Git Tools Label Issues

Auto-Label Issues - Intelligent Issue Organization

Bismillah! I'll analyze unlabeled or incompletely labeled GitHub issues and suggest appropriate labels based on content analysis.

Arguments: [--dry-run] [--limit N]

Safety & Compatibility

This command is designed to work safely with ANY repository:

• ✅ Validates GitHub CLI authentication
• ✅ Checks repository capabilities
• ✅ Respects existing labels (no overwrites)
• ✅ Works with any label naming convention
• ✅ Handles repos with 0 to 1000+ issues
• ✅ Validates permissions before making changes
• ✅ Provides preview mode for safety

Implementation Strategy

Phase 1: Environment Validation

# Check GitHub CLI authentication
if ! gh auth status &>/dev/null; then
    echo "❌ GitHub CLI not authenticated. Run: gh auth login"
    exit 1
fi

# Verify we're in a git repository
if ! git rev-parse --git-dir &>/dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "❌ Not in a git repository"
    exit 1
fi

# Get repository information
REPO=$(gh repo view --json nameWithOwner -q .nameWithOwner 2>/dev/null)
if [ -z "$REPO" ]; then
    echo "❌ Could not determine GitHub repository"
    exit 1
fi

# Check if issues are enabled
ISSUES_ENABLED=$(gh repo view --json hasIssuesEnabled -q .hasIssuesEnabled)
if [ "$ISSUES_ENABLED" != "true" ]; then
    echo "❌ Issues are not enabled for this repository"
    exit 1
fi

echo "✅ Repository: $REPO"

Phase 2: Fetch Unlabeled Issues

# Parse arguments
ARGS="<--dry-run / --limit flags supplied when invoking this skill>"
DRY_RUN=false
LIMIT=50

if echo "$ARGS" | grep -q -- "--dry-run"; then
    DRY_RUN=true
    echo "🔍 DRY RUN MODE - No labels will be applied"
fi

if echo "$ARGS" | grep -q -- "--limit"; then
    LIMIT=$(echo "$ARGS" | grep -o -- "--limit [0-9]\+" | grep -o "[0-9]\+")
fi

# Fetch issues without labels (or with incomplete labels)
# NOTE: Explicitly NOT fetching 'body' to avoid token usage issues with large issue descriptions
echo "📊 Fetching unlabeled issues (limit: $LIMIT)..."

ISSUES=$(gh issue list \
    --repo "$REPO" \
    --state open \
    --limit "$LIMIT" \
    --json number,title,labels,url \
    --jq '.[] | select(.labels | length == 0)')

ISSUE_COUNT=$(echo "$ISSUES" | jq -s 'length')

if [ "$ISSUE_COUNT" -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "✅ No unlabeled issues found!"
    exit 0
fi

echo "Found $ISSUE_COUNT unlabeled issues"

Phase 3: Fetch Available Labels

# Get all labels available in the repository
AVAILABLE_LABELS=$(gh label list --repo "$REPO" --json name --jq '.[].name')

if [ -z "$AVAILABLE_LABELS" ]; then
    echo "⚠️  No labels defined in this repository"
    echo "Create labels first using: gh label create <name>"
    exit 1
fi

echo "📋 Available labels: $(echo "$AVAILABLE_LABELS" | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"

Phase 4: Intelligent Analysis

For each unlabeled issue, I will:

1. Read the full context (title + body)

2. Analyze content semantically (not just keyword matching)

3. Match to available labels (only suggest labels that exist)

4. Consider label categories:

   • Area/Component (area:, component:)
   • Type (type:, kind:)
   • Priority (priority:*)
   • Status (status:*)
   • Any custom labels

5. Provide reasoning for each suggestion

Phase 5: Apply or Preview

if [ "$DRY_RUN" = true ]; then
    # Preview mode - show what would be done
    echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
    echo "DRY RUN - No changes will be made"
    echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
else
    # Ask for confirmation before applying
    echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
    echo "Ready to apply labels to $ISSUE_COUNT issues"
    echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"

    # Will ask the user for confirmation inline
fi

Label Matching Strategy

I use intelligent pattern matching that adapts to ANY repository:

Generic Patterns (Work Everywhere)

• Bug indicators: "bug", "error", "broken", "crash", "fail", "issue", "problem"
• Feature indicators: "feature", "enhancement", "add", "implement", "support"
• Documentation: "docs", "documentation", "readme", "guide", "tutorial"
• Performance: "slow", "performance", "optimize", "speed"
• Security: "security", "vulnerability", "CVE", "exploit"
• Testing: "test", "testing", "spec", "coverage"

