Use this skill to triage a single newly opened, reopened, or `status/needs-triage`-labelled issue in microsoft/apm. Emit one synthesized comment with a triage decision, label set, milestone, and suggested next action.
Installation
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Use this skill to triage a single newly opened, reopened, or `status/needs-triage`-labelled issue in microsoft/apm. Emit one synthesized comment with a triage decision, label set, milestone, and suggested next action.
The panel is fixed at 3 mandatory specialist lenses + up to 3
conditional lenses + 1 arbiter lens = up to 6 active persona sections
in one triage comment (3 mandatory + 3 conditional). You play each
lens in turn from inside a single agent loop (progressive-disclosure
skill model -- no sub-agent dispatch). Routing chooses which lenses
execute; it never changes which headings appear in the final comment.
This skill mirrors the apm-review-panel orchestration shape on
purpose. Same single-comment discipline, same completeness gate, same
persona-pass procedure -- only the personas, the rubric, and the
output template differ.
Skipped by default: CLI Logging Expert, Auth Expert. Triage operates
on issue intent, not on diffs -- those personas are invoked downstream
by apm-review-panel once a PR exists.
Routing topology
devx-ux-expert supply-chain-security-expert
\_______________________/
|
| <-- python-architect (conditional; design /
| architecture / new primitive / new schema)
|
| <-- doc-writer (conditional; docs work or
| user-facing change that needs new doc pages)
v
apm-ceo <---- oss-growth-hacker
(final call / arbiter) (conditional; tunes tone
when author is new)
Specialists raise findings independently -- no implicit consensus.
CEO arbitrates the theme, milestone, priority, and tone of the
reply. CEO has the final call on the decision rubric.
Growth Hacker, Python Architect, and Doc Writer are side-channels
to the CEO when activated. They never block a specialist finding;
they feed the CEO's arbitration:
Growth Hacker tunes the comment's tone for first-time and
low-interaction contributors.
Python Architect flags feasibility and cross-cutting impact, and
pushes the decision toward status/needs-design when warranted.
Doc Writer flags whether docs work is implied and whether the
suggested comment wording is grounded in the user vocabulary used
in the README and guides.
Conditional panelists
Three personas are conditional: OSS Growth Hacker, Python Architect,
and Doc Writer. Each follows the same shape: an explicit YES/NO
activation rule plus an inactive-reason fallback. Maximum lenses in a
single triage = 6 (3 mandatory + 3 conditional).
OSS Growth Hacker
Activate oss-growth-hacker if either rule below matches.
Fast-path author trigger. Activate the Growth Hacker lens
immediately when the issue's author meets ANY of:
GitHub author_association is FIRST_TIME_CONTRIBUTOR,
FIRST_TIMER, or NONE against microsoft/apm.
Author has fewer than 3 prior interactions (issues + PRs +
comments) on microsoft/apm.
Issue body explicitly says "first issue", "new to APM", or
similar.
Fallback self-check. If author signals are ambiguous, answer
this before activating the lens:
Would the warmth, framing, or pointer-set in the reply meaningfully
change if I knew this was someone's first interaction with the
project? Answer YES or NO with one sentence.
If unsure, answer YES.
Routing rule:
YES -> take the OSS Growth Hacker lens (per the Persona pass
procedure) and capture its tone-tuning findings.
NO -> record OSS Growth Hacker inactive reason: <one sentence>
in working notes; do not take the lens.
Python Architect
Activate python-architect if either rule below matches.
Fast-path label / scope trigger. Activate the Architecture
Reviewer lens immediately when ANY of:
The issue carries type/architecture (current or proposed) or
the breaking-change preserved label.
The issue body proposes a new top-level CLI command, or a schema
change to apm.yml, apm.lock.yaml, or apm-policy.yml.
The issue body contains keywords indicating cross-module or
cross-file work, a new module, a new pattern, a new contract, or
a new primitive design -- e.g. "refactor", "rearchitect", "new
module", "design", "abstraction", "schema change", "pluggable",
"introduce X pattern".
Fallback self-check. If the issue is ambiguous, answer this
before activating the lens:
Does this issue, if accepted as written, require a cross-cutting
design decision (interface, data model, migration boundary, or
new primitive) before code can land safely? Answer YES or NO
with one sentence. If unsure, answer YES.
Routing rule:
YES -> take the Python Architect lens. Capture: feasibility of
the design as proposed, callouts of cross-cutting impact, and
whether the issue should land as status/needs-design instead of
status/accepted.
NO -> record Python Architect inactive reason: <one sentence>
in working notes; do not take the lens.
Doc Writer
Activate doc-writer if either rule below matches.
Fast-path label / scope trigger. Activate the Documentation
Reviewer lens immediately when ANY of:
The issue is type/docs or carries area/docs-site (current or
proposed).
The issue body proposes documentation, README, reference, guide,
or migration-note changes.
The issue is a user-facing feature that will require new doc
pages -- e.g. a new CLI flag, a new primitive, a new authoring
concept.
