Triage Issues

Triage Issues

Autonomous workflow: fetch untriaged GitHub issues, classify each by type/priority/size, detect duplicates, and apply labels so the work-on-issues skill can pick them up.

Prerequisites

• gh CLI authenticated with repo access
• Repository uses labels: triaged, needs-info, security, duplicate, auto-dismissed, wontfix, in-progress
• Priority labels: priority:must, priority:should, priority:could
• Size labels: size:xs, size:s, size:m, size:l, size:xl

Workflow

Step 1 — Ensure labels exist

Create all required labels idempotently. Run each command — --force updates existing labels without error:

gh label create "triaged" --description "Issue has been triaged" --color "0E8A16" --force
gh label create "needs-info" --description "Needs more information from reporter" --color "D93F0B" --force
gh label create "security" --description "Security-related issue" --color "B60205" --force
gh label create "duplicate" --description "Duplicate of another issue" --color "CFD3D7" --force
gh label create "auto-dismissed" --description "Dismissed by triage agent" --color "CFD3D7" --force
gh label create "bug" --description "Something isn't working" --color "D73A4A" --force
gh label create "enhancement" --description "New feature or request" --color "A2EEEF" --force
gh label create "documentation" --description "Documentation improvements" --color "0075CA" --force
gh label create "question" --description "Further information requested" --color "D876E3" --force
gh label create "priority:must" --description "Critical — security, data loss, crashes, blocks core functionality" --color "B60205" --force
gh label create "priority:should" --description "Important — degrades UX, violates docs, affects common workflows" --color "FBCA04" --force
gh label create "priority:could" --description "Nice-to-have — cosmetic, edge cases, documentation polish" --color "C5DEF5" --force
gh label create "size:xs" --description "<20 lines, 1-2 files, trivial" --color "EDEDED" --force
gh label create "size:s" --description "20-100 lines, 1-3 files, straightforward" --color "D4C5F9" --force
gh label create "size:m" --description "100-300 lines, 3-6 files, needs new tests" --color "BFD4F2" --force
gh label create "size:l" --description "300-800 lines, 5-10 files, significant" --color "1D76DB" --force
gh label create "size:xl" --description "800+ lines, 10+ files, multi-day" --color "0052CC" --force

Step 2 — Fetch untriaged issues

gh issue list --state open --json number,title,labels,body,comments,createdAt --limit 50

Filter out any issue that already has one of these labels: triaged, in-progress, duplicate, wontfix, auto-dismissed, needs-info.

If no untriaged issues remain, stop and report: "No untriaged issues found."

Step 3 — Triage each issue (oldest first)

Process issues from oldest to newest. For each issue:

a. Deep-read

Fetch the full issue body and all comments:

gh issue view <NUMBER> --json body,comments,title,labels,createdAt

Read any files in the codebase referenced by the issue. Understand the context, what area of the project it affects, and how it relates to existing code.

b. Duplicate detection

Fetch all open and recently closed issues for comparison:

gh issue list --state all --json number,title,labels,state,body --limit 100

Compare the current issue against others by title similarity and body overlap. Only mark as duplicate if you are confident the issues describe the same problem or request — when in doubt, do not mark as duplicate.

If duplicate found:

1. Apply labels: duplicate, triaged
2. Comment on the issue (see comment format below)
3. Close the issue

gh issue edit <NUMBER> --add-label "duplicate,triaged"
gh issue comment <NUMBER> --body "<duplicate comment>"
gh issue close <NUMBER>

Then skip to the next issue.

c. Classify

Determine the issue's type, priority, and size using the rubrics below.

Type:

Priority:

Size:

d. Handle edge cases

• Too vague / insufficient information — Apply needs-info + triaged, comment asking specific questions about what's missing. Do not classify priority/size.
• Spam or off-topic — Apply auto-dismissed + triaged, close the issue.
• Security issue — Apply security + priority:must + appropriate size + triaged. Add a note in the comment flagging it for human review.

e. Apply labels and comment

Apply the classification labels and leave a triage summary comment.

gh issue edit <NUMBER> --add-label "<type>,priority:<level>,size:<size>,triaged"
gh issue comment <NUMBER> --body "<triage comment>"

Comment Formats

Standard triage:

## Triage

| Priority | Size   |
| -------- | ------ |
| <LEVEL>  | <SIZE> |

**Summary:** <Brief 1-2 sentence classification of the issue and what it involves.>

---

_Auto-triaged by murmur_

Duplicate:

**Duplicate of #<NUMBER>**

This appears to duplicate #<NUMBER>. Tracking progress there.

---

_Auto-triaged by murmur_

Needs more information:

## Needs More Information

<Specific questions about what's missing or unclear.>

---

_Auto-triaged by murmur_

Security:

## Triage

| Priority | Size   |
| -------- | ------ |
| MUST     | <SIZE> |

**Summary:** <Brief classification.>

**Note:** This is a security-related issue and has been flagged for human review.

---

_Auto-triaged by murmur_

Step 4 — Summary

After processing all issues, output a summary of actions taken:

• Total issues processed
• Issues classified (with breakdown by priority)
• Duplicates found and closed
• Issues marked needs-info
• Issues dismissed

Important Notes

• One pass per invocation — process all eligible issues in a single run
• Always apply the triaged label on every outcome (prevents re-processing on next run)
• Conservative on duplicates — only mark if clearly the same issue, not merely related
• Never apply good first issue or help wanted — those are for humans to assign
• Never apply in-progress — that's for work-on-issues when it claims an issue
• This skill only classifies — it does not plan or implement fixes
• Delegates to work-on-issues for implementation after triage is complete