Issue triage

3-phase workflow for maintainers: automated audit of all open issues, opt-in deep analysis via parallel agents, and validated triage actions (comments, labels, closures).

When to use this skill

Skill	Usage	Output
/issue-triage	Sort, analyze, and act on an issue backlog	Triage tables + analysis + executed actions
/pr-triage	Sort, review, and comment on a PR backlog	Triage table + reviews + posted comments

Triggers:

• Manually: /issue-triage or /issue-triage all or /issue-triage 42 57
• Proactively: when >10 open issues without label, or stale issues >30 days detected

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Language

• Check the argument passed to the skill
• If en or english → tables and summary in English
• If fr, french, or no argument → French (default)
• Note: GitHub comments and labels (Phase 3) are ALWAYS in English (international audience)

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Configuration

Thresholds used throughout the workflow. Edit to match your project:

Parameter	Default	Description
staleness_days	30	Days without activity before flagging as stale
very_stale_days	90	Days without activity before flagging as very stale
jaccard_threshold	60%	Minimum Jaccard similarity to flag two issues as duplicates
closed_compare_count	20	Number of recent closed issues to compare for duplicate detection
open_limit	100	Maximum open issues to fetch and analyze

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Preconditions

git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree
gh auth status

If either fails, stop and explain what is missing.

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Phase 1: Audit (always executed)

Data Gathering (parallel commands)

# Repo identity
gh repo view --json nameWithOwner -q .nameWithOwner

# Open issues (exclude PRs, limit 100)
gh issue list --state open --limit 100 \
  --json number,title,author,createdAt,updatedAt,labels,body,comments,assignees,milestone

# Recent closed issues (for duplicate detection)
gh issue list --state closed --limit 20 \
  --json number,title,body,labels,stateReason

# Open PRs (bodies for cross-reference detection)
gh pr list --state open --limit 50 --json number,title,body

# Collaborators (to distinguish reporter types)
gh api "repos/{owner}/{repo}/collaborators" --jq '.[].login'

Collaborators fallback: if gh api .../collaborators returns 403/404:

# Extract authors from last 10 merged PRs
gh pr list --state merged --limit 10 --json author --jq '.[].author.login' | sort -u

If still ambiguous, ask via AskUserQuestion.

Note: comments field in gh issue list --json comments returns the count, not content. For Phase 2, fetch full content separately: gh issue view {num} --json comments.

Analysis dimensions

Run all 6 dimensions for each open issue:

1. Categorization

Classify each issue by reading title + first 200 chars of body:

Category	Label	Criteria
Bug	bug	Describes broken behavior, unexpected output, crash
Feature Request	enhancement	Asks for new functionality
Question / Support	question	User asking how something works
Documentation	documentation	Missing or incorrect docs
Out of Scope	wontfix	Clearly outside project boundaries
Unclear	needs-info	Body empty, too vague to categorize

If body is empty → category is always Unclear (never assume).

2. Cross-reference to PRs

Scan each open PR body for references to the issue number:

• Patterns: fixes #N, closes #N, resolves #N, fix #N, close #N (case-insensitive, N = issue number)
• Use regex locally on the body fields already fetched; do NOT make N additional API calls
• If found: flag issue as "PR-linked" with PR number

3. Duplicate detection via Jaccard similarity

Algorithm (self-contained, no external library):

For each open issue, compute Jaccard similarity against all other open issues AND the 20 most recent closed issues.

Step 1: Normalize title + first 300 chars of body:
  - Lowercase the full text
  - Strip category prefixes: "feat:", "fix:", "bug:", "chore:", "docs:", "test:", "refactor:"
  - Remove punctuation: .,!?;:'"()[]{}-_/\@#

Step 2: Tokenize:
  - Split on whitespace
  - Remove stop words: the a an is in on to for of and or with this that it can not no be
  - Remove tokens shorter than 3 characters

Step 3: Compute Jaccard:
  tokens_A = set of tokens from issue A
  tokens_B = set of tokens from issue B
  jaccard = |tokens_A ∩ tokens_B| / |tokens_A ∪ tokens_B|

Step 4: Flag:
  - If jaccard >= 0.60: mark as potential duplicate
  - Report: "Similar to #N (Jaccard: 0.72)"
  - Keep the OLDER issue as canonical; newer = duplicate candidate

Jaccard is computed at runtime using the fetched data; no API calls beyond Phase 1 gather.