Fallback self-check. If the issue is ambiguous, answer this
before activating the lens:
Will an implementing PR for this issue need to add or change
user-facing documentation in docs/src/content/docs/ or in the
README? Answer YES or NO with one sentence. If unsure, answer
YES.
Routing rule:
YES -> take the Doc Writer lens. Capture: whether docs work is
implied (and whether area/docs-site should be added as a
secondary area/* so the implementing PR is reminded), and whether
the proposed comment wording is clear and grounded in the user
vocabulary used in the README and guides.
NO -> record Doc Writer inactive reason: <one sentence> in
working notes; do not take the lens.
Triage decision rubric
The CEO arbiter picks exactly ONE outcome from this rubric:
accept -- direction is clear and aligned with the README spine and
the roadmap. Assigns full label set + milestone if a current
candidate exists.
needs-design -- direction is sound but the design must be settled
before code lands. Apply status/needs-design and name in the
comment exactly what must be designed (interface, data model,
migration, security boundary).
decline-with-reason -- out of scope for APM as positioned by the
README spine. Suggest an alternative tool, a workaround, or the
upstream project. Always courteous, always concrete.
duplicate-of #N -- propose the canonical issue. The orchestrator
must verify the link resolves before posting.
defer-later -- accepted in principle but no current milestone.
Sits as status/accepted plus theme/* + area/* only; no
priority/*, no milestone.
auto-handle -- automated noise such as a daily CLI-consistency
report PR or scheduled bot issue. Propose closing if the report has
zero unaddressed High findings; otherwise propose splitting into
individual issues with the right area/* labels and reference back
to the parent.
Label-set construction rules
Triage produces a single proposed label set. The taxonomy:
Preserved (apply when relevant):
breaking-change, good first issue, help wanted,
experimental, panel-review, dx, agentic-workflows,
dependencies.
Construction rules:
Exactly one theme/<mega> label is required UNLESS the issue is
pure infra (only area/cli, area/ci-cd, area/testing, or
area/docs-site apply, with no product surface implication). State
this explicitly in the per-lens notes when omitting the theme.
Multi-theme labels are allowed; the primary theme is listed
first and drives the milestone.
Exactly one type/* label.
Exactly one status/* label. The default status/needs-triage is
always replaced by the triage outcome (status/accepted,
status/needs-design, status/blocked, etc.). Do not leave
status/needs-triage on a triaged issue.
priority/* only on accept with a current milestone or next
minor. Never on defer-later, needs-design, or decline-*.
Milestone assignment rules
Current patch milestone (e.g., 0.9.x) for bug fixes and small
DX work that fits a patch release.
Next minor (e.g., 0.10.0) for type/feature accepted with
priority/high.
No milestone (null) for defer-later and needs-design.
The orchestrator looks up open milestones with:
gh api repos/microsoft/apm/milestones --jq '.[]|select(.state=="open")|.title'
The lowest-numbered open patch milestone is "current patch"; the
lowest-numbered open minor is "next minor". If neither exists, set
milestone to null and note it.
Quality gates
A triage comment passes when:
DevX UX Expert: real user surface identified, the request maps
(or fails to map) to a concrete README-anchored capability
Supply Chain Security Expert: P/G/S risk surfaces assessed; if
the issue touches lockfile, marketplace, MCP config, signing,
or auth, theme/security or theme/governance is on the set
APM CEO: theme, milestone, priority, decision, and reply tone
ratified
OSS Growth Hacker lens taken or inactive reason recorded; if
taken, tone tuned for a new or low-interaction contributor and
the reply names a concrete next step they can take
Python Architect lens taken or inactive reason recorded; if
taken, feasibility, cross-cutting impact, and any
status/needs-design recommendation are captured
Doc Writer lens taken or inactive reason recorded; if taken,
docs implication is named and any area/docs-site secondary
label is proposed when the implementing PR will need new pages
Notes
This skill orchestrates a panel in your own context -- you are
the only agent. You load each persona's .agent.md reference file
on demand (progressive disclosure), assume that persona's lens to
produce its findings, then move to the next persona. Do NOT spawn
sub-agents (no task tool dispatch) -- the panel is a sequence of
reasoning passes inside one agent loop, not a multi-agent fan-out.
Persona detail lives in the linked .agent.md files. Read each
one when you switch to that persona; do not pre-load all of them.
Execution checklist
When this skill is activated for an issue, work through these steps
in order, in a single agent loop. Do not skip ahead and do not emit
any output before the final step.
Read the issue context (title, body, labels, author,
author_association, prior comments). The orchestrating workflow
already fetches this with gh issue view --json -- do not
re-fetch from inside the skill.
Resolve the three conditional cases -- OSS Growth Hacker,
Python Architect, Doc Writer -- using the rules in "Conditional
panelists" above. For each, record either an activation decision
or <Persona> inactive reason: <one sentence> in working notes.
For each mandatory persona (plus any conditional persona that
activated), follow the Persona pass procedure below, one
persona at a time. Do not try to play multiple personas in a
single pass.
Run the pre-arbitration completeness gate:
Findings exist in working notes for the 2 mandatory specialists
(DevX UX Expert, Supply Chain Security Expert).
