Groom Stale

groom-stale

Two-pass triage that uses only the Sentry MCP — no git operations, no PRs. Safe for unattended runs.

Inputs

• SENTRY_ORG_SLUG — required
• SENTRY_DEFAULT_PROJECT_SLUG — optional
• STALE_AGE_DAYS — default 30 (from userConfig)

If $ARGUMENTS contains --dry-run, log every decision but do not call update_issue. Default behavior is to apply changes.

Workflow

Compute these once at the start of the run and reuse in every pass:

• DRY_RUN = "--dry-run" in $ARGUMENTS
• STALE_CUTOFF_ISO = (now − STALE_AGE_DAYS days) formatted as YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS (no trailing Z)
• AGE_CUTOFF_ISO = (now − 60 days) in the same format
• Maintain three accumulators: closed[], reopened[], errors[]. Append to them as you go; the digest is built from these at the end.

All passes use search_issues with the literal query field. To pull deeper details on a single issue, use get_sentry_resource with the issue short_id as resourceId. To count events in a window, use search_events (the documented tool for counts).

Pass 0 — Preflight

Before touching any data:

1. Call whoami. If it errors, abort the run with Sentry MCP is not connected — re-run \/plugin enable sentry-workflows` and complete OAuth.and exit cleanly (digest withErrors: 1`).
2. Call find_projects(organizationSlug=SENTRY_ORG_SLUG). On 403, abort with The authenticated user has no access to org \` — re-authenticate or change SENTRY_ORG_SLUG.` and exit.
3. If SENTRY_DEFAULT_PROJECT_SLUG is set, confirm it appears in the find_projects result. If not, abort.

Pass 1 — Close obviously stale

Note on syntax: Sentry's date filters accept either -duration (e.g. -30d = "within the last 30 days") or an absolute ISO 8601 timestamp with < / >. There is no +duration shorthand for "older than." To find issues that have not been seen recently, use the ISO form.

Call search_issues with:

• query = "is:unresolved lastSeen:<${STALE_CUTOFF_ISO} firstSeen:<${AGE_CUTOFF_ISO}"
• sort = "date"
• limit = 50

This returns unresolved issues whose last event is older than STALE_AGE_DAYS and whose first event is older than 60 days (so we don't ignore issues that are simply brand-new and idle).

For each result:

1. Call search_events(organizationSlug=SENTRY_ORG_SLUG, dataset="errors", query="issue:<short_id>", statsPeriod="${STALE_AGE_DAYS}d", fields=["count()"], limit=1). Read the count() value from the single returned row. If it is not zero, the index lagged between calls — skip this issue and append to errors[] with reason unexpected-activity.
2. If DRY_RUN, append <short_id> to closed[] with status (dry-run; skipped) and do not call update_issue.
3. Otherwise call update_issue(issueId=<short_id>, status="ignored", reason="Auto-closed by groom-stale: no events in ${STALE_AGE_DAYS}d, first seen >60d ago"). On error, append to errors[] and continue. On success, append to closed[].

Pass 2 — Re-open regressions

Call search_issues with:

• query = "is:resolved lastSeen:-7d"
• sort = "date"
• limit = 50

The -7d here is correct: it finds resolved issues whose most recent event is within the last week (i.e., events arrived after the resolve), which is the regression signal. Contrast with Pass 1, where the goal was the opposite (issues with no recent events) — that's why Pass 1 uses an absolute ISO cutoff.

For each result:

1. Call get_sentry_resource(resourceType="issue", organizationSlug=SENTRY_ORG_SLUG, resourceId=<short_id>). Inspect the activity feed (the field is typically activity[], with entries of type: "set_resolved" carrying a dateCreated). Take the most recent set_resolved timestamp as RESOLVE_TIME. If no set_resolved entry exists, append to errors[] with reason = no-resolve-timestamp and skip.
2. Call search_events(organizationSlug=SENTRY_ORG_SLUG, dataset="errors", query="issue:<short_id> timestamp:>${RESOLVE_TIME}", statsPeriod="30d", fields=["count()"], limit=1). Read the count() value. If < 5, skip (too noisy to call a regression — not an error). (Pin statsPeriod to 30d so the embedded agent doesn't default to a shorter window that pre-trims the absolute timestamp filter.)
3. If DRY_RUN, append to reopened[] with status (dry-run; skipped).
4. Otherwise call update_issue(issueId=<short_id>, status="unresolved", reason="Auto-reopened by groom-stale: <N> events since resolve at <RESOLVE_TIME>"). On error, append to errors[] and continue. On success, append to reopened[].

Do not also assign — assignment is out of scope for this skill (the Sentry MCP has no member-lookup tool).

Idempotency

update_issue is naturally idempotent — setting status: ignored on an already-ignored issue, or status: unresolved on an already-unresolved issue, is a no-op. Re-runs are safe. Don't pre-check the status; just call.

Final — Print digest

Print this exact structure to stdout. Sections are always present even when empty so downstream consumers can parse a stable schema.

# Sentry grooming digest — <ISO date>
Org: <SENTRY_ORG_SLUG>  Project: <SENTRY_DEFAULT_PROJECT_SLUG or "all">  Dry-run: <true|false>

## Closed as stale (<len(closed)>)
- <SHORT-ID> <title> — last seen <relative time>[ (dry-run; skipped)]

## Re-opened regressions (<len(reopened)>)
- <SHORT-ID> <title> — <N> events since resolve[ (dry-run; skipped)]

## Errors (<len(errors)>)
- <SHORT-ID or "(pass)"> — <reason>

If any list is empty, render the heading with the (0) count and the literal line _None._ under it.

Hard rules

• Never delete issues. update_issue to ignored is the strongest action.
• Cap each pass at 50 issues. Enforced via search_issues(limit: 50).
• --dry-run produces the same digest but skips every write call. The DRY_RUN flag is checked at every update_issue call site — not at the top of the workflow.
• If a Sentry call fails, append to errors[] and continue. A pass-level fatal error (e.g., 403 from the initial search_issues) aborts that pass; subsequent passes still run.
• Do not attempt user-level assignment. The Sentry MCP exposes no member-lookup tool; team-only assignment is deferred to a future version.