git-triage

/git:triage

Unified issue and PR triage: scan, categorize, cross-link, and optionally act.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when...	Use another skill instead when...
Grooming the backlog periodically (weekly/monthly)	Addressing one specific issue → /git:issue
Cutting a release and want to merge anything green	Fixing a single failing PR → /git:fix-pr
Cleaning up after a busy week of PRs and issues	Applying review feedback on one PR → /git:pr-feedback
Auditing what's still relevant across the queue	Creating new sub-issue hierarchy → /git:issue-hierarchy
Deciding which issues are "quick wins" next	Administrative ops on one issue → /git:issue-manage

Context

• Repo remote: !git remote -v
• Repo toplevel: !git rev-parse --show-toplevel
• Current branch: !git branch --show-current
• Recent merged PRs: !git log --merges --format='%h %s' --max-count=15

Parameters

Parse these from $ARGUMENTS (all optional):

Flag	Default	Description
--type issues|prs|both	both	What to triage
--batch N	10	Items per batch
--repo owner/name	current repo (from origin)	Target repository
--days-stale-issue N	90	Age threshold for stale issues
--days-stale-pr N	30	Age threshold for stale PRs
--auto-close	off	Close implemented / stale issues (asks confirmation first)
--auto-merge	off	Merge ready-to-merge PRs (asks confirmation first)
--oldest-first	on	Process chronologically by updatedAt

Writes are disabled by default. --auto-close and --auto-merge still require a per-batch AskUserQuestion confirmation before any gh issue close or gh pr merge.

Execution

Execute this triage workflow:

Step 1: Resolve target repo and gather batches

Run the data-gathering script. It fetches issue/PR batches, computes age in days per item, categorizes each PR via the pure first-match table (over isDraft, mergeable, mergeStateStatus, reviewDecision, and statusCheckRollup[].conclusion), flags stale-candidate issues, and extracts each PR's closing keywords:

bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/git-triage.sh" --home-dir "$HOME" --project-dir "$(pwd)" --type "$TYPE" --batch "$BATCH" --days-stale-issue "$STALE_ISSUE" --days-stale-pr "$STALE_PR"

Parse STATUS= and ISSUES: from the output. Per item it emits ISSUE_<n>_AGE_DAYS / ISSUE_<n>_REFS / ISSUE_<n>_STALE_CANDIDATE and PR_<n>_CATEGORY / PR_<n>_AGE_DAYS / PR_<n>_CLOSES (plus the underlying enum fields). It also rolls up SYSTEMATIC_FAILURE_* groups (see Step 4). If --repo was provided, pass it through; the script reads the current repo from origin otherwise. Sort each set by age (oldest first if --oldest-first) and build a TodoWrite list with one entry per item.

Step 2: Investigate each issue (skip if --type prs)

For each open issue in parallel (batch reads), gather evidence:

1. Extract referenced PR numbers from title, body, and comments (regex #(\d+)).
2. Check status of each referenced PR:

   gh pr view <n> --repo $REPO --json number,state,mergedAt,title
   

3. Search the codebase for concrete nouns in the issue (file paths, function names, resource names, command names) using Grep. Evidence that described artefacts exist (or no longer exist) feeds the categorization.
4. Compute age in days from updatedAt.

Step 3: Categorize each issue

Category	Criteria
implemented	A referenced PR is merged AND codebase shows the promised artefacts
outdated	Referenced files/resources no longer exist; issue predates current structure
stale	age > --days-stale-issue AND no recent comments AND not implemented
still-valid	None of the above — work remains

Record the winning PR number (if any) with each implemented entry.

Step 4: Read each PR's category (skip if --type issues)

The script already categorized every PR in Step 1 — read PR_<n>_CATEGORY straight from its output. The category is a pure first-match over the enum fields (the script owns this deterministic table, top to bottom):

Category	Criteria
draft	isDraft is true
needs-fix	Any check in statusCheckRollup has conclusion: FAILURE
needs-rebase	mergeStateStatus in BEHIND, DIRTY; OR mergeable is CONFLICTING
changes-requested	reviewDecision is CHANGES_REQUESTED
ready-to-merge	mergeable: MERGEABLE AND mergeStateStatus in CLEAN/HAS_HOOKS/UNSTABLE AND reviewDecision: APPROVED AND not draft
awaiting-review	reviewDecision is REVIEW_REQUIRED or null AND no failing check
stale	age > --days-stale-pr AND none of the above trigger

If a PR comes back as uncategorized (e.g. mergeStateStatus/mergeable both UNKNOWN), trigger a fresh view and re-run the script, or inspect:

gh pr view <n> --repo $REPO --json mergeable,mergeStateStatus

Systematic failures. When ≥2 bot-authored needs-fix PRs share an identical failing-check signature, the script groups them under SYSTEMATIC_FAILURE_<k>_SIGNATURE (the sorted |-joined failed check names) and SYSTEMATIC_FAILURE_<k>_PRS (the PR list); SYSTEMATIC_FAILURE_COUNT holds the number of groups. These almost always have one shared root cause — e.g. Dependabot can't update bun.lock, so every npm-bump PR fails the bun install --frozen-lockfile step before lint/typecheck/tests run, and "Lint FAILURE / Type Check FAILURE" is misleading (nothing was linted). For each group, read the install step's log once before assuming code defects:

gh pr checks <n> --repo $REPO --json name,state,conclusion,detailsUrl
gh run view <run-id> --repo $REPO --log-failed

Diagnose the shared cause once and present a single grouped row (Step 6) / blocker (Step 8) instead of N independent needs-fix PRs.

