patniko Issue Triage
Fetch GitHub issues, apply intelligent analysis, and visualize priorities.
When to Use
- Starting a work session and need to decide what to tackle
- Triaging a backlog with many competing priorities
- Looking for issues that can be delegated to AI coding agents
- Identifying urgent vs. important vs. quick-win issues
Quick Start
# 1. Fetch issues (saves to triage-data.json)
./scripts/fetch-issues.sh owner/repo
# 2. Launch dashboard in browser
./scripts/serve.sh
How This Skill Works
This skill combines deterministic data fetching with LLM judgment:
- Script fetches issues → outputs structured
triage-data.json - You analyze each issue using the scoring criteria below
- Update the JSON with scores and analysis
- Use the viewer to sort, filter, and explore prioritized issues
The script handles data retrieval; you provide the intelligence that only an LLM can offer.
Data Format
The fetch script outputs JSON in this structure:
{
"metadata": {
"repository": "owner/repo",
"generated": "2025-12-27T01:00:00Z",
"total_issues": 42
},
"issues": [
{
"number": 123,
"title": "Issue title",
"body": "Full issue body...",
"body_preview": "First 500 chars...",
"labels": [{"name": "bug", "color": "d73a4a"}],
"label_names": ["bug"],
"age_days": 7,
"days_since_update": 2,
"comment_count": 5,
"is_assigned": false,
"url": "https://github.com/...",
"scores": {
"delegation": null,
"importance": null,
"urgency": null,
"clarity": null,
"effort": null,
"priority": null
},
"analysis": null
}
]
}
Scoring Criteria
For each issue, evaluate these criteria and assign scores (1-5):
🤖 Delegation Potential
Can this be delegated to an AI coding agent like Copilot?
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 5 | Perfect for AI: clear scope, well-defined acceptance criteria, isolated change |
| 4 | Good for AI: mostly clear, may need minor clarification |
| 3 | Partial AI assist: AI can help but human judgment needed |
| 2 | Difficult for AI: ambiguous requirements, needs design decisions |
| 1 | Human only: requires context, stakeholder input, or creative direction |
🎯 Importance
How important is this to the project's success?
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 5 | Critical: security issue, data loss, major feature broken |
| 4 | High: significant user impact, blocking other work |
| 3 | Medium: meaningful improvement, affects subset of users |
| 2 | Low: nice-to-have, minor polish |
| 1 | Minimal: trivial or questionable value |
⚡ Urgency
How time-sensitive is this?
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 5 | Immediate: production down, security vulnerability |
| 4 | This week: deadline approaching, blocking release |
| 3 | Soon: should be addressed but not time-critical |
| 2 | Eventually: backlog item, no pressure |
| 1 | Someday/maybe: could be closed or deferred indefinitely |
🧹 Clarity
How well-defined is the issue?
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 5 | Crystal clear: steps to reproduce, expected vs actual, acceptance criteria |
| 4 | Good: mostly clear, minor questions |
| 3 | Adequate: understandable but needs some investigation |
| 2 | Vague: unclear scope, missing context |
| 1 | Confused: contradictory, rambling, or no actionable request |
⏱️ Effort Estimate
How much work is this likely to be?
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 5 | Trivial: < 30 minutes, one-line fix |
| 4 | Small: few hours, single file/component |
| 3 | Medium: day or two, multiple files |
| 2 | Large: week+, significant refactoring |
| 1 | Epic: major feature, needs breakdown |
Priority Formula
Priority = (Importance × 3) + (Urgency × 2) + (Clarity × 1.5) + (Delegation × 1) + (Effort × 0.5)
Max score: 40 | High priority: ≥30 | Medium: 20-29 | Low: <20
Workflow
Standard Workflow
- Run
./scripts/fetch-issues.sh owner/repoto fetch issues - Analyze the top issues and provide a summary with priorities
- Run
./scripts/serve.shto launch the dashboard in the browser - The dashboard auto-loads
triage-data.jsonand displays interactive visualizations
Manual Exploration
- Run
./scripts/fetch-issues.sh owner/repo - Run
./scripts/serve.sh(opens http://localhost:8080/dashboard.html) - Use the dashboard to explore, filter, and drill into issues
- Press Ctrl+C in terminal to stop the server when done
Viewer Features
The viewer.html provides:
- Sort by priority, age, comments, delegation score
- Filter by label, scored/unscored status
- Search issues by title or number
- Score issues with click-to-edit interface
- Export your scored data as JSON
- Dark mode GitHub-style interface
Example LLM Output
When analyzing issues, output updates in this format:
{
"number": 123,
"scores": {
"delegation": 5,
"importance": 2,
"urgency": 2,
"clarity": 5,
"effort": 5,
"priority": 24.5
},
"analysis": "Trivial docs fix. Perfect for AI delegation - exact change specified."
}
Or provide a summary report alongside the JSON updates.
Files
issue-triage/
├── SKILL.md # This file
├── dashboard.html # Full analytics dashboard
├── viewer.html # Simple issue viewer
├── scripts/
│ ├── fetch-issues.sh # Data fetching script
│ └── serve.sh # Local server + browser launch
└── triage-data.json # Generated data (git-ignored)
Notes
- The viewer works offline - all processing is client-side
- Drag and drop JSON files onto the viewer to load them
- Scores persist in the JSON; export to save your work
- For private repos, authenticate
ghCLI first