Problem

Contributors currently can't use commands like /assign or /label in issue comments. This makes it harder for community members to self-assign issues, especially ones marked as good first issue. Right now, they have to comment asking to be assigned and wait for a maintainer to do it manually.

What I'd like

• /assign - let users assign themselves to an issue
• /label <name> - add labels via comments

Why this helps

• Faster onboarding: New contributors can pick up a good first issue immediately without waiting for maintainers
• Less work for maintainers: No need to manually assign every issue
• Community-friendly: Makes the repo feel more welcoming and accessible
• Common pattern: Projects like Kubernetes, Prometheus, and other CNCF projects use this — contributors expect it

Possible solutions

A few ways we could implement this:

1. GitHub Actions with github-script: Add a workflow that listens for comments and processes slash commands. Simple and doesn't require external dependencies.

2. Use an existing action: Something like slash-command-dispatch handles most of the heavy lifting.