From 4efc5c06f796c4a74b7c58c67a5526c996337eda Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jonathan Swoboda <154711427+swoboda1337@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2026 23:35:06 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Measure stale unmarking from the stale window, not just the
 label date

The unmark check asked whether there was activity since the stale label
was applied, while the marking check asked whether there was activity in
the last 90 days. When the label was older than the window both could be
true at once, so an item was unmarked one night and marked again the
next, posting a fresh stale comment each time.

This happened to esphome/esphome#10867: labelled in December, commented
on six days later, then closed and locked. Reopening it in August let the
January comment clear the label, and the next run marked it stale again
because that comment was long outside the 90 day window.

Measure from whichever of the label date and the stale cutoff is later,
so activity that is itself stale can no longer clear the label.
---
 .github/workflows/stale.yml | 6 +++++-
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/.github/workflows/stale.yml b/.github/workflows/stale.yml
index d868630..43a4764 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/stale.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/stale.yml
@@ -228,7 +228,11 @@ jobs:
                     continue;
                   }
 
-                  if (await hasRealActivitySince(item, labeledAt)) {
+                  // Measure from whichever is later, so activity that is
+                  // itself older than the stale window cannot clear the label
+                  // on an item that was marked long ago.
+                  const since = labeledAt > staleCutoff ? labeledAt : staleCutoff;
+                  if (await hasRealActivitySince(item, since)) {
                     const kind = isPr ? 'PR' : 'issue';
                     console.log(`Unmarking ${kind} #${item.number}: real activity since it was marked stale`);
                     if (!DRY_RUN) {