| name | backlog-refinement |
| description | Prepare and refine a GitHub backlog for autonomous agent-loop completion—assess each open issue against the agent-readiness rubric, rewrite agent-shaped issues with acceptance criteria and file/out-of-scope pointers, tag dev: agent, classify exclusions with agent-bail labels, and aggregate post-loop RCA lessons. Use when the user says refine backlog or refine-backlog, before agent-loop, after issue triage, or after a loop run. |
/backlog-refinement
Maximize how much of the backlog /agent-loop can complete unattended, and learn from every failure so the backlog and the loop both get smarter over time.
This skill is one half of a closed loop with /agent-loop:
/backlog-refinement (prep) → dev: agent queue → /agent-loop (consume)
▲ │
└────────── RCA sharpens the rubric ◀── agent-bail:* on bail
The criteria, taxonomy, and templates live in RUBRIC.md (or RUBRIC.md.template when running globally or before local bootstrap; the single source of truth, shared with /agent-loop). The accumulated root-cause analyses live in LEARNINGS.md (or LEARNINGS.md.template). Both are consumer-owned (bootstrapped once from RUBRIC.md.template / LEARNINGS.md.template, then customized per repo). Read RUBRIC.md (or RUBRIC.md.template) fully before acting — it defines §1 readiness criteria, §2 make-ready transformations, §3 disqualifiers (including any repo-specific ones), and the label model.
Integration branch. This skill says "verify against the integration branch" throughout — that is whatever branch your repo's agent-loop-instructions.md opens PRs against (origin/main for most repos, origin/staging for repos with a staging→main promotion flow). Substitute your repo's value.
Arguments: $ARGUMENTS — dispatch on the first word; default to queue.
Mode: queue (default)
Show the refinement backlog — open issues not yet assessed (agent: refined absent) — so the operator can see what's left to prepare.
python3 .agents/skills/backlog-refinement/scripts/candidates.py
Report counts: total open, already dev: agent (split into ready = also agent: refined vs re-verify = dev: agent without agent: refined), already agent-bail:*, and the un-refined remainder (the work).
Auto-managed skip. Issues a scheduled workflow both opens and closes (e.g. a nightly metrics/digest issue) are never refinement tasks — and commenting on one resets its updatedAt, delaying the workflow's auto-close. Declare their labels in the <!-- auto-managed-labels: … --> marker in RUBRIC.md (§3); candidates.py routes matching issues to a skipped bucket that never enters the queue and never counts as un-refined. Empty marker → no skipping.
Re-verify bucket. A dev: agent issue lacking agent: refined was tagged by something other than this skill (older triage, bulk import, a parallel pass) and has never been verified-against-HEAD. candidates.py surfaces these separately because refine --all walks only the un-refined bucket and silently skips them — leaving stale, pre-tagged work to feed /agent-loop. Clear the re-verify bucket before trusting the queue (see refine below).
Mode: refine [n | --all | --limit N]
Prepare issues for the loop. Default refines the next un-assessed issue; --limit N processes a batch; --all walks the whole un-refined backlog. For each issue:
Re-verify pre-tagged dev: agent FIRST. --all processes only the un-refined bucket — it does not touch dev: agent issues that lack agent: refined. Those are pre-tagged and unverified, and they are exactly what /agent-loop consumes, so a plain refine --all leaves the loop's real queue stale. Before (or alongside) refine --all, run the same per-issue steps below over gh issue list --label "dev: agent" filtered to those without agent: refined (the candidates.py re-verify bucket): strip dev: agent + add the matching agent-bail: on failures, add agent: refined on passes. Sanity-check the auto-rewrite on a handful (assess <n> or refine --limit 5) before a large sweep, since it mutates issue bodies at scale.
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Read it fully — gh issue view <N> including comments.
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Early-exit excludes — if the title/body matches a §3 Bucket-B disqualifier on its face (Epic:, obvious cross-repo/credential/synced-surface/repo-sensitive), apply agent: refined + the agent-bail: label, add a one-line comment citing the rubric clause, and move on. Don't over-invest in clearly-excluded issues.
-
Verify-against-HEAD (RUBRIC §2). Fetch the integration branch; determine whether the described problem still reproduces:
- Already fixed →
agent: refined + agent-bail: stale, comment with the evidence (commit/PR/file:line that shipped it) and recommend close. Do not tag dev: agent. Do not close it yourself (human triage gate).