4. Risk classification

Assign Red / Yellow / Green based on signals in title + body:

Level	Color	Criteria
Critical	Red	Security vulnerability, data loss, regression blocking users, crash in production
Needs Attention	Yellow	Missing validation, performance degradation, breaking change undocumented, Unclear with no response for >7 days
Normal	Green	Everything else

5. Staleness

Status	Criterion
Active	Updated within 30 days
Stale	No activity 30–90 days
Very Stale	No activity >90 days

Use updatedAt field. Staleness does NOT depend on comments count; a commented-on issue with old updatedAt is still stale.

6. Recommendations

One recommended action per issue:

Situation	Action
Category = Unclear, body empty	Comment requesting details
Jaccard >= 0.60 with known issue	Close as duplicate, link original
Very stale + no assignee	Comment requesting status, suggest close
Risk = Red	Pin to top of triage, escalate immediately
Category = OOS	Close with explanation
PR-linked	No action needed (tracked via PR)
Normal + labeled	No action needed

Output: Triage tables

## Open Issues ({count})

### Critical: Immediate Attention (Risk: Red)
| # | Title | Category | Reporter | Days Open | Action |
|---|-------|----------|----------|-----------|--------|

### PR-Linked (tracked in open PRs)
| # | Title | Category | PR | Days Open |
|---|-------|----------|----|-----------|

### Active Issues
| # | Title | Category | Labels | Reporter | Days | Action |
|---|-------|----------|--------|----------|------|--------|

### Duplicate Candidates
| # | Title | Similar To | Jaccard | Action |
|---|-------|------------|---------|--------|

### Stale Issues
| # | Title | Category | Last Activity | Reporter | Action |
|---|-------|----------|---------------|----------|--------|

### Summary
- Total open: {N}
- Critical (Red): {count}
- PR-linked: {count}
- Duplicate candidates: {count}
- Stale (30–90d): {count}
- Very stale (>90d): {count}
- Unlabeled: {count}
- Recommended actions: {comment: N, label: N, close: N}

0 issues → display No open issues. and stop.

Protection rules (apply to all phases):

• Never close an issue authored by a collaborator without explicit user confirmation
• Never re-label an issue that already has labels (only add missing labels)
• If body is empty → always request details before any other action
• Never auto-close a Red issue without user confirmation

Automatic copy

After displaying the triage tables, copy to clipboard using platform-appropriate command:

UNAME=$(uname -s)
if [ "$UNAME" = "Darwin" ]; then
  pbcopy <<'EOF'
{full triage tables}
EOF
elif command -v xclip &>/dev/null; then
  echo "{full triage tables}" | xclip -selection clipboard
elif command -v wl-copy &>/dev/null; then
  echo "{full triage tables}" | wl-copy
elif command -v clip.exe &>/dev/null; then
  echo "{full triage tables}" | clip.exe
fi

Confirm: Triage tables copied to clipboard. (EN) / Tableaux copiés dans le presse-papier. (FR)

---

Phase 2: Deep Analysis (opt-in)

Issue selection

If argument passed:

• "all" → all issues with recommended actions
• Numbers ("42 57") → only those issues
• No argument → propose via AskUserQuestion

If no argument, display:

question: "Which issues do you want to analyze in depth?"
header: "Deep Analysis"
multiSelect: true
options:
  - label: "All ({N} issues with recommended actions)"
    description: "Launch parallel analysis agents for each actionable issue"
  - label: "Critical only ({M} Red issues)"
    description: "Focus on high-risk issues requiring immediate action"
  - label: "Duplicate candidates ({K} issues)"
    description: "Verify Jaccard similarity with full body + comments"
  - label: "Stale only ({J} stale issues)"
    description: "Decide which stale issues to close vs. revive"
  - label: "Skip"
    description: "Stop here, audit only"

If "Skip" → end workflow.

Executing analysis

For each selected issue, launch an analysis agent via Task tool in parallel:

subagent_type: general
model: sonnet
prompt: |
  Analyze GitHub issue #{num}: "{title}"

  **Metadata**: Category={category}, Risk={risk}, Days open={days}, Labels={labels}
  **Reporter**: @{author} ({collaborator? "collaborator" : "external"})
  **Assignees**: {assignees or "none"}

  **Body**:
  {body}

  **Comments** (fetch via: gh issue view {num} --json comments):
  {comments[].body, truncate at 5000 chars total}

  **Duplicate candidates**: {jaccard_results or "none found"}
  **Linked PRs**: {pr_refs or "none"}

  Tasks:
  1. Verify the category assigned in Phase 1 (correct? suggest alternative if not)
  2. If duplicate candidate: confirm or deny similarity with rationale
  3. If Unclear/needs-info: identify exactly what information is missing
  4. Suggest the most appropriate action with exact text if a comment is needed
  5. Estimate effort to fix if it's a Bug or Feature Request (XS/S/M/L/XL)

  Return structured output:
  ### Verification
  ### Duplicate Analysis
  ### Missing Information
  ### Recommended Action
  ### Effort Estimate

Fallback if parallel agents unavailable: run analysis sequentially, one issue at a time. Notify user: Running sequential analysis (parallel agents not available).