For EACH of OSS Growth Hacker, Python Architect, and Doc Writer:
exactly one of <Persona> findings or <Persona> inactive reason exists (neither = incomplete; both = inconsistent
routing).
No persona section is missing or empty.
If any check fails, redo that persona's pass and repeat the gate.
Do not proceed to step 5 until the gate passes.
Take the APM CEO lens (load
../../agents/apm-ceo.agent.md) and arbitrate the collected
findings into a single decision: rubric outcome, primary theme,
area/* set, type/*, status/*, optional priority/*,
milestone, and reply tone. Still in your own context. CEO
arbitration may run only after the completeness gate has passed.
If the rubric outcome is duplicate-of #N, verify the candidate
issue exists and is open with gh issue view N --json state,title
before committing the link.
Now (and only now) load assets/triage-template.md and fill it
in with the collected findings, decision, label set, milestone,
and proposed comment body.
Emit the filled template as exactly ONE comment via the workflow's
safe-outputs.add-comment channel. For direct (non-workflow)
invocation, return the comment text and the structured
triage-decision JSON tail so an orchestrator can apply labels
and post the comment without parsing prose. This is the ONLY
output emission for the entire panel run -- no per-persona
comments, no progress comments.
Persona pass procedure
For each persona, run this exact procedure in your own context:
Open the persona's .agent.md file (linked in the roster) and
read its scope, lens, anti-patterns, and required return shape.
From that persona's lens, review the issue title, body, labels,
author signals, and any prior comments against the scope declared
in the file.
Write the findings to working notes under
<persona-name>: <findings> (or, for an inactive conditional
persona, <Persona> inactive reason: <one sentence>).
Drop the persona lens before moving on. Do not emit any comment
from inside a persona pass; persona findings stay in working
notes until step 7 synthesizes them.
Output contract
This contract is non-negotiable -- it is the difference between a
triage that lands as one cohesive comment and one that fragments into
per-persona noise.
Produce exactly one comment per triage run.
Use assets/triage-template.md as the comment body. Keep its
section headings exactly as written. Adapt the body of each
section to the issue. Do not invent new top-level sections or drop
existing ones.
The trailing fenced ```json block named triage-decision is
REQUIRED. It is the machine-readable contract that downstream
automation uses to apply labels, set the milestone, and post the
reply without parsing prose.
ASCII only inside the comment body and JSON tail. No emojis, no
Unicode dashes, no box-drawing characters. Use [+] [!] [x] [i] [*] [>]
if status symbols are needed.
CEO arbitration may run only after the completeness gate passes.
Never emit findings as separate comments, intermediate progress
comments, or "I will now invoke X" status comments.
Load assets/triage-template.mdat synthesis time only (step
7 above) -- not at activation, not while collecting findings.
Anti-patterns
Over-labelling. Do not exceed 6 labels per issue across
theme/* + area/* + type/* + status/* + priority/* + preserved/*.
If you find yourself reaching for 7+, prune the weakest area/*.
Milestone without status. Never assign a milestone to an issue
whose status is not status/accepted or status/in-flight.
needs-design and defer-later are explicitly milestone-free.
Silent decline. Do not auto-close or decline-with-reason
without a courteous reason linked to the README spine, the
manifesto, or the public roadmap. Every decline names where the
user can go instead.
Vague needs-design. Never apply status/needs-design without
naming, in the suggested comment, exactly what must be designed
(interface, data model, migration, security boundary). "We need to
think about this" is not a design-needed reason.
Naked status/needs-triage carryover. Triage replaces the
default status/needs-triage label. Leaving it on a triaged issue
is a routing bug.
Wildcard heuristics. Do not activate the OSS Growth Hacker on
*new* or *first* keyword matches alone -- always cross-check
author_association and prior interactions on microsoft/apm.
Same discipline for Python Architect (do not fire on the bare word
"refactor" in unrelated context -- check the issue's actual scope)
and Doc Writer (do not fire purely on the word "docs" appearing in
passing -- the issue must propose or imply a doc-surface change).
Gotchas
Roster invariant. The frontmatter description, the roster
table, the conditional-panelist rule, the triage template, and the
quality gates MUST agree on the persona set. If you change one,
change all of them in the same edit.
No new persona required. This skill deliberately reuses
devx-ux-expert, supply-chain-security-expert, apm-ceo,
oss-growth-hacker, python-architect, and doc-writer. Do not
create a triage-* persona; the README spine plus the label
taxonomy plus the existing CEO arbiter are sufficient grounding.
Bundle layout on the runner. When this skill runs inside an
agentic workflow, the APM bundle is unpacked under
.github/skills/apm-triage-panel/ first, with .apm/skills/...
as a fallback. The asset path is the same relative to the skill
root (assets/triage-template.md) in both layouts -- prefer the
.github/... path when present.
No multi-persona-in-one-pass. Each persona has its own
.agent.md for a reason -- read it when you take that lens, write
the findings, then drop the lens before moving on.
Single-emission discipline is fragile under interruption. If
you find yourself wanting to "post a quick partial decision and
then update it", don't. Buffer in working notes; emit once.
