We have a check that runs on PRs:

name: check_time
on:
  pull_request:
    types:
      - synchronize
      - opened
      - reopened
  issue_comment:
    types:
      - created
jobs:
  check_time:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    # run this if this event is not triggered by comment created (i.e. triggered by PR opened)
    # or run this if the comment was created on a PR
    if: ${{ !github.event.comment || (github.event.issue.pull_request && contains(github.event.comment.body, '/check_time')) }}
    steps:
    ...

We'd like to be able to trigger this check on a schedule. So, every so often, for every open pull request, have this check rerun. Here is the attempted implementation below:

name: trigger_check_time
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      reason:
        description: 'Manual trigger of check-time'
        required: false
  schedule:
    - cron: '5 20 * * *'

jobs:
  provide_prs_json:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      matrix: ${{ steps.set_matrix.outputs.matrix }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: List Pull Requests
        id: list_prs
        uses: actions/github-script@v6
        with:
          github-token: ${{secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN}}
          script: |
            const response = await github.rest.pulls.list({
              owner: 'xxxx',
              repo: 'yyyy',
            });
            const prs = response.data.map(pr => pr.number);
            console.log(`found ${prs.length} prs: ${JSON.stringify(prs)}`);
            return prs;

      - name: Set Matrix
        id: set_matrix
        run: echo ::set-output name=matrix::'${{ steps.list_prs.outputs.result }}'

  dispatch_event:
    needs: provide_prs_json
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      # the real magic happens here - create dynamic matrix from the json
      matrix:
        pr: ${{ fromJson(needs.provide_prs_json.outputs.matrix) }}
    steps:
      - name: Comment PR
        id: comment_pr
        uses: actions/github-script@v6
        with:
          github-token: ${{secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN}}
          result-encoding: string
          script: |
            try {
              github.rest.issues.createComment({
                owner: 'xxxx',
                repo: 'yyyy',
                issue_number: ${{ matrix.pr }},
                body: "/check_time",
              });
            } catch (e) {}

The above all works fine in the sense that it finds all the PRs and comments in their threads but the comment does not trigger the check_time workflow to run. I assume this is because events github-actions do not trigger other events? Is there any way to comment as a user instead?

I also looked at using workflow_dispatch event, but not sure how to have the check_time workflow run in the context of each PR (i.e. if the check_time workflow fails, the PRs should no longer be mergeable).