- Partially shipped → re-scope: rewrite the body to the residual only, then continue assessing the residual.
- Still open → continue.
-
External-dep check (RUBRIC §2) — if the issue depends on a package/service, confirm it's published and consumable from this repo. If not → status: blocked + agent-bail: cross-repo, comment, skip.
-
Assess against §1. If it fails a Bucket-B criterion → exclude with the matching agent-bail: label + comment. If it fails a Bucket-A criterion that §2 can fix → apply the transformation.
-
Auto-rewrite. When the issue passes (possibly after §2 transforms), rewrite the body to the RUBRIC §5 agent-ready template:
- Preserve the original verbatim under a
> ### Original report blockquote — never destroy human intent.
- Fill Goal / Acceptance criteria / Files-entry-points / Out-of-scope, grounding file pointers in real
grep/Read results.
- Write the new body to a repo-scoped temp path (e.g.
/tmp/<repo>/refine-body-<N>.md), then gh issue edit <N> --body-file <path> (avoids heredoc permission prompts).
- Apply
dev: agent + agent: refined.
Some teams prefer refinement to suggest the rewrite as a comment rather than edit the body directly. If so, post the proposed agent-ready body as a comment and leave the body untouched; a human applies it. Pick one mode per repo and note it in .
Batch etiquette: process sequentially, one gh mutation at a time; summarize at the end (X tagged ready, Y excluded by category, Z re-scoped).
Mode: assess <n>
Dry-run a single issue: print the §1 verdict, which §2 transformations would apply, and the proposed rewritten body — without mutating the issue. Use to sanity-check the rubric's judgement before a big refine --all.
Mode: rca [run-window] — post-loop aggregation (closes the learning loop)
Run after an /agent-loop run. Turns the run's bails into rubric improvements.
python3 .agents/skills/backlog-refinement/scripts/bail-report.py
python3 .agents/skills/backlog-refinement/scripts/bail-report.py --since 2026-01-01
For each bailed issue (and its <!-- agent-loop-rca ... --> stub, RUBRIC §4):
- Re-ask the two questions (RUBRIC top) on the actual outcome — don't just trust the inner agent's self-classification; confirm the bucket.
- Bucket A bail = a refinement miss. This is the most valuable signal: refinement tagged
dev: agent on something the loop couldn't finish. Ask "what §2 transformation or §1 check would have caught this at prep time?" and write it.
- Bucket B repeat = a dull disqualifier. If the same inherent shape bailed more than once, the §3 pattern isn't catching it early — sharpen the wording so future refinement excludes it on sight.
- Loop-mechanics bail = an instructions/script gap. Record the fix that belongs in
agent-loop-instructions.md / prompt.txt; if it needs the synced agent-loop.sh, note it as an upstream change (don't edit synced files locally).
- Append a dated entry to
LEARNINGS.md for each distinct lesson (template below), and if any §1/§2/§3 criterion changed, bump the rubric version at the top of RUBRIC.md and note the bump in LEARNINGS.md.
Every loop run should leave the rubric at least as sharp as it found it. A run that produced bails but no LEARNINGS.md entry is an incomplete RCA.
LEARNINGS.md entry template
### <date> — #<issue> — <short title> [bucket A|B | <agent-bail category>]
- **Outcome:** PREVENTABLE | INHERENT
- **What could we have done differently:** <the answer to question 1, or "nothing — inherent">
- **Rubric/loop change:** <the concrete §2 transformation, §3 disqualifier, or agent-loop-instructions line this produced>
- **Evidence:** <commit / file:line / comment link>
What this skill must not do
- Don't edit synced-from-upstream files (the
agent-loop SKILL/script, shared instruction files, other skills' SKILL.md). Loop-side fixes go in agent-loop-instructions.md / prompt.txt, or upstream.
- Don't close or reassign issues — refinement labels and recommends; humans close. (Stale issues get
agent-bail: stale + a close recommendation, not a close.)
- Don't tag
dev: agent on §3 Bucket-B work — synced-surface, credential-gated, open-decision, cross-repo, or any repo-specific sensitive path (e.g. compliance/PHI/PII/encryption/audit) — those are exclusions by definition.
Relationship to /issues
/issues is the day-to-day workflow (ready queue, claim, link). /backlog-refinement is the upstream curator that decides what earns the dev: agent label that /issues ready --agent and /agent-loop key on. Run refinement before a loop; run rca after.
