Gh Issues

GitHub Issues Watcher

Purpose

Process every open GitHub issue that is unassigned or assigned to the current user (@me), one after another, by delegating each to the /gh-issue skill. Stop on first hard failure so it can be inspected.

This is the Claude-side counterpart to .codex/skills/gh-issues/SKILL.md — but driven from inside the Claude session rather than a polling shell script.

Args

• --limit N — process at most N issues this run (default: all).
• --label foo — only issues carrying label foo.
• --dry-run — list issues that would be processed; do not invoke /gh-issue.

Strip leading # if user passes #123 style.

Phase 1: Discover

Fetch open issues that are unassigned or assigned to @me, oldest first. GitHub search does not OR these cleanly, so run two queries and merge:

# Unassigned
gh issue list \
  --state open \
  --search "no:assignee" \
  --json number,title,labels,assignees,createdAt \
  --limit 200

# Assigned to me
gh issue list \
  --state open \
  --assignee "@me" \
  --json number,title,labels,assignees,createdAt \
  --limit 200

Merge:

• Deduplicate by number.
• Keep only issues whose assignees array is empty or contains the current user (gh api user -q .login).
• Drop issues assigned to anyone else (defensive).
• Apply --label filter if given.
• Apply --limit if given.
• Sort ascending by createdAt (FIFO).

Print the queue: #<num> <title> [assignee] per line, where [assignee] is unassigned or @me. If empty, exit cleanly.

Phase 2: Worktree Sanity

Before touching any issue:

git status --porcelain
git fetch origin main
git checkout main && git reset --hard origin/main

Abort if worktree dirty. Never auto-stash.

Phase 3: Process Loop

For each issue in the queue:

1. Re-check assignment state (someone else may have grabbed it):

   gh issue view <num> --json assignees -q '.assignees[].login'
   me=$(gh api user -q .login)
   

   • Empty output → unassigned, proceed.
   • Only $me listed → already mine, proceed (skip self-assign step).
   • Any other login present → skip this issue.

2. Invoke the /gh-issue skill with the issue number. That skill owns:

   • self-assign via gh issue edit <num> --add-assignee @me (no-op if already assigned)
   • branch from fresh main (prefix from labels: fix/, feat/, docs/)
   • TDD implementation
   • composer test green locally
   • changelog entry under ## Unreleased
   • commit with Related to #<num>
   • mandatory final refactor pass over every touched file (separate ref(...) commit) before opening the PR
   • PR opened via /pr #<num>

3. After /gh-issue returns, wait for CI green on the PR:

   gh pr checks --watch
   

   Fix red checks on the branch before moving on.

4. Merge when allowed:

   gh pr merge --auto --squash --admin
   

5. Sync main for next iteration:

   git checkout main && git fetch origin main && git reset --hard origin/main
   

6. Continue with next issue.

Stop Conditions

Halt the loop and surface the failure when:

• /gh-issue errors out or leaves the worktree dirty.
• composer test fails after implementation.
• CI stays red after one fix attempt.
• Merge is blocked by branch protection beyond --admin bypass.
• --limit reached.
• Queue empty.

Do not retry blindly. Report which issue failed and why.

Dry Run

With --dry-run, only execute Phase 1 and print the queue. No assignment, no branching, no commits.

Preconditions

• gh authenticated, can read issues, open and merge PRs.
• Worktree clean.
• main exists and tracks origin/main.
• /gh-issue and /pr skills available in this session.

Notes

• Commits inside /gh-issue should use git commit --no-verify (project rule: 6 env-failing tests block the local pre-commit hook).
• Treat GitHub CI as the full quality gate; locally run focused tests during implementation, full composer test once before commit.
• Never split bundled changes into multiple PRs unless the issue explicitly demands it.