Fetch full comments via:

gh issue view {num} --json comments --jq '.comments[].body'

Aggregate all reports. Display a summary after all analyses complete.

---

Phase 3: Actions (mandatory validation)

Draft generation

For each analyzed issue, generate the appropriate action using the template templates/issue-comment.md.

3 action types:

Type	Command	When
Comment	gh issue comment {num} --body-file -	Needs info, stale ping, OOS explanation
Label	gh issue edit {num} --add-label "{label}"	Unlabeled issue with clear category
Close	gh issue close {num} --reason "not planned"	Duplicate, OOS, very stale

Rules:

• Language for comments: English (international audience)
• Labels added: use existing repo labels only (fetch with gh label list)
• Close reason: "not planned" for OOS/duplicate, "completed" only if a fix was merged
• Never post a comment AND close in the same action without user seeing both drafts
• Always attach a comment when closing (explain why)

Display and validation

Display ALL drafted actions in format:

---
### Draft: Issue #{num}: {title}

**Action**: {Comment / Label / Close + Comment}
**Reason**: {1 sentence}

{full comment text if applicable}

---

Then request validation via AskUserQuestion:

question: "These actions are ready. Which ones do you want to execute?"
header: "Execute Triage Actions"
multiSelect: true
options:
  - label: "All ({N} actions)"
    description: "Execute all drafted triage actions"
  - label: "Issue #{x}: {title_truncated} ({action_type})"
    description: "Execute only this action"
  - label: "None"
    description: "Cancel, execute nothing"

(Generate one option per issue + "All" + "None")

Execution

For each validated action:

# Comment
gh issue comment {num} --body-file - <<'TRIAGE_EOF'
{comment}
TRIAGE_EOF

# Label
gh issue edit {num} --add-label "{label}"

# Close with comment
gh issue comment {num} --body-file - <<'TRIAGE_EOF'
{close comment}
TRIAGE_EOF
gh issue close {num} --reason "not planned"

Confirm each action: Action executed on issue #{num}: {title}

If "None" → No actions executed. Workflow complete.

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Edge cases

Situation	Behavior
0 open issues	Display No open issues. + stop
Body empty	Category = Unclear, action = request details, never assume
Collaborator as reporter	Protect from auto-close, flag explicitly in table
Jaccard inconclusive (0.55–0.65)	Flag as "possible duplicate, verify manually"
Label not in repo	Skip label action, notify user to create the label first
Issue already closed during workflow	Skip silently, note in summary
gh api .../collaborators 403/404	Fallback to last 10 merged PR authors
Parallel agents unavailable	Run sequential analysis, notify user
Very large body (>5000 chars)	Truncate to 5000 chars with [truncated] note
Milestone assigned	Include in table, never close milestoned issues without confirmation

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Notes

• Always derive owner/repo via gh repo view, never hardcode
• Use gh CLI (not curl GitHub API) except for collaborators list
• comments in gh issue list --json comments = count only; full content requires gh issue view {num} --json comments
• Never execute any action without explicit user validation in chat
• Drafted actions must be visible BEFORE any gh issue comment or gh issue close
• Jaccard is computed locally: no external API, no library, pure set operations on fetched data
• Signature on all comments: *Triaged via Claude Code /issue-triage*

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Related: /pr-triage

	/issue-triage	/pr-triage
Scope	Issue backlog	PR backlog
Use when	Catching up on reporter feedback, periodic issue cleanup	Catching up after PR accumulation
Phases	3 (audit + deep analysis + actions)	3 (audit + deep review + comments)
Agents	Parallel sub-agents per issue	Parallel sub-agents per PR
Duplicate detection	Jaccard similarity on title+body	File overlap % between PRs
Actions	Comment / label / close	GitHub review comment
Validation	AskUserQuestion before executing	AskUserQuestion before posting

Decision rule: use /issue-triage for issue backlog management, /pr-triage for code review backlog.