ch-specify-from-issue

name	ch-specify-from-issue
description	Create or update the feature specification from a GitHub issue's title and body.
argument-hint	GitHub issue number or URL to specify from (e.g. 42, #42, or a full issues URL)
compatibility	Requires spec-kit project structure with .specify/ directory; requires the gh CLI installed and authenticated
metadata	{"author":"coding-harness","source":"coding-harness (local extension of speckit-specify; not sourced from upstream spec-kit)"}
user-invocable	true
disable-model-invocation	false

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

You MUST consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).

Outline

1. Validate the issue reference. $ARGUMENTS must be either:

   • A bare issue number, optionally prefixed with # (e.g. 42, #42).
   • A full GitHub issue URL (e.g. https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/issues/<number>).

   Strip a leading # if present. If $ARGUMENTS is empty, non-numeric, or not a plausible GitHub issue URL, STOP and show:

   No issue number or URL provided. Usage: /ch-specify-from-issue <issue-number-or-url>, e.g. /ch-specify-from-issue 42
   

   Do not guess or attempt to interpret free text as an issue reference.

   Do not attempt to manually resolve owner/repo from the git remote here — gh issue view (Step 3) resolves the target repo itself: given a bare number it infers the repo from the local git remote, and given a full URL it extracts owner/repo/number directly from the URL. There is nothing to hand-parse or reconcile.

2. Check gh is installed and authenticated.

   command -v gh >/dev/null 2>&1
   

   If not found, STOP:

   `gh` (GitHub CLI) is not installed. Install it and re-run this command.
   See https://cli.github.com/ for installation instructions.
   

   Do not attempt to install it yourself.

   gh auth status
   

   If this exits non-zero, STOP:

   `gh` is installed but not authenticated. Run `gh auth login` in your terminal to
   authenticate interactively, then re-run `/ch-specify-from-issue <issue>`.
   

   Do NOT attempt to authenticate on the user's behalf — no token prompting, no reading GH_TOKEN/GITHUB_TOKEN as a workaround, no touching ~/.config/gh directly. Detect, explain, stop.

3. Fetch the issue.

   gh issue view <number-or-url> --json number,title,body,url,state
   

   Pass the validated number/URL from Step 1 as-is — no --repo flag needed.

   If this exits non-zero (nonexistent issue, no repo context / no git remote, no access, or the reference is actually a PR number), STOP and surface gh's own error text verbatim. Do not retry or fall back to guessing.

4. Empty-body check. If the fetched issue body is empty or whitespace-only, warn before proceeding (the resulting spec would be based on very little information):

   > [!WARNING]
   > Issue #<number> ("<title>") has no body — only a title. The resulting spec will be
   > based on very little information and may need significant manual clarification.
   

   Ask the user to confirm before continuing. If they decline, STOP and suggest either adding detail to the issue first or using /speckit-specify directly with a manually-typed description.

5. Compose the feature description. Build a single string from the fetched issue:

   <issue title>
   
   <issue body, verbatim>
   
   ---
   Source: GitHub issue #<number> — <url>
   

   This composed string is the effective feature description for the delegation in Step 6. When that delegated flow parses the description into actors/actions/constraints (per speckit-specify's Outline step 5), treat the trailing Source: line as metadata only — do not let it leak into generated user stories or requirements.

6. Delegate to /speckit-specify. Read .claude/skills/speckit-specify/SKILL.md now and follow its Pre-Execution Checks and Outline sections exactly as currently written, inline in this conversation — do NOT invoke the Skill tool (doing so would transfer control away and the spec would never be written). Wherever that file refers to $ARGUMENTS, "the text the user typed after /speckit-specify", or "the feature description", substitute the composed string from Step 5 instead — never the raw text typed after /ch-specify-from-issue (that raw text is only the issue reference, not the description).

   Its own hook-check logic (.specify/extensions.yml → hooks.before_specify / hooks.after_specify) runs exactly as documented there; do not skip it and do not invent a separate hook namespace for this command.

   Always re-read .claude/skills/speckit-specify/SKILL.md fresh rather than relying on a cached memory of its structure, so this delegation stays correct even if that file's steps are renumbered or changed later.

7. Report completion. After the delegated flow reports completion (SPECIFY_FEATURE_DIRECTORY, SPEC_FILE, checklist summary), replace its generic "readiness for next phase" line (which points at /speckit-clarify or /speckit-plan) with next steps for the ch- automated pipeline instead — this command is part of that family, not the manual one:

   Spec is ready for planning. Run /ch-1-plan-auto to generate and critic-review the plan
   (recommended for review between each stage), or /ch-plan-to-implement-auto to run the
   full plan → tasks → test → implement pipeline unattended.
   

   Then append one line:

   Sourced from: GitHub issue #<number> (<url>)
   

   If the issue's state was CLOSED, note that too, since specifying from a closed issue may be unintentional.