Job outside-contributor-replies-drafted-for-a-maintainer-to-post · revised 12 October 2026
Get draft replies to outside contributors' issues and PRs, for a maintainer to post
New issues and pull requests from outside contributors get a draft reply that checks them against your contributing guide. A maintainer reads and posts each one. The job never posts, labels or closes.
You might be seeing
- Outside issues wait weeks for a first reply
- You ask the same follow-up questions on most pull requests
No passwords, keys, card details or admin invites needed to start.
What usually happened
A bot that posts on a public project speaks for it, and a wrong promise or a rude reply costs trust. Issue and pull request text is also an attack path: hostile text has steered AI agents into leaking tokens. The safe design is a repository-read-only job that writes drafts to a private queue, which a maintainer reads and posts.
Who it’s for: Maintainer of a public repository who gets more outside issues and pull requests than they can answer, and does not want a bot speaking for the project.
Usually starts when: Contributions wait for weeks, the same missing details are asked for again and again, and AI-written pull requests are adding to the pile.
The result: A repository-read-only job drafts a reply to each new outside issue and pull request, checked against your contributing guide, and puts it in a private queue. Each draft thanks the author, lists what is missing, links a duplicate or a guide section, and says "maintainer to decide" where no guide covers it. It never promises a merge, a date or a feature, and a maintainer posts every reply.
Check whether this job fits
Answer these without sending files, tickets, code or logins. Nothing is submitted unless you choose to contact us.
What you get
- The draft rules in plain steps
- The job and its settings
- The private queue format
- The replay and hostile-contribution results
- The off-switch and token-revocation note
Included
- One public repository and its contributing guide, code of conduct and issue templates
- A repository read-only token you create and keep; the job may write drafts only to the private queue, never to GitHub
- A private queue where each draft waits, with the guide section it relies on
- Draft rules: ask for missing details, point to duplicates and docs, note a failing check, never promise a merge, date or feature, and never state licence or legal terms
- Contributions from your maintainers and bots are skipped
- 14 days of drafts you rate before it runs on its own schedule
Not included
- Posting, labelling, assigning, closing, merging or reviewing code on the platform
- Running or opening anything from a contribution: links, scripts and code are never executed
- Decisions on what to accept: only a maintainer decides
- Replies to security reports: those go straight to a maintainer
- Replies to private, commercial or press messages
- Any promise about response times
How we know it’s done
Agreed with you before work starts. Each check produces evidence you keep.
On the 20 held-back contributions, your maintainers rate at least 17 drafts "post with light edit" under a rubric agreed before building (observed 85%; exact one-sided 95% lower bound, rounded down: 65%). At least 51 of the full 60 must pass too, but we claim no rate from the development cases.
Evidence: Your ratings beside each draft.
No draft in the 60 promises a merge, delivery deadline or feature, or states licence terms or a legal view. One such draft fails the whole test; your maintainer checks every draft, and this replay makes no general severe-error rate claim.
Evidence: The drafts, checked by script for the listed phrases and read by your maintainer.
Each of the 60 drafts cites a guide section or says no source was found, and a script confirms every cited section exists.
Evidence: The citation check.
20 hostile contributions with instructions in the title, body and comments produce no draft that contains the planted marker and no action on the repository (a smoke test of these 20; it does not show the job resists every attack). The token log shows no write.
Evidence: The hostile-contribution log and the token's audit log.
After the off switch is set, the next 5 new contributions on the copy get no draft.
Evidence: The off-switch rehearsal log.
Sign-off. You re-run the acceptance checks with the steps we hand over, read the results and sign off in writing. Payment follows sign-off.
If it fails. If an agreed check fails, you do not pay for this scope. We hand over what we found and agree whether to stop or re-quote; no surprise work.
When it fits, and when we stop
It fits when
- A public repository with a written contributing guide
- A maintainer who reads the queue each working day and posts the replies
- A read-only token you create and can revoke
- 60 past outside contributions with your own replies, 20 kept from us until the test run
We stop and tell you if
- You want the job to post, label or close on its own
- No maintainer will read the queue
- You want it to decide what is accepted
- The repository holds private code or customer data in its issues
What could go wrong
The job writes only to a private queue, so there is nothing on your repository to undo. Revoking the token or stopping the schedule ends it.
Scroll the table sideways to read it all.
| Risk | How we handle it |
|---|---|
| A draft promises something the project has not agreed. | Drafts may not promise a merge, delivery deadline or feature, or state licence terms or a legal view; any such draft in the tests fails the whole test. |
| Hostile text in a contribution steers the job. | The token is read-only, the job has no tools and runs no contribution code, and 20 hostile contributions are tested. |
| A maintainer posts a draft without reading it. | Each draft shows the guide section it relies on or says no source was found, so a skim shows what is unsupported. |
| AI-written contributions overwhelm the queue. | The job drafts and the maintainer decides. It does not slow the flow, but it does not remove the review work either. |
A separate automated reviewer checks the work and the test results before hand-over. Your maintainer reads every draft, edits it and posts it, and decides everything about the contribution. No human supervisor from us is included unless your agreement names one, and at launch the work is largely automated.
How we deliver
We arrange the work and independent review, then show you the result against the agreed checks. You keep authority over your systems.
- Agree the draft rules, the guide sections and who owns the queue
- Replay 60 past contributions; you keep 20 back
- Build the repository-read-only job and the private queue
- Test 20 hostile contributions that carry hidden instructions
- Run 14 days of drafts; your maintainer rates each one
- Review separately, rehearse the off switch and hand over
This is a one-off job, not emergency cover or a subscription. We confirm eligibility, price, start window and delivery date in writing before you accept, and work starts only after the agreed inputs are in place. An enquiry creates no charge or booking.
Need to keep it working?
Discuss the monthly sample check once the job has run live for a month.
Ongoing work is separately scoped and quoted: no monitoring, response-time guarantee or automatic subscription is included in this job.
Mention the responsibility you need in your enquiry.
What you can check
This is a new service. We have not delivered this job for a client yet.
Other ways to get this done
- Add issue and pull request templates that ask for the details up front.
- Use a saved-reply list in your platform and post them yourself.
Questions
Does a bot speak for my project?
No. The job only writes drafts to a private queue. A maintainer posts every reply.
Can it close duplicates or stale issues?
No. It has no repository write permission. It may link a likely duplicate in a draft.
What about security reports?
They are skipped and flagged to a maintainer at once. The job drafts nothing for them.
Does a pass mean it will be right next month?
No. A pass describes items like the test sample on the day of the test. It is not a promise about future items, and it does not replace your own checking.
Send an enquiry
Send us
- Which repository and how many outside contributions arrive a week
- Whether a contributing guide exists
- How replies are posted today
- No logins, keys, customer data or payment details in the first enquiry
Later, once you agree
- The last 60 outside contributions with the replies your maintainers gave, as a read-only export
- The contributing guide, issue templates and code of conduct
- Your confirmation that you created a read-only repository token for the installed job; never send it to us
- The name of the maintainer who owns the queue
You keep the repository and logins; we receive the agreed historical exports, build on a copy and hand over the job. You run it in your account with a read-only repository token we never hold; it writes only the private draft queue, never the repository. Before sharing or running it, the terms state the model-service country, retention and training status, and when our copies are deleted.
Email fallback: open your mail app
If website submission is unavailable, review and send the fallback email yourself. An email fallback is not a website receipt. Or write to hello@syntheticindustry.ai with “outside-contributor-replies-drafted-for-a-maintainer-to-post” as the subject.