develop

name	develop
description	Bridge GitHub issues to development workflow — create branches, start work, check status. Use when user says "start working on issue

Develop

Bridges issue tracking and development workflow. Creates branches, manages work context.

Critical Rules

• Read cross-cutting behaviors first: skills/shared/references/cross-cutting.md
• Always view the issue first before starting development
• Worktree reuse: If already in a git worktree (e.g., claude -w), do NOT create a new branch — rename the current branch to match the issue and continue
• Check working tree for uncommitted changes before switching branches
• Add a comment to the issue when starting development
• Self-assign the issue when starting work (if not already assigned)

Prerequisites Check

gh auth status
git status

Capabilities

1. Start Development

Begin work on an issue: view it, create a branch, assign, and comment.

Workflow:

1. View the issue for context:

   gh issue view NUMBER --json number,title,body,labels,assignees,state
   

   Verify the issue is open. If closed, ask the user if they want to reopen it.

1b. Readiness review — delegate to the issue-reviewer agent to verify the issue has acceptance criteria and proper labels before starting development. Present the review results to the user. If the review fails, suggest refining the issue first using the refine skill.

1c. Detect worktree — check if already inside a git worktree:

if [ "$(git rev-parse --git-dir)" != "$(git rev-parse --git-common-dir)" ]; then
  echo "Inside a worktree"
fi

If in a worktree: skip steps 2-4 entirely. The current branch IS the development branch. Rename it to follow the NUMBER-slug convention if it doesn't already match:

# Only rename if current branch doesn't match NUMBER-* pattern
CURRENT=$(git branch --show-current)
TARGET="NUMBER-slugified-title"
if [ "$CURRENT" != "$TARGET" ]; then
  git branch -m "$TARGET"
fi

Then continue directly to step 5.

2. Check working tree:

   git status --porcelain
   

   If there are uncommitted changes, warn the user and ask how to proceed (stash, commit, or abort).

3. Check for existing branches:

   gh issue develop NUMBER --list 2>/dev/null
   

   If a branch already exists, ask the user if they want to check it out instead of creating a new one.

4. Create and check out the branch:

   gh issue develop NUMBER --checkout
   

   This creates a branch named NUMBER-slugified-title and checks it out.

   If gh issue develop is not available or fails, fall back to manual creation:

   # Generate branch name: number-slugified-title (max 60 chars)
   git checkout -b "NUMBER-slugified-title"
   

5. Self-assign (if not already assigned):

   gh issue edit NUMBER --add-assignee @me
   

6. Add development comment:

   gh issue comment NUMBER --body "Starting development on branch \`BRANCH_NAME\`."
   

7. Present context — show the user:

   • Issue title and key details
   • Branch name
   • Acceptance criteria (if present in issue body)
   • Related issues to be aware of

2. Check Out Existing Issue Branch

Switch to an existing branch linked to an issue.

Workflow:

1. Find linked branches:

   gh issue develop NUMBER --list 2>/dev/null
   

2. Check working tree for uncommitted changes

3. Check out the branch:

   git checkout BRANCH_NAME
   

4. Show context — issue details and current branch status

3. Show Development Context

Display the development status for an issue.

# Issue details
gh issue view NUMBER --json number,title,state,body,labels,assignees

# Linked branches
gh issue develop NUMBER --list 2>/dev/null

# Open PRs referencing this issue
gh pr list --search "NUMBER" --json number,title,state,headRefName,statusCheckRollup,reviewDecision

# Related issues
gh issue list --search "keyword" --state all --json number,title,state --limit 10

Present:

1. Issue status — open/closed, assignees, labels
2. Linked branches — which branches exist for this issue
3. Pull requests — open PRs, their review status, CI status
4. Related issues — other issues that may be affected

Branch Naming

When creating branches manually (fallback):

• Format: NUMBER-slugified-title
• Max length: 60 characters
• Slugify: lowercase, replace spaces with hyphens, remove special characters
• Example: issue #42 "Fix login flow for OAuth users" → 42-fix-login-flow-for-oauth-users

Troubleshooting

gh issue develop not available:

• This command requires a recent version of gh. Fall back to manual branch creation with git checkout -b.

Branch already exists:

• Ask the user if they want to check out the existing branch or create a new one with a different name.

Working tree dirty:

• Never silently discard changes. Options: stash (git stash), commit, or abort the operation.

Issue is closed:

• Ask the user if they want to reopen the issue before starting development, or if they want to work on it without reopening.

Already in a worktree (e.g., claude -w):

• The skill detects worktrees automatically. It renames the current branch to NUMBER-slug format and skips branch creation. All hooks (session-start, commit-reference-check) work normally since they key off branch naming.