feat(appset): add time-based filtering in PR generator #25803

markomirosavljev · 2025-12-27T11:42:28Z

Summary

This PR adds 2 additional filters in applicationSet PR generator, createdWithin and updatedWithin which allow PR filtering based on time after they are created, or last time updated.

Motivation

In cases we have lots of applicationsets creating review envs using PR generator, we can end up having lots of apps that are created based off stale PRs on repositories that are not being worked on atm. This filtering can prevent ArgoCD from creating apps for PRs older than specific duration, or that are not updated within specific time duration.

Implementation

Added createdAt and updatedAt field to pull request parameters - both parsed from values returned by SCM APIs and will also be available for templating
Added createdWithin and updatedWithin filters on applicationset CRD and updated filtering functions to parse time.Duration from CRD while compiling and applying filters to applicationset.
Updated test cases to cover new fields in PR parameters, and extended test cases with filtering cases.

Manifests will look like this:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: ApplicationSet
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration: |
      ....
  creationTimestamp: "2025-12-27T10:55:06Z"
  generation: 2
  name: pr-preview-apps
  namespace: argocd
  resourceVersion: "48678"
  uid: 5d376305-51f7-4fd3-8ee4-3e4c8b47daae
spec:
  generators:
  - pullRequest:
      filters:
      - createdWithin: 168h
      - updatedWithin: 24h
      github:
        labels:
        - preview
        owner: ownerorg
        repo: core
        tokenRef:
          key: password
          secretName: creds-3812896623
      requeueAfterSeconds: 120
  template:
    metadata:
      annotations:
        pr-createdat: '{{created_at}}'
        pr-updatedat: '{{updated_at}}'
      labels:
        app-type: pr-preview
        pr-number: '{{number}}'
      name: pr-{{number}}-preview
    spec:
      destination:
        namespace: pr-{{number}}
        server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
      project: default
      source:
        path: charts/core
        repoURL: https://github.com/ownerorg/core.git
        targetRevision: '{{head_sha}}'
      syncPolicy:
        automated:
          prune: true
          selfHeal: true
        syncOptions:
        - CreateNamespace=true

Checklist:

bunnyshell · 2025-12-27T11:42:35Z

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nitishfy · 2025-12-27T19:34:21Z

applicationset/services/pull_request/github.go

 				Labels:       getGithubPRLabelNames(pull.Labels),
 				Author:       *pull.User.Login,
+				CreatedAt:    pull.CreatedAt.Time,
+				UpdatedAt:    pull.UpdatedAt.Time,


are there no tests where we can add these fields? I see that we have tests for other providers that you edited to add the timestamp field but not for GitHub.

That is correct. I've just added additional test cases for Github PR generator service.

nitishfy

Please fix the conflicts.

markomirosavljev · 2025-12-28T15:03:04Z

Please fix the conflicts.

Conflicts resolved @nitishfy

ppapapetrou76

Consider adding a small log/event when a PR is skipped due to filtering (so users can debug why apps were not created).

Please make sure time comparisons use the time format Since/UTC properly to avoid DST/timezone surprises.

ppapapetrou76 · 2026-01-05T19:38:36Z

applicationset/services/pull_request/bitbucket_cloud_test.go

+	updatedTime = "2015-10-15T17:38:55.491628+00:00"
+)
+
+func parseBitbucketCloudTimeFromString(t string) time.Time {


this function already exists above in another test

I've removed this function from gitea_test.go and reused this one for both gitea and bitbucket_cloud

ppapapetrou76 · 2026-01-05T20:04:41Z

applicationset/services/pull_request/utils.go

 	if filter.TitleMatch != nil && !filter.TitleMatch.MatchString(pullRequest.Title) {
 		return false
 	}
+	if filter.CreatedWithin != nil && pullRequest.CreatedAt.Before(time.Now().Add(-*filter.CreatedWithin)) {


createdWithin takes precedence over updatedWithin — please make this explicit in both code comments and user docs

I've mentioned this in the docs for createdWithin filter.

I've mentioned this in the docs for createdWithin filter.

Can we also add a note in the CLI argument description. Most users will check the CLI output first rather than the dcos.
WDYT?

I'm thinking if this comments and documentation updates are needed since this is pretty much the behavior for all conditions if they are provided within a single filter like this:

- branchMatch: "test-*" createdWithin: "12h" updatedWithin: "6h"

In this case filter wants all conditions to be true so if any of these conditions fail, PR will be filtered out and there will be no difference if 1st, 2nd or 3rd condition failed and any other passed.

