Arness Create Issue

Create an issue in the configured issue tracker (GitHub or Jira) with Arness labels for type and priority.

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Step 1: Check Prerequisites

If no ## Arness section exists in the project's CLAUDE.md, inform the user: "Arness is not configured for this project yet. Run /arn-planning to get started — it will set everything up automatically." Do not proceed without it.

Read the Issue tracker field from ## Arness config in the project's CLAUDE.md (values: github, jira, or none). If the Issue tracker field is not present, fall back to legacy detection: check for GitHub: yes and treat as github; otherwise treat as none.

If Issue tracker is github

1. git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree — must be inside a git repository
2. git remote -v — must have a GitHub remote (origin pointing to github.com)
3. gh auth status — the GitHub CLI must be authenticated

If any check fails, inform the user what is missing and suggest running /arn-planning to get started. Do not proceed until all prerequisites are satisfied.

If Issue tracker is jira

1. Read Jira project and Jira site from ## Arness config
2. Verify the Atlassian MCP server is available (attempt a lightweight MCP call, e.g., list projects)
3. If the MCP server is not available: "The Atlassian MCP server is not available. Run /mcp to check status, or run /arn-planning to reconfigure."

If Issue tracker is none

Inform the user: "Issue management is not configured for this project. Run /arn-planning to get started, or configure the issue tracker manually."

STOP — do not proceed.

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Trigger message inference: If the user's trigger message contains enough context to infer the issue type, priority, and title (e.g., "create issue: high priority bug — checkout page crashes on empty cart"), extract these values and present them for confirmation rather than re-asking each question separately. If the trigger message is ambiguous, proceed with the standard question flow below.

Step 2: Classify Issue Type

Ask the user to select the issue type using AskUserQuestion. Present these options:

Option	GitHub Label	Jira Issue Type	Jira Label	Description
Feature request	arness-feature-issue	Story	arness-feature-issue	A new feature or enhancement
Bug report	arness-bug-issue	Bug	arness-bug-issue	Something is broken or not working as expected
Backlog item	arness-backlog	Task	arness-backlog	Deferred or low-urgency item for future consideration

The user-facing question is the same regardless of issue tracker. The internal mapping differs by platform and is applied during submission (Step 5).

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Step 3: Set Priority

Ask the user to select the priority using AskUserQuestion. Present these options:

Option	GitHub Label	Jira Priority	Description
High	arness-priority-high	High	Urgent — should be addressed soon
Medium	arness-priority-medium	Medium	Important but not urgent
Low (default)	arness-priority-low	Low	Nice to have, address when convenient

If the user does not express a preference, default to Low.

The user-facing question is the same regardless of issue tracker. The internal mapping differs by platform and is applied during submission (Step 5).

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Step 4: Compose Issue

1. Ask the user for the issue title (short, descriptive).
2. Ask the user for the issue description, or offer to compose one on their behalf.
3. If Arness context is available in the current session (spec, plan, or branch name), offer to pre-populate the description with relevant references:
   • Link to the current spec file if one exists
   • Reference the current plan/project if one is active
   • Include the branch name for traceability

If Issue tracker is github

4. Deferred Label Check:

   Check if Arness labels exist by running gh label list --search "arness-". If fewer than 7 Arness labels are found, create the missing ones using gh label create --force for each label per ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/arn-code-init/references/platform-labels.md. This is idempotent and safe to run on every invocation.

If Issue tracker is jira

4. No label pre-creation needed — Jira labels are freeform and created implicitly when applied to an issue.

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Step 5: Submit

If Issue tracker is github

Create the issue using the GitHub CLI:

gh issue create --title "<title>" --body "<body>" --label "<type-label>,<priority-label>"

Report to the user:

• The issue number and URL (returned by gh issue create)
• The labels that were applied
• Suggest: "Run /arn-code-pick-issue later to pick this up for implementation, or continue with your current work."

If Issue tracker is jira

Use the Atlassian MCP server to create a Jira issue:

• Project: <Jira project from ## Arness config>
• Issue type: Story | Bug | Task (from Step 2 mapping)
• Summary: <title>
• Description: <body> (in Jira-compatible markdown)
• Priority: High | Medium | Low (from Step 3 mapping)
• Labels: [arness-<type-label>, arness-priority-<level>]

Report to the user:

• The issue key (e.g., PROJ-42) and URL: https://<jira-site>/browse/<issue-key>
• The issue type and priority that were set
• Suggest: "Run /arn-code-pick-issue later to pick this up for implementation, or continue with your current work."

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Error Handling

• Issue tracker is none — Inform the user that issue management is not configured. Suggest running /arn-planning to get started.
• GitHub not available — Inform the user and suggest running /arn-planning to get started.
• gh CLI not authenticated — Suggest running gh auth login to authenticate.
• Atlassian MCP server not available — Inform the user. Suggest running /mcp to check status or /arn-planning to reconfigure.
• Jira project not found — Verify the Jira project key in ## Arness config is correct. Suggest running /arn-planning to reconfigure.
• Label creation fails (GitHub) — Warn the user but proceed with issue creation. Label creation may require repository admin permissions.
• Issue creation fails — Show the full error message and offer to retry.
• No GitHub remote — Inform the user that GitHub issues require a GitHub-hosted repository.

Conventions

• Use ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} for all paths referencing plugin files.
• Reference other Arness skills with the /arn-code:skill-name prefix (e.g., /arn-code-init, /arn-code-pick-issue).