Managing Lifecycle

Issue Lifecycle Operations

Capability: Complete CRUD operations for GitHub Issues and PRs

When to use: Creating, reading, updating, deleting, commenting on issues/PRs

Create Operations

Create Issue

# Basic creation
gh issue create --title "Bug: Login fails" --body "Steps to reproduce..."

# With labels and assignee
gh issue create \
  --title "Feature: Add dark mode" \
  --body "User requested dark mode support" \
  --label feature,ui \
  --assignee username

# From file
gh issue create --title "API Documentation" --body-file doc.md

# Interactive mode
gh issue create

Create with Template

# Knowledge base entry
gh issue create \
  --repo terrylica/claude-code-skills-github-issues \
  --title "Claude Code: Using Plan Mode" \
  --label claude-code,tips,how-to \
  --body-file tip.md

Read Operations

View Issue

# Web view
gh issue view 123 --web

# Terminal view
gh issue view 123

# JSON output (21 fields available)
gh issue view 123 --json title,body,state,labels,assignees,createdAt

List Issues

# List open issues
gh issue list

# Filter by assignee
gh issue list --assignee @me

# Filter by label
gh issue list --label bug --state open

# Limit results
gh issue list --limit 50

Update Operations

Modify Issue

# Update title
gh issue edit 123 --title "New title"

# Update body
gh issue edit 123 --body "Updated description"

# Add labels
gh issue edit 123 --add-label priority:high,bug

# Remove labels
gh issue edit 123 --remove-label wontfix

# Change assignee
gh issue edit 123 --add-assignee username

State Management

# Close issue
gh issue close 123

# Close with comment
gh issue close 123 --comment "Fixed in commit abc123"

# Reopen issue
gh issue reopen 123

# Mark as resolved
gh issue close 123 --reason completed

# Mark as won't fix
gh issue close 123 --reason "not planned"

Comment Operations

# Add comment
gh issue comment 123 --body "Thanks for reporting this!"

# Comment from file
gh issue comment 123 --body-file response.md

# Edit comment (requires comment ID)
gh api repos/owner/repo/issues/comments/COMMENT_ID \
  --method PATCH \
  --field body="Updated comment"

Delete Operations

# Delete issue (careful - permanent!)
gh issue delete 123

# Delete with confirmation skip
gh issue delete 123 --yes

# Note: Prefer closing over deleting for audit trail

Batch Operations

Close Multiple Issues

# Close all issues with specific label
gh issue list --label wontfix --json number --jq '.[].number' | \
  xargs -I {} gh issue close {} --reason "not planned"

# Close old issues
gh search issues "is:open created:<2024-01-01" --json number --jq '.[].number' | \
  xargs -I {} gh issue close {}

Bulk Label Updates

# Add label to multiple issues
for issue in 101 102 103; do
  gh issue edit $issue --add-label priority:high
done

Common Workflows

Knowledge Base Entry Workflow

# 1. Create issue with content
gh issue create --title "Tip: Git worktrees" --body-file tip.md

# 2. Add labels
gh issue edit 1 --add-label git,tips,how-to

# 3. Verify created
gh issue view 1

Issue Triage Workflow

# 1. List new issues
gh issue list --label needs-triage

# 2. Review and categorize
gh issue edit 123 --add-label bug --remove-label needs-triage

# 3. Assign if needed
gh issue edit 123 --add-assignee dev-team

JSON Output Fields (21 available)

Core: number, title, body, state, url Metadata: labels, assignees, milestone, projectCards Timestamps: createdAt, updatedAt, closedAt Engagement: comments, reactions Users: author, participants Full list: gh issue view --help

Best Practices

1. Prefer closing over deleting - Maintains audit trail
2. Use labels for organization - Better than comments
3. Atomic updates - One change per command for clarity
4. JSON for automation - Script with --json and --jq
5. Batch carefully - Test on single issue first

Empirical Testing: 200+ test cases covering all CRUD operations

Full Operational Guide: AI_AGENT_OPERATIONAL_GUIDE.md