Component Detection

• Parser/Compiler: "parse", "compile", "syntax", "grammar"
• CLI: "command", "cli", "terminal", "flag", "argument"
• API: "api", "endpoint", "rest", "graphql"
• UI/Frontend: "ui", "frontend", "interface", "button", "form"
• Database: "database", "db", "query", "migration", "schema"
• Infrastructure: "ci", "cd", "deploy", "build", "docker"

Priority Detection

• Critical: "critical", "urgent", "blocking", "broken", "crash"
• High: "important", "soon", "high priority", "regression"
• Medium: "should", "nice to have", "enhancement"
• Low: "minor", "low priority", "future", "sometime"

Error Handling

• Network failures → Retry with exponential backoff
• Rate limiting → Respect GitHub API limits, pause if needed
• Permission errors → Clear instructions for authentication
• Invalid labels → Only suggest labels that exist in repo
• Malformed issues → Skip gracefully with warning

Usage Examples

# Preview what labels would be applied (safe, no changes)
Invoke with: git-tools-label-issues --dry-run

# Preview first 10 issues only
Invoke with: git-tools-label-issues --dry-run --limit 10

# Apply labels to unlabeled issues (asks for confirmation)
Invoke with: git-tools-label-issues

# Apply labels to first 20 issues
Invoke with: git-tools-label-issues --limit 20

Output Format

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🏷️  Issue Labeling Analysis
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Repository: your-org/your-repo
Unlabeled Issues: 7

─────────────────────────────────────────
Issue #43: Add deprecation warnings for old schema fields
URL: https://github.com/your-org/your-repo/issues/43

Analysis:
• Discusses schema evolution and compiler warnings
• Mentions parser and code generation
• Feature enhancement, not a bug

Suggested Labels:
  ✓ area:core     (mentions parser, compiler, schema)
  ✓ type:feature  (requests new functionality)
  ✓ priority:medium (enhancement, not critical)

Reasoning:
This issue is about adding a new compiler feature to warn
developers about deprecated schema fields. It affects the
core compiler and is a valuable enhancement for migration.

─────────────────────────────────────────
Issue #42: VSCode syntax highlighting broken
URL: https://github.com/your-org/your-repo/issues/42

Analysis:
• User reports broken syntax highlighting
• Specific to VSCode extension
• Affects user experience

Suggested Labels:
  ✓ area:vscode   (VSCode extension issue)
  ✓ type:bug      (something is broken)
  ✓ priority:high (impacts all VSCode users)

Reasoning:
Clear bug report for VSCode extension. Syntax highlighting
is a core feature, and when broken, affects all users.

─────────────────────────────────────────

Advanced Features

1. Partial Labeling

If an issue has SOME labels but is missing others:

• Detect missing label categories
• Suggest complementary labels
• Don't remove existing labels

2. Confidence Scoring

Each suggestion includes confidence level:

• 🟢 High confidence (90%+): Strong keyword matches
• 🟡 Medium confidence (60-89%): Contextual inference
• 🔴 Low confidence (<60%): Uncertain, needs review

3. Batch Processing

For repos with many issues:

• Process in batches of 10
• Show progress bar
• Handle rate limits gracefully

4. Learning Mode

Remember user corrections:

• Track which suggestions were accepted/rejected
• Improve future suggestions
• Store in $LABEL_CACHE_DIR (default ~/.cache/label-patterns.json) — optional.

Integration with Workflows

This command complements the auto-labeling workflow:

• Workflow: Labels NEW issues automatically
• This command: Labels EXISTING unlabeled issues

Permissions Required

• repo scope (read issues)
• repo:write scope (apply labels) - only when not in dry-run mode

Limitations

• Cannot create new labels (use gh label create for that)
• Cannot remove existing labels (only adds missing ones)
• Respects repository's existing label taxonomy
• Works best with repos that have clear label conventions

Philosophy

Ihsan in Organization: Every issue deserves proper categorization. Good labels help maintainers prioritize work and help contributors find tasks that match their skills.

Amanah in Automation: This tool suggests labels but respects human judgment. Always review suggestions before applying, especially for complex or nuanced issues.

Expected Outcomes

After running this command:

1. ✅ Clear Overview - Understand which issues lack labels
2. ✅ Intelligent Suggestions - AI-powered label recommendations
3. ✅ Safe Application - Preview mode prevents mistakes
4. ✅ Better Organization - Properly categorized issue tracker
5. ✅ Improved Workflow - Easier to filter and prioritize issues

MashaAllah! This command brings order to chaos, helping teams maintain clean and organized issue trackers across ANY repository.

Note: This command is completely generic and adapts to any repository's label structure. It never assumes specific labels exist and always validates against the actual labels in your repo.

"Indeed, Allah loves those who are organized and systematic in their work."

Alhamdulillah! Let's bring organization and clarity to your issue tracker, InshaAllah! 🏷️