which would then mention/subscribe all members?

Thoughts/suggestions/etc. welcome, I'm just trying to get around a fairly annoying limitation of GitLab :')

P62683 poc_multiple_reviewers.py

1	import gitlab
2	import re
3
4	"""
5	Example commit/MR description:
6
7	```
8	A description of the merge request.
9
10	Reviewers: @user1, @user2, @user3
11	Bug: T123456
12	```
13	"""
14
15	gl = gitlab.Gitlab('https://gitlab.wikimedia.org')
16
17	# This regex will match the Reviewers: line in the MR description
18	reviewers_regex = re.compile(r"Reviewers: ?(?P<reviewers>.*?)\n", re.IGNORECASE)
19
20	notication_message = "\n\nYou have been added as a reviewer to this MR. Please review it and provide your feedback."
21
22	# I picked a project for testing
23	project_name = "repos/commtech/wishlist-intake"
24	project = gl.projects.get(project_name)
25
26	# We'd normally get the open MRs like this
27	mrs = project.mergerequests.list(state='opened', order_by='updated_at')
28
29	# But for testing, I just picked a well-known MR ID
30	mr = project.mergerequests.get(30)
31
32	"""
33	The returned description for MR 30 is:
34
35	```
36	[WIP]\n\n\nReviewers: @samtar, @test\n\nBug: T362275
37	```
38	"""
39
40	# Extract the reviewers from the MR description
41	reviewers_match = reviewers_regex.search(mr.description)
42	if reviewers_match:
43	reviewers = reviewers_match.group('reviewers').split(',')
44	users_to_notify = []
45	for reviewer in reviewers:
46	# Clean up the reviewer name
47	reviewer = reviewer.strip()
48	reviewer = reviewer[1:] if reviewer.startswith('@') else reviewer
49
50	user = gl.users.list(username=reviewer)
51	if len(user) == 1:
52	user = user[0]
53	print(f"[:)] User {reviewer} found: ", user.name, user.username, user.id)
54	# Subscribe the user to the MR
55	mr.subscribe(user.id)
56	# Append the user to the list of users to notify
57	users_to_notify.append("@" + user.username)
58	else:
59	print(f"[:(] User {reviewer} not found, or more than one result returned")
60
61	if users_to_notify:
62	# Notify the users
63	print("\n== Leaving the following message ==\n\n" + ', '.join(users_to_notify) + notication_message)
64	mr.notes.create({'body': ', '.join(users_to_notify) + notication_message})
65
66	"""
67	The output of running this script is:
68
69	```
70	[:)] User samtar found: Samtar samtar 267
71	[:(] User test not found, or more than one result returned
72
73	== Leaving the following message ==
74
75	@samtar
76
77	You have been added as a reviewer to this MR. Please review it and provide your feedback.
78	```
79	"""

Related Objects

Mentioned Here: T289712: Investigate whether we can/should integrate Git/Reviewers with GitLab
P62683 poc_multiple_reviewers.py

Event Timeline

TheresNoTime created this task.May 20 2024, 11:18 AM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptMay 20 2024, 11:18 AM

Have we raised this limitation GitLab (Upstream pit of despair 🕳️) to see if its something they potentially want to work on and improve?

Likely - googling for gitlab "multiple reviewers" lists https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/issues/32943 as the second result for me :)

Aklapper edited projects, added GitLab (Upstream pit of despair 🕳️); removed GitLab.May 20 2024, 1:01 PM

Have we raised this limitation GitLab (Upstream pit of despair 🕳️) to see if its something they potentially want to work on and improve?

It is, for clarity, explicitly a part of their business strategy, and was deliberately removed from the Community Edition.

This would be a natural fit to plug into gitlab-webhooks, and I think I'm in favor of something like it. Also a reasonable match for the already-implemented mw:Git/Reviewers behavior that provides GitLab @-mentions for matched users.

I've thought before about abusing tags for this purpose - something like a "Reviewer-[Username]" tag, but that's clunky and the @-mention approach is probably a more natural fit for people's expectations.

The Reviewers: ... syntax seems reasonable to me. It would mirror the syntax that Diffusion/arc use for the same general purpose.

We can build this functionality using the existing https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/GitLab/Webhooks tool. This would be very similar to the existing https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/GitLab/Webhooks#Gitlab_Mentions sink in that the outcome is a comment on an MR letting someone know that it exists. The implementation would be so similar that I think it might be easiest to implement this as an additional feature in https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/releng/gitlab-webhooks/-/blob/main/src/glwebhooks/sinks/gitlabmentions.py rather than making it a separate sink.

brennen moved this task from Backlog to Radar on the User-brennen board.May 20 2024, 4:55 PM

Open question: If we are having folks put @{username} references into the MR description, won't that already ping the mentioned users?

In T365350#9813392, @bd808 wrote:

Open question: If we are having folks put @{username} references into the MR description, won't that already ping the mentioned users?

Good question, I know that a comment with an @{username} adds an entry in your GitLab todo list—maybe the same happens for MR descriptions(?).

The comment feature is how @dancy handled https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Git/Reviewers for GitLab in the gitlab-webhooks repo—adds a "note" (i.e., a comment) mentioning usernames.

In T365350#9813456, @thcipriani wrote:

In T365350#9813392, @bd808 wrote:

Open question: If we are having folks put @{username} references into the MR description, won't that already ping the mentioned users?

Good question, I know that a comment with an @{username} adds an entry in your GitLab todo list—maybe the same happens for MR descriptions(?).

The mention of my username that @thcipriani added to the description of https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/thcipriani/stacked/-/merge_requests/2 created a new TODO entry for me in gitlab:

Screenshot 2024-05-20 at 12.42.57.png (122×2 px, 39 KB)

The mention/TODO does not seem to create a potentially blocking comment thread in the MR as the idea of making a "note" would I believe.

I just added a note to https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T289712#9818356 that may be relevant here:

There's a problem with the method that is used to add mentions to a merge request. When the gitlab-mentions-bot mentions someone in a note, the bot account itself becomes subscribed to the MR and it receives update notifications. That's no good.

	F53979364: Screenshot 2024-05-20 at 12.42.57.png
	May 20 2024, 6:47 PM

Implement a bot which subscribes/mentions multiple reviewers for merge requestsOpen, Needs TriagePublicFeatureActions

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Implement a bot which subscribes/mentions multiple reviewers for merge requests
Open, Needs TriagePublicFeature
Actions