issues

name	issues
description	GitHub issue workflow — ready queue with dependency resolution, claim, start, close, link

/issues

Thin workflow over gh issue with a smart ready query that parses Blocked by #N / Depends on #N from issue bodies to compute dependency-free work. (Blocks #N is written as the reciprocal side by /issues link, but isn't parsed as a blocker itself — the authoritative direction is Blocked by.)

Arguments: $ARGUMENTS

Dispatch on the first word of $ARGUMENTS. If no verb is given, default to ready.

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Permission hygiene

Never use heredocs in gh commands — the auto-approval regex can't match multiline commands, which causes permission prompts. Always write multiline content to a temp file first:

cat > /tmp/issue-body.md << 'BODY'
line 1
line 2
BODY
gh issue edit <n> --body-file /tmp/issue-body.md

Apply to: gh issue create, gh issue edit, gh issue comment.

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ready

Show open issues with no open blockers, sorted by priority.

./.agents/skills/issues/scripts/ready.py

Flags (all optional):

• --mine — only issues assigned to me
• --unassigned — only unassigned issues
• --agent — only issues labeled dev: agent
• --priority critical|high|medium|low
• --area <name> (matches area: <name> label — e.g., backend, frontend, mobile, packages)
• --limit N (default 20)
• --json — machine-readable

Exclusion rules:

• Label status: blocked
• Label status: on-staging — fix merged to a staging/integration branch, awaiting release/promotion (done, pending; an opt-in convention — no-op in repos that don't apply it)
• Any agent-bail:* label — explicitly excluded by backlog refinement or a prior loop run, even if a stale dev: agent label remains
• Body contains Blocked by #N or Depends on #N where #N is still open
• Targeted by a closing reference from an open PR, or from a PR merged in the last 30 days (via closingIssuesReferences, with a closing-keyword body fallback) — keeps issues already fixed as a PR side-item or by an in-review PR out of the queue, including done-on-integration issues that a non-default-branch merge never auto-closed

The --agent / --priority / --area flags work via standard label conventions (dev: agent, priority: <level>, area: <name>). Repos that don't use those labels will simply get an empty result for those filters — the script doesn't enforce a label scheme, it just queries one when asked.

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show <n>

gh issue view <n>

Surface dependency refs explicitly (useful for triage):

gh issue view <n> --json body --jq '.body' | grep -iE '^[[:space:]]*[-*]?[[:space:]]*(blocked by|blocks|depends on)[:\s]+#[0-9]+' || echo "(no dependency refs)"

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claim <n>

gh issue edit <n> --add-assignee @me
printf 'Claiming this.\n' > /tmp/issue-comment.md
gh issue comment <n> --body-file /tmp/issue-comment.md

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start <n>

Claim + create working branch off the repo's default branch. The default branch is auto-detected (main, staging, etc.) via the upstream HEAD ref so this works across consumer repos without per-repo config:

gh issue edit <n> --add-assignee @me
slug=$(gh issue view <n> --json title --jq '.title' | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | sed 's/[^a-z0-9]/-/g; s/--*/-/g; s/^-//' | cut -c1-50 | sed 's/-$//')
default_branch=$(git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null | sed 's@^refs/remotes/origin/@@')
default_branch="${default_branch:-main}"
git fetch origin "$default_branch"
git checkout -b "fix/issue-<n>-$slug" "origin/$default_branch"

Replace <n> and the slug interpolation with the real issue number. If git symbolic-ref is unset (rare; happens when the remote was added without --mirror or git remote set-head was never run), the fallback is main. Run git remote set-head origin --auto once on the affected clone to fix it permanently.

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close <n> [msg]

With a comment:

printf '<msg>\n' > /tmp/issue-close.md
gh issue close <n> --comment "$(cat /tmp/issue-close.md)"

Without:

gh issue close <n>

Confirm with the user before closing if the issue isn't assigned to them or the close reason isn't obvious from the conversation.

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link <n> blocks|blocked-by <m>

Adds dependency refs to both issues so ready sees them regardless of which side you query.

./.agents/skills/issues/scripts/link.py <n> blocks <m>
./.agents/skills/issues/scripts/link.py <n> blocked-by <m>

• link A blocks B → writes Blocks #B to A, Blocked by #A to B
• link A blocked-by B → writes Blocked by #B to A, Blocks #A to B

Refs land under a ## Dependencies section in each body. If a matching ref already exists, the script no-ops that side.

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search <query>

Forward to gh issue list --search:

gh issue list --search "<query>" --limit 20

Useful query fragments: label:"dev: agent", is:open no:assignee, in:title pipeline, author:@me.

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Dependency parsing rules

ready recognizes these patterns (case-insensitive, on their own line, optionally bulleted):

• Blocked by #N
• Depends on #N

To mark a dependency, prefer /issues link over manual edits — it keeps both issues consistent and under a parseable ## Dependencies section. The label status: blocked is also honored (excludes from ready regardless of body content).

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Hard rules

• Never use heredocs in gh commands — always temp files.
• Never close someone else's issue without explicit user confirmation.
• Keep dependency refs under the ## Dependencies section so they stay parseable and don't conflict with prose.
• If ready returns nothing, don't invent work — report the empty queue and stop.

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Source of truth

This skill lives upstream at .agents/skills/issues/. Synced to consumer repos via the sync mechanism. Edits in a consumer will be overwritten on next sync — make changes upstream.