Step 5: Cross-link issues and PRs

• For each implemented issue (from Step 3's judgment), attach the merged PR number.
• For each ready-to-merge PR, read the closing keywords the script extracted in PR_<n>_CLOSES and attach those issue numbers.
• For each needs-fix / needs-rebase / changes-requested PR, note the referenced issues so the report can suggest which issues remain blocked.

Step 6: Present the prioritized queue

Ordering: quick wins first. Use AskUserQuestion only when the user will need to pick what to act on next.

Print a status table (one row per item) grouped by category:

## Issues (N open, triaged)

| # | Age | Title | Category | Cross-link |
|---|-----|-------|----------|------------|
| 42 | 120d | Remove legacy X | implemented | PR #99 (merged) |
| 17 | 210d | Deprecated docs | stale | — |
| 13 | 14d  | Add retry logic | still-valid | — |

## PRs (N open, triaged)

| # | Age | Title | Category | Cross-link |
|---|-----|-------|----------|------------|
| 101 | 2d  | feat(api): X | ready-to-merge | closes #55 |
| 102 | 18d | fix(auth): Y | needs-fix | — |
| 103 | 45d | refactor(ui) | stale | — |

Step 7: Optional writes (guarded)

If --auto-close was set and any issue is implemented or stale, ask before acting:

AskUserQuestion("Close N issues?", options=[
  "Yes — close all implemented + stale",
  "Implemented only",
  "Stale only",
  "No, report only"
])

For each selected issue:

gh issue close <n> --repo $REPO --comment "Closing as <category>.

Evidence: <short summary + cross-link PR>

Triaged by /git:triage on <date>."

If --auto-merge was set and any PR is ready-to-merge, ask similarly. Merge with:

gh pr merge <n> --repo $REPO --squash --auto

(--squash is the repo default for this project; for other repos, read gh repo view --json squashMergeAllowed,mergeCommitAllowed,rebaseMergeAllowed and pick the first allowed strategy.)

Step 8: Synthesize the backlog report

After per-item actions, emit a structured summary:

1. Actions taken — count of issues closed, PRs merged, with numbers.
2. Quick wins — still-valid issues whose body suggests <30 min of work (single file, doc edit, config tweak).
3. Blockers — changes-requested PRs and issues blocked on external factors. For each SYSTEMATIC_FAILURE_* group, emit one "systematic failure — likely shared root cause" line naming the PRs and the shared check signature, rather than N independent needs-fix entries.
4. Decisions needed — still-valid issues whose body ends in a question or "how should we…".
5. Handoff recommendations per category:

Category	Recommended next skill
needs-fix	/git:fix-pr <n>
changes-requested	/git:pr-feedback <n>
needs-rebase	/git:conflicts <n> or gh pr merge --update-branch
still-valid (actionable)	/git:issue <n>
still-valid (admin only)	/git:issue-manage
implemented (not auto-closed)	manual gh issue close <n>

Post-actions

• Print a one-line summary: Triaged N issues (X closed), M PRs (Y merged). See report above.
• If any writes were gated behind confirmation that the user declined, leave the items open and note "no writes — report only".
• Remind the user they can re-run with --type prs or --type issues to focus the sweep.

Agentic Optimizations

Context	Command
Minimal issue list	gh issue list --repo $REPO --state open --limit $BATCH --json number,title,updatedAt,labels
Full PR status	gh pr list --repo $REPO --state open --limit $BATCH --json number,title,updatedAt,mergeable,mergeStateStatus,reviewDecision,statusCheckRollup,isDraft
PR check bucket summary	gh pr checks <n> --repo $REPO --json name,state,conclusion,bucket
Single PR merge state	gh pr view <n> --repo $REPO --json mergeable,mergeStateStatus
Close with evidence	gh issue close <n> --repo $REPO --comment "<reason + PR ref>"
Squash-merge when green	gh pr merge <n> --repo $REPO --squash --auto

See Also

• /git:fix-pr — fix needs-fix PRs
• /git:pr-feedback — address changes-requested PRs
• /git:issue — work on a still-valid issue
• /git:issue-manage — admin ops on issues
• /git:issue-hierarchy — sub-issue relationships
• /git:conflicts — resolve needs-rebase PRs