Github Scanning

name: github-scanning description: GitHub data collection patterns for workflow agents. Covers search query construction by intent, date range handling, repository scope narrowing, preferences.md integration, cross-repo intelligence, parallel stream collection model, and auto-recovery for empty results. Use when building agents that search GitHub for issues, PRs, discussions, releases, security alerts, or CI status.

GitHub Scanning

Search Query Patterns by Intent

Issues

Pull Requests

Discussions

Releases

• Use github_list_releases per repo - check for recent, draft, and pre-releases.
• Cross-reference merged PRs against release notes to identify unreleased work.
• Compare issue milestones against release schedules to flag upcoming deadline items.

Security

• Dependabot alerts: critical and high severity across monitored repos.
• Security advisories affecting dependencies.
• Pending dependency update PRs from dependabot[bot] or renovate[bot].

CI/CD

• Fetch recent workflow runs - identify failing workflows, long jobs, and flaky tests.
• For failing workflows: note repo, workflow name, branch, failure reason, and link to run.
• Cross-reference user's open PRs against CI results.

Date Range Handling

Convert natural language to GitHub query qualifiers:

Scope Narrowing

Add qualifiers to narrow by scope when the user specifies one:

Preferences File Integration

Read .github/agents/preferences.md and apply these filters before and after searching:

1. repos.discovery - determines the default search scope (all / starred / owned / configured / workspace).
2. repos.include - always include these repos even in restricted modes.
3. repos.exclude - skip these repos in all searches.
4. repos.overrides - per-repo settings:
   • track.issues: false -> skip issue searches for this repo
   • track.pull_requests: false -> skip PR searches for this repo
   • track.discussions: false -> skip discussions for this repo
   • track.releases: false -> skip release checks for this repo
   • track.security: false -> skip security alerts for this repo
   • track.ci: false -> skip CI status for this repo
   • labels.include / labels.exclude -> filter results by label
   • paths -> only trigger for changes touching these file paths (for PRs/CI)
   • assignees -> filter to specific assignees (empty = all)
5. search.default_window - default time range if the user doesn't specify one.
6. briefing.sections - which sections to include in the daily briefing.
7. accessibility_tracking - config for the a11y tracker (repos, labels, channels).

Cross-Repo Intelligence

When results arrive from different repos, look for and surface these patterns:

Parallel Stream Collection Model

For agents that collect from multiple data streams, run independent streams simultaneously. Don't serialize operations with no dependencies.

Example: Daily Briefing - 3 Parallel Batches

Batch 1 - fully independent, run simultaneously:

• Issues (assigned, mentioned, authored)
• Pull requests (review-requested, authored)
• Releases & deployments
• Accessibility updates

Batch 2 - run after Batch 1 (CI needs PR list from Batch 1):

• GitHub Discussions
• CI/CD health (cross-references PR list)
• Security alerts

Batch 3 - can overlap with Batch 2:

• Project board status
• Recently closed/merged work

Example: Analytics - 2 Parallel Batches

Batch 1 - collection (all independent):

• Closed/merged PRs in period
• Opened issues in period
• CI workflow runs in period
• Security alerts in period

Batch 2 - analysis (depends on Batch 1 data):

• Health score computation
• Velocity metrics calculation
• Bottleneck detection

Announcement Template for Parallel Work

 Running {N} searches in parallel... ({scope})
 Batch 1 complete - {X} items found

 Running {N} additional searches...
 Batch 2 complete - {Y} items found

 Scoring and prioritizing...
 Done - {Z} items need action, {W} to monitor

Auto-Recovery for Empty Results

If a search returns 0 results:

1. Automatically broaden: remove date filter, expand scope to all, or remove label filters.
2. Tell the user exactly what changed: "No results in last 7 days - broadened to last 30 days and found 3 items."
3. Never return 0 results without trying at least one broader query first.

Recovery cascade:

1. First try: Remove date qualifier
2. Second try: Expand scope (add org: or remove repo: qualifier)
3. Third try: Remove label filters
4. Report 0 results only if all three attempts return nothing

Pagination

• Paginate large result sets in batches of 10.
• Ask before loading more: "Showing 10 of 47. Load more?"
• Never silently truncate results - always disclose the total count.

Result Deduplication

When the same item appears in multiple searches (e.g., an issue you're both assigned to AND mentioned in):

• Show it once, with all context combined.
• In the Signal column, combine signals: "Assigned, @mentioned".
• In priority calculations, apply the highest-scoring signal, not additive.

Rate Limiting

• If rate-limited (403/429), tell the user the reset time in one sentence.
• Do not retry the same query - wait if reset is <60 seconds; otherwise report and move on.
• For multi-stream collection, skip rate-limited streams and complete them in a follow-up.