Jira Activity

Jira Activity Summary

Analyze a Jira ticket and its child tickets to produce a staleness report. Useful for triaging Features and Initiatives to determine if they are actively being worked on, slowing down, or dormant.

Prerequisites

• Python 3 and uv must be installed and available in PATH
• JIRA_API_TOKEN environment variable must be set with a valid API token for https://issues.redhat.com
• Appropriate JIRA permissions to read the target ticket and its children

Usage

This skill fetches activity data for a Jira ticket and its entire descendant hierarchy (Initiative → Epic → Stories/Tasks), then interprets the results into a staleness report.

Implementation

Step 1: Determine the Ticket Key

1. If a ticket key is provided by the user, use it
2. Otherwise, search the conversation history for JIRA ticket references (e.g., "AIPCC-1234", "RHOAIENG-567")
3. If no ticket is found in context, ask the user: "Which JIRA ticket should I analyze? (e.g., RHOAIENG-1234)"

Optionally the user may specify a --days N flag to control the lookback window (default: 30 days).

Step 2: Fetch Activity Data

Run the fetch script located at scripts/fetch_jira_activity.py relative to this skill. Execute it directly (not via python) to invoke uv via the shebang:

./scripts/fetch_jira_activity.py <TICKET-KEY> [--days N]

The script outputs JSON to stdout containing the complete hierarchy of issues with levels (0=root, 1=child, 2=grandchild, etc.) including statuses, assignees, recent comments, and changelog entries.

Step 3: Interpret the JSON into a Staleness Report

Analyze the JSON output and produce a report with the following sections:

Overall Staleness Assessment

Assign one of these labels based on the activity patterns:

• Active: Regular status changes, comments, or updates within the lookback window
• Moderate: Some activity but gaps or only partial child ticket movement
• Stale: Little to no meaningful activity; most child tickets idle
• Dormant: No activity at all across parent and children during the lookback window

Hierarchy Overview

Present the complete hierarchy structure showing:

• Root issue (level 0) - typically Initiative/Feature
• Child issues (level 1) - typically Epics
• Grandchild issues (level 2+) - typically Stories/Tasks

Issue Breakdown by Level

For each level in the hierarchy, summarize:

• Total count and types of issues
• Status distribution (New, In Progress, Closed, etc.)
• Recent activity patterns
• Individual staleness signals (active/idle)

For key issues with significant activity, include:

• Key, summary, status, assignee, last updated
• Recent comments or status transitions

Present as a hierarchical summary or grouped by level.

Key Takeaways

• Cross-level activity analysis (e.g., "Initiative appears stale but Epic has active Stories")
• Breakdown of active vs idle work by hierarchy level
• Any blockers or stalled tracks worth attention
• Recommendations for triage focus (e.g., "5 of 7 Stories completed recently, Epic shows strong momentum despite Initiative-level inactivity")

Error Handling

• Missing JIRA_API_TOKEN: Inform the user how to obtain and set the token
• Invalid Ticket Key: Verify the ticket exists and is accessible
• Permission Denied: Check that the API token has permission to view the ticket
• Script Not Found: Verify the script exists at the expected path
• No Children Found: Report on the parent ticket only and note that no child tickets were found

Examples

Basic Usage

User: Check activity on RHOAIENG-1234
Assistant: [Runs fetch script, analyzes JSON, produces staleness report]

Custom Lookback Window

User: Is AIPCC-500 stale? Look back 60 days.
Assistant: [Runs fetch script with --days 60, produces report]

Context Detection

User: We're triaging RHOAIENG-9999. How active is it?
Assistant: [Detects ticket from context, runs analysis]