local-only-repos

name	local-only-repos
description	When a repo has no GitHub remote (or is not yet a git repo) -- use this to route survey, sweep, and dispatch off the GitHub-centric path. Detect with `git remote` empty; treat blank GitHub columns as expected, not an error; route work to commits + CLAUDE.md instead of issues + PRs; degrade a maintenance sweep to the local-only axes.

Local-only repos

The default model assumes a git repo with a GitHub remote: the issue is the spec, the work ends in a PR, the survey reads gh. Real local-only repos exist -- scratch projects, private tools never pushed, and not-yet-git directories. For those the GitHub substrate is absent, so survey, sweep, and dispatch take a different path. This skill defines that path and how each tier adapts.

Detection: git remote is the test

A repo is local-only when it has no GitHub remote. Detect it once, per repo, from durable state:

git -C <path> remote          # empty output => no remote => local-only

Three cases, all routed here:

Case	Signal	Routing
Git repo, no remote	git remote empty	Commits + CLAUDE.md path below
Git repo, non-GitHub remote	remote URL is not github.com	Same as no-remote for the gh axes
Not yet a git repo	no .git/	No git history either; CLAUDE.md is the only durable home until git init

The detection is reconstituted each pass, never cached. A repo gains a remote the moment someone runs git remote add + git push; the next survey sees it and routes it back to the default GitHub path.

Survey + sweep: blank GitHub columns are expected

In workspace-survey and maintenance-sweep a local-only repo is still a real project (the CLAUDE.md active-flag and the .git/ test are unchanged). What changes is that every GitHub-derived column is blank by design:

• Open PRs, draft PRs, open issues, CI state (survey) -- record -.
• Stars, forks, issues/PRs split, downloads (sweep axes a, b, c) -- record -.

A blank GitHub column on a local-only repo is the correct readout, not a failed gh call. Do not emit an error, do not retry, and do not drop the repo from the report. The survey already degrades each gh axis to - on a missing signal; this skill states the rule: detect no-remote up front and skip the gh axes deliberately rather than letting each one fail.

Dispatch: commits + CLAUDE.md, not issues + PRs

The GitHub-centric dispatch flow has no anchor here. There is no issue to read as the spec (runner-issue-authority has nothing to point at) and no PR to open (draft-pr-first has no remote to push to). Route work to the two durable layers that do exist locally:

• The spec lives in CLAUDE.md or the prompt. With no issue, the task definition comes from a ## Pending work entry in the repo's CLAUDE.md, or directly from the dispatch prompt. Hand the worker the slice it needs in the prompt rather than an issue number.
• The work lands as commits. With no PR, the unit of work completes when the change is committed to the local branch (or to main directly for a solo local repo). The commit message is the durable record of what changed, in place of a PR body.
• Decisions and follow-ups land in CLAUDE.md. Findings that would have become an issue go into a ## Pending work entry instead -- CLAUDE.md is the only durable, re-readable home a cold restart can pick up from (see durable-context).

Everything else from the runner lifecycle that does not depend on a remote still applies: a single focused commit, tests before commit, conventional-commit messages.

Maintenance sweep: which axes survive

The seven-axis sweep degrades to the axes that read local state. Per maintenance-sweep:

Axis	Local-only behavior
(a) Stars / forks	Skip -- -. Needs gh api.
(b) Issues / PRs split	Skip -- -. Needs gh api.
(c) Package downloads	Skip unless the repo publishes a package independent of GitHub; usually -.
(d) Release due?	Keep, against local tags. git describe --tags --abbrev=0 then git log <last_tag>..HEAD -- no origin/main anchor and no registry cross-check, just local tags vs local HEAD.
(e) Test run	Keep, unchanged. Run the project's own test command; record pass / fail / -.
(f) Stale CLAUDE.md	Keep, unchanged. Compare last CLAUDE.md touch against last commit overall.
(g) Branch cleanup	Keep, over local branches only. git branch --merged against the local default branch; drop the gh pr list PR-state cross-reference (no PRs exist), so a branch is a candidate purely on merged-or-stale by local commit date.

Do not fail the sweep because a repo has no remote. The release-due axis loses its registry cross-check (there is no published version to reconcile), so "release due" here means local unreleased conventional commits since the last local tag, full stop.

Anti-patterns

• Treating an empty gh result as an error. A local-only repo has no stars, issues, or PRs by definition; that is a -, not a failure. Detect no-remote and skip the gh axes deliberately.
• Dropping a local-only repo from the survey. It is still an active project if it has a CLAUDE.md. Blank GitHub columns, present in the report.
• Looking for an issue to read or a PR to open. There is none. The spec is CLAUDE.md or the prompt; the output is a commit and a CLAUDE.md entry.
• Anchoring release-due on origin/main. No remote means no origin/main. Anchor on local tags vs local HEAD.
• Cross-referencing branch cleanup against PR state. No PRs exist; judge local branches on merged-or-stale alone.
• Caching the no-remote verdict. Reconstitute it each pass; a repo can gain a remote at any time and route back to the default path.

Related

• workspace-survey -- the project map this skill blanks the GitHub columns of for no-remote repos.
• maintenance-sweep -- the seven-axis health pass this skill degrades to the local axes.
• durable-context -- why CLAUDE.md plus commits is the durable substrate when issues and PRs are absent.
• runner-issue-authority -- the issue-is-the-spec rule that has nothing to point at locally.
• release-audit-anchoring -- the origin/main + registry discipline that degrades to local tags vs local HEAD with no remote.