triage

name	triage
description	Process open GitHub issues through the principled pipeline. Lists untriaged issues, normalizes their metadata, ingests them into the documentation pipeline, and reports a summary. Operates as the batch entry point — delegates to /ingest-issue for each individual issue.
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Bash(gh *), Bash(git *), Bash(ls *), Bash(bash plugins/*), Bash(wc *)
user-invocable	true

Triage --- Batch Issue Processing Pipeline

Process open GitHub issues through the principled pipeline. Finds untriaged issues, normalizes their metadata, creates the appropriate principled documents, and reports what was done.

Command

/triage [--limit <n>] [--label <filter>] [--module <path>] [--root] [--dry-run]

Arguments

Argument	Required	Description
--limit <n>	No	Maximum number of issues to process. Defaults to all untriaged.
--label <filter>	No	Only triage issues with this label (e.g., bug, enhancement).
--module <path>	No	Target module for created documents. Defaults to current module.
--root	No	Create documents at the repo root level (docs/).
--dry-run	No	Show what would be done without making changes.

Prerequisites

• gh CLI must be installed and authenticated
• Repository must have a GitHub remote configured

Workflow

1. Verify prerequisites. Check that gh is available and authenticated:

   bash scripts/check-gh-cli.sh
   

2. List untriaged issues. Find open issues that have not been ingested into the principled pipeline:

   bash scripts/list-untriaged.sh [--label <filter>]
   

   An issue is considered untriaged if it:

   • Is open
   • Does not have principled labels (proposal:*, plan:*, type:rfc, type:plan)

   Label-based detection is the primary signal. Issues ingested via /ingest-issue always receive lifecycle labels in step 10, so this is reliable for the common case.

   Returns tab-separated <number>\t<title>, one issue per line.

3. Report the triage queue. Show the user how many issues are queued and list them with titles:

   Found N untriaged issues:
     #12 — Add dark mode support
     #15 — Fix login timeout on slow connections
     #18 — Refactor auth middleware
   

   If --limit is set, show only the first N.

   If --dry-run is set, stop here. Report the queue and what would happen (estimated classification for each issue based on title/labels) without making any changes. Do not proceed to step 4.

4. Process each issue sequentially. For each issue in the queue, follow the /ingest-issue SKILL.md workflow inline (steps 2–11). This means each issue gets the full treatment:

   • Metadata normalization — missing labels, vague titles are fixed on GitHub
   • Classification — determines RFC + Plan vs Plan only
   • Document creation — proposals and/or plans created, pre-populated from issue content
   • Issue comment — links to created documents posted on the issue
   • Label application — principled lifecycle labels added

   Between issues, report progress:

   [2/5] Processing #15 — Fix login timeout on slow connections
         → Classification: Plan only
         → Created: docs/plans/003-fix-login-timeout.md
         → Labels: type:plan, plan:active
   

5. Handle errors gracefully. If processing an individual issue fails (e.g., network error, permission issue), log the failure and continue to the next issue. Do not abort the entire triage run for a single issue failure.

6. Report triage summary. After all issues are processed, provide a summary:

   Triage complete:
     Processed: 5 issues
     RFCs created: 2
     Plans created: 5
     Metadata fixed: 3 issues (labels added, titles improved)
     Errors: 0
   
   Created documents:
     docs/proposals/004-add-dark-mode.md (RFC-004, from #12)
     docs/proposals/005-refactor-auth.md (RFC-005, from #18)
     docs/plans/003-fix-login-timeout.md (Plan-003, from #15)
     docs/plans/004-add-dark-mode.md (Plan-004, from #12)
     docs/plans/005-refactor-auth.md (Plan-005, from #18)
   

Triage vs Ingest

Concern	/triage	/ingest-issue
Scope	All open untriaged issues (batch)	One specific issue
Entry point	User runs once to process the backlog	User runs per-issue
Orchestration	Iterates and delegates	Does the actual work
Reporting	Aggregate summary	Per-issue detail

/triage is the orchestrator. /ingest-issue is the worker. Running /triage is equivalent to running /ingest-issue on every untriaged issue.

Scripts

• scripts/check-gh-cli.sh --- Verify gh CLI availability and auth status (copy from sync-issues)
• scripts/list-untriaged.sh --- List open issues not yet in the principled pipeline

Reference

• reference/triage-guide.md --- Triage philosophy, prioritization, and edge cases