I think it is my false assumption that there is "precedence" while I was initially working on this PR and I apologize, I will update PR description to remove that.

That is already mentioned in the docs here.

markomirosavljev · 2026-01-11T20:17:52Z

Consider adding a small log/event when a PR is skipped due to filtering (so users can debug why apps were not created).

Please make sure time comparisons use the time format Since/UTC properly to avoid DST/timezone surprises.

@ppapapetrou76 That will be useful for debugging. I've added log that will show properties of pull request and filters for each PR that is filtered out during appset reconciliation.

Also, I've updated tests and date parsing methods for SCM providers to use UTC.

markomirosavljev · 2026-01-11T20:21:50Z

Also, with this PR ApplicationSet CRD has issues when manifests are installed without --server-side flag. As I saw, this is already updated in developer guide docs as probably people had similar issues.

ppapapetrou76 · 2026-01-13T13:36:59Z

applicationset/services/pull_request/utils.go

+	}
+	if filter.UpdatedWithin != nil && pullRequest.UpdatedAt.Before(time.Now().UTC().Add(-*filter.UpdatedWithin)) {
+		return false
+	}


we can make this code a little bit more readable by moving these lines in PullRequest struct methods ( interface.go ) file

You can have something like

func (p PullRequest) IsCreatedWithin(t *time.Duration) bool { return t != nil && p.CreatedAt.Before(time.Now().UTC().Add(-*t)) }

Same for UpdatedWithin

WDYT?

I agree, what do you think about moving all checks to methods?

Yes but for now let's do the checks related to the context of this PR

I've created methods for checking if PR is created or updated within specified time duration.

ppapapetrou76 · 2026-01-13T13:37:56Z

applicationset/services/pull_request/utils.go

+		if filter.CreatedWithin != nil {
+			createdWithin, err := time.ParseDuration(*filter.CreatedWithin)
+			if err != nil {
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("error parsing CreatedWithin duration %s: %w", *filter.CreatedWithin, err)
+			}
+			outFilter.CreatedWithin = &createdWithin
+		}
+		if filter.UpdatedWithin != nil {
+			updatedWithin, err := time.ParseDuration(*filter.UpdatedWithin)
+			if err != nil {
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("error parsing UpdatedWithin duration %s: %w", *filter.UpdatedWithin, err)
+			}
+			outFilter.UpdatedWithin = &updatedWithin
+		}


do you think we can remove duplication by adding a function?

Yes, we might want to do that for other filters too?

let's stick to time-based filter for now in this PR.

I've updated both filters to use function.

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

markomirosavljev requested a review from a team as a code owner December 27, 2025 11:42

markomirosavljev mentioned this pull request Dec 27, 2025

ApplicationSet PR generator time based filters #25804

Open

markomirosavljev force-pushed the feat/appset-filters branch 2 times, most recently from e40c8a0 to e844c46 Compare December 27, 2025 13:13

nitishfy reviewed Dec 27, 2025

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markomirosavljev requested review from a team as code owners December 28, 2025 13:09

markomirosavljev force-pushed the feat/appset-filters branch from b4baa65 to 3d4e4bd Compare December 28, 2025 14:08

ppapapetrou76 reviewed Jan 5, 2026

View reviewed changes

markomirosavljev force-pushed the feat/appset-filters branch from 6e035dd to 7193d81 Compare January 11, 2026 20:13

ppapapetrou76 reviewed Jan 13, 2026

View reviewed changes

markomirosavljev added 10 commits January 17, 2026 12:28

implement created and updated appset filters

ebb863c

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

update tests for createdWithin and updatedWithin filters

841f291

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

add test cases for github and update documentation

ff94578

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

codegen update

736a386

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

fix failing unit tests

6e46a33

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

fix appset e2e mock and add log to pr filtering func

9c2ce2f

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

use utc timestamps

a55a15e

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

update documentation

0595aac

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

remove redundant testing helper method

b216a69

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

reduce duplication in filter methods

55a39a1

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

markomirosavljev force-pushed the feat/appset-filters branch from 7193d81 to 55a39a1 Compare January 17, 2026 12:19

remove pointer from pullrequest struct methods

18fd6fc

Signed-off-by: Marko Mirosavljev <[email protected]>

feat(appset): add time-based filtering in PR generator #25803

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feat(appset): add time-based filtering in PR generator #25803

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markomirosavljev commented Jan 11, 2026

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markomirosavljev commented Dec 27, 2025 •

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