Context Variables

Template variables available in Handlebars expressions.

Overview

Context variables provide access to PR or issue data, event information, and other runtime values. Use these in any template string throughout your rules.

The available variables depend on the event type:

Variable group	pull_request	issues
pr.*	✅	—
issue.*	—	✅
event.*	✅	✅
label.*	✅ (labeled events)	✅ (labeled events)
comments	✅ (on-demand)	✅ (on-demand)

pr (Pull Request)

Pull request information. Available in pull_request events only.

Variable	Type	Description	Example
pr.number	number	PR number	42
pr.title	string	PR title	"Add user auth"
pr.body	string	PR description	Full text
pr.author	string	PR author username	"octocat"
pr.assignee	string?	PR assignee username (optional)	"reviewer"
pr.url	string	PR URL	https://github.com/...
pr.merged	boolean	Whether PR is merged	true / false
pr.draft	boolean	Whether PR is draft	true / false
pr.base_ref	string	Target branch	"main"
pr.head_ref	string	Source branch	"feature/auth"

Examples

update_fields:
  '1234567890': '{{pr.title}}'
  '1111111111': '{{pr.number}}'

post_pr_comment: |
  PR #{{pr.number}} by @{{pr.author}}
  {{pr.url}}

issue (GitHub Issue)

Issue information. Available in issues events only.

Variable	Type	Description	Example
issue.number	number	Issue number	42
issue.title	string	Issue title	"Bug: login fails"
issue.body	string	Issue description	Full text
issue.author	string	Issue author username	"reporter"
issue.assignee	string?	Issue assignee username (optional)	"maintainer"
issue.url	string	Issue URL	https://github.com/...
issue.state	string	Issue state	"open" / "closed"
issue.labels	string[]?	All label names on the issue	["bug", "help wanted"]

Examples

create_task:
  title: 'GH Issue #{{issue.number}}: {{issue.title}}'
  notes: |
    Reported by: {{issue.author}}
    {{issue.url}}

    {{issue.body}}

post_pr_comment: |
  Issue #{{issue.number}} by @{{issue.author}}
  {{issue.url}}

event

GitHub event information. Always available.

Variable	Type	Description	Example
event.name	string	Event name	"pull_request"
event.action	string	Event action	"opened"

Examples

post_pr_comment: |
  Event: {{event.name}} ({{event.action}})

label

Label information. Only available when action: labeled or action: unlabeled.

Variable	Type	Description	Example
label.name	string	Label name	"ready-for-qa"

Examples

post_pr_comment: |
  Label "{{label.name}}" was added

comments

All comments (PR or issue) concatenated.

Important

Comments are only fetched when you use extract_from_comments helper. This is the only time the comments variable will be available. The action fetches comments on-demand to avoid unnecessary API calls.

Variable	Type	Description
comments	string	All comments joined (only when extract_from_comments is used)

Examples

update_fields:
  '1234567890': '{{extract_from_comments "Build #(\\d+)"}}'
  # Using extract_from_comments triggers comment fetching

Using Variables

Basic Access

{{pr.title}}
{{pr.author}}
{{event.name}}

With Helpers

{{clean_title pr.title}}
{{map_github_to_asana pr.author}}
{{extract_from_body "Version: ([\\d.]+)"}}

In Field Updates

update_fields:
  '1234567890': '{{pr.number}}'
  '1111111111': 'PR by {{pr.author}}'

In Task Creation

create_task:
  title: '{{pr.title}}'
  notes: '{{pr.body}}'
  assignee: '{{map_github_to_asana pr.author}}'

In PR Comments

post_pr_comment: |
  ## PR #{{pr.number}}: {{pr.title}}

  **Author:** @{{pr.author}}
  **Status:** {{#if pr.draft}}Draft{{else}}Ready{{/if}}
  **URL:** {{pr.url}}

Optional Variables

Some variables may not always be present:

pr.assignee

Only exists if PR has an assignee:

# Safe with or helper
create_task:
  assignee: '{{or (map_github_to_asana pr.assignee) (map_github_to_asana pr.author)}}'

label.name

Only present for labeled/unlabeled actions:

rules:
  - when:
      event: pull_request
      action: labeled
    then:
      post_pr_comment: |
        Label added: {{label.name}}

comments

Only present when comments are fetched:

update_fields:
  '1234567890': '{{extract_from_comments "Build #(\\d+)"}}'
  # Returns empty if comments not available

Examples by Use Case

Simple Field Update

update_fields:
  '1234567890': 'PR #{{pr.number}}'

Task from PR

create_task:
  title: '{{clean_title pr.title}}'
  notes: |
    {{pr.body}}

    PR: {{pr.url}}
  assignee: '{{map_github_to_asana pr.author}}'

Rich PR Comment

post_pr_comment: |
  ## ✅ Task Updated

  **PR:** #{{pr.number}} - {{pr.title}}
  **Author:** @{{pr.author}}
  **Branch:** `\{\{pr.head_ref\}\}` → `\{\{pr.base_ref\}\}`
  **Status:** {{#if pr.draft}}Draft{{else}}Ready for Review{{/if}}

  [View PR]({{pr.url}})

Extract Multiple Values

update_fields:
  '1111111111': '{{extract_from_body "Version: ([\\d.]+)"}}'
  '2222222222': '{{extract_from_title "\\[(\\w+)\\]"}}'
  '3333333333': '{{pr.number}}'
  '4444444444': '{{pr.author}}'

Conditional Logic

create_task:
  title: '{{pr.title}}'
  assignee: '{{or pr.assignee pr.author}}'
  # Uses assignee if set, otherwise author

Escaping

Variables are inserted as-is (no HTML escaping by default).

For special characters in Asana HTML notes:

html_notes: |
  Title: {{pr.title}}
  # No escaping needed - Asana handles it

Missing Variables

If a variable doesn't exist, it evaluates to empty string:

# If pr.assignee is undefined
'{{pr.assignee}}'  # Returns: ""

Use or helper for defaults:

'{{or pr.assignee "Unassigned"}}'  # Returns: "Unassigned"

Context in Different Actions

create_task

All variables for the triggering event available:

• PR events: pr.*, event.*, label.* (if applicable), comments (if available)
• Issue events: issue.*, event.*, label.* (if applicable), comments (if available)

update_fields

All variables for the triggering event available:

• PR events: pr.*, event.*, label.*, comments
• Issue events: issue.*, event.*, label.*, comments

mark_complete

No template evaluation (boolean value only).

post_pr_comment

All variables plus task results (if using advanced templates). Works for both PR and issue events.

See Also

• Template Helpers - Functions for working with variables
• extract_from_body - Extract from body (PR or issue)
• clean_title - Clean title text
• map_github_to_asana - Map GitHub users to Asana
• Template System - Handlebars overview