# Issue Triage

> Fetch GitHub issues and use LLM judgment to prioritize them based on importance, clarity, delegation potential, and urgency. Helps identify what to work on next.

- Skill: `patniko/issue-triage` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 7 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add patniko/issue-triage`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/patniko/issue-triage/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- License: MIT
- Author: patniko (https://skillmd.com/u/patniko)
- Updated: 2026-09-10
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/patniko/issue-triage

---


# 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

```bash
# 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**:

1. **Script fetches issues** → outputs structured `triage-data.json`
2. **You analyze each issue** using the scoring criteria below
3. **Update the JSON** with scores and analysis
4. **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:

```json
{
  "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

1. Run `./scripts/fetch-issues.sh owner/repo` to fetch issues
2. Analyze the top issues and provide a summary with priorities
3. Run `./scripts/serve.sh` to launch the dashboard in the browser
4. The dashboard auto-loads `triage-data.json` and displays interactive visualizations

### Manual Exploration

1. Run `./scripts/fetch-issues.sh owner/repo`
2. Run `./scripts/serve.sh` (opens http://localhost:8080/dashboard.html)
3. Use the dashboard to explore, filter, and drill into issues
4. 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:

```json
{
  "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 `gh` CLI first