github-researcher

name	github-researcher
description	Guides the agent on how to read and search GitHub issues to understand the repository's problems.

GitHub Researcher Skill

This skill helps the agent find and understand issues in a specified GitHub repository, and gain a deep understanding of the codebase.

[!WARNING] GitHub CLI (gh) is NOT installed in this environment. Do NOT attempt to run gh commands. Always use the provided fetch_issues.py script to batch fetch open issues, and use curl with the GitHub REST API to fetch specific issue details or comments.

Workflow

1. Fetching Issues

You can fetch issues using the provided Python script (works without auth for public repos):

python skills/github-researcher/scripts/fetch_issues.py --repo <owner>/<repo> --workspace ./workspace

Output: {workspace}/data/github-issues.md

If you need to fetch specific issue details or comments, you can query the GitHub REST API directly using curl (since api.github.com is in the network allowlist):

Fetch Specific Issue Details:

curl -s -H "User-Agent: Repo-Maintainer/1.0" https://api.github.com/repos/<owner>/<repo>/issues/<issue_number>

Fetch Comments on a Specific Issue:

curl -s -H "User-Agent: Repo-Maintainer/1.0" https://api.github.com/repos/<owner>/<repo>/issues/<issue_number>/comments

3. Understanding the Repo

To answer questions like "What are my biggest issues?" or understand the project deeply:

1. Read the README: Check the top-level README.md in the cloned repo.
2. Scan the directory tree: Use find . -maxdepth 2 to understand the structure.
3. Summarize issues: Read the fetched issues and identify themes, recurring complaints, or critical bugs.

Output

Produce a summary of the top issues and codebase structure to answer the user's high-level questions.