issue-triage

Triage all open issues and rank by difficulty/impact.

Gotchas

• GitHub API rate limits -- gh issue list with --limit 100+ can hit rate limits on busy repos. If you get a 403, reduce the batch size or add --label filters.
• Stale issues -- issues older than 6 months with no recent activity are likely stale. Flag them separately rather than ranking alongside active issues.
• Misleading labels -- "good first issue" doesn't always mean low difficulty. Cross-check against the actual description before trusting the label.
• Body truncation -- gh issue list --json body truncates long bodies. For issues that need deeper analysis, fetch individually: gh issue view NUMBER --json body.
• Duplicate issues -- watch for multiple issues describing the same root cause. Group them and note the canonical issue number.
• Assigned != in progress -- stale assignments are common. Check if the assignee has recent activity on the issue before skipping it.

Data Storage

Track triage history to show deltas between runs:

# After triage, save results
echo "$(date -I) REPO TOTAL_ISSUES QUICK_WINS HIGH_PRIORITY" >> "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/triage-history.log"

On subsequent runs, read the log and highlight what changed since last triage.

Workflow

1. Determine repo and filters

   • If $ARGUMENTS provided, parse it:
     • Bare value = repo name (e.g., nuxt/nuxt)
     • --label <name> = filter by label
     • --limit <n> = override default 100
   • Otherwise auto-detect: gh repo view --json nameWithOwner -q .nameWithOwner

2. Fetch all open issues

   gh issue list --repo <repo> --state open --limit <limit> --json number,title,labels,body,createdAt,author,comments,assignees
   

3. Parallel batch analysis (8-10x faster than sequential) Split issues into batches of 10 and spawn parallel haiku classification agents (one per batch). Classification is cheap, mechanical extraction — haiku is the right tier. If <=10 issues, use a single agent.

   For a large backlog (50+ issues), drive this with the Workflow tool: pipeline the batches through a classify stage (schema below) then a verify stage, so the schema is enforced and the verify pass runs per batch as it completes. This skill's instructions are the opt-in.

   See references/heuristics.md for the full difficulty/impact scales and signal weighting.

   Each agent returns a JSON array conforming exactly to this schema (reject and re-run any batch that returns malformed entries):

   { "number": int, "difficulty": 1-5, "impact": 1-5, "hasRepro": bool, "needsCodebaseReview": bool, "notes": string }
   

4. Merge results from all agents into unified list.

5. Adversarially verify the candidate quick wins. A wrong "difficulty 1, impact 4" recommendation costs the user a wasted worktree, so before presenting, spawn a haiku verifier per issue scored difficulty 1-2 AND impact 3+. Prompt it to refute the score: "Read issue #N. Is this genuinely a <=2-difficulty change with 3+ impact, or is there hidden scope (migration, API surface, cross-cutting state)? Default to downgrading if uncertain." Demote any issue the verifier refutes. Skip this pass for backlogs where no issue clears the quick-win bar.

6. Display table sorted by: has repro (yes first), then impact/difficulty ratio (descending)

   #	Title	Labels	Repro	Diff	Impact	Assigned	Notes
   42	Fix CSS regression	bug	yes	1	3		1-line fix
   17	Add dark mode	enhancement	n/a	2	4	@dev	PR in progress

7. Highlight quick wins -- low difficulty (1-2), decent impact (2+), survived verification

8. Highlight high priorities -- impact 4-5 regardless of difficulty

9. Offer worktree setup -- prompt user with options:

   • "Create worktrees for quick wins (difficulty 1-2, impact 2+)?"
   • "Create worktrees for high priorities (impact 4-5)?"
   • "Pick specific issues by number?"

   For each selected issue, create an isolated worktree using wt (git worktree manager):

   wt switch --create fix/<number>-<slug>
   

   Where <slug> is a kebab-case short title (first 4-5 words). wt switch --create creates a new branch + worktree from current HEAD.

   After creation, list worktrees with wt list so user can open them in separate sessions.