Github Issues

GitHub Issues Management

Create, search, triage, and manage GitHub issues. Each section shows gh first, then the curl fallback.

Prerequisites

• Authenticated with GitHub (see github-auth skill)
• Inside a git repo with a GitHub remote, or specify the repo explicitly

Setup

if command -v gh &>/dev/null && gh auth status &>/dev/null; then
  AUTH="gh"
else
  AUTH="git"
  if [ -z "$GITHUB_TOKEN" ]; then
    if [ -f ~/.hermes/.env ] && grep -q "^GITHUB_TOKEN=" ~/.hermes/.env; then
      GITHUB_TOKEN=$(grep "^GITHUB_TOKEN=" ~/.hermes/.env | head -1 | cut -d= -f2 | tr -d '\n\r')
    elif grep -q "github.com" ~/.git-credentials 2>/dev/null; then
      GITHUB_TOKEN=$(grep "github.com" ~/.git-credentials 2>/dev/null | head -1 | sed 's|https://[^:]*:\([^@]*\)@.*|\1|')
    fi
  fi
fi

REMOTE_URL=$(git remote get-url origin)
OWNER_REPO=$(echo "$REMOTE_URL" | sed -E 's|.*github\.com[:/]||; s|\.git$||')
OWNER=$(echo "$OWNER_REPO" | cut -d/ -f1)
REPO=$(echo "$OWNER_REPO" | cut -d/ -f2)

1. Viewing Issues

With gh:

gh issue list
gh issue list --state open --label "bug"
gh issue list --assignee @me
gh issue list --search "authentication error" --state all
gh issue view 42

With curl:

# List open issues
curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues?state=open&per_page=20" \
  | python3 -c "
import sys, json
for i in json.load(sys.stdin):
    if 'pull_request' not in i:  # GitHub API returns PRs in /issues too
        labels = ', '.join(l['name'] for l in i['labels'])
        print(f\"#{i['number']:5}  {i['state']:6}  {labels:30}  {i['title']}\")"

# Filter by label
curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues?state=open&labels=bug&per_page=20" \
  | python3 -c "
import sys, json
for i in json.load(sys.stdin):
    if 'pull_request' not in i:
        print(f\"#{i['number']}  {i['title']}\")"

# View a specific issue
curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues/42 \
  | python3 -c "
import sys, json
i = json.load(sys.stdin)
labels = ', '.join(l['name'] for l in i['labels'])
assignees = ', '.join(a['login'] for a in i['assignees'])
print(f\"#{i['number']}: {i['title']}\")
print(f\"State: {i['state']}  Labels: {labels}  Assignees: {assignees}\")
print(f\"Author: {i['user']['login']}  Created: {i['created_at']}\")
print(f\"\n{i['body']}\")"

# Search issues
curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.github.com/search/issues?q=authentication+error+repo:$OWNER/$REPO" \
  | python3 -c "
import sys, json
for i in json.load(sys.stdin)['items']:
    print(f\"#{i['number']}  {i['state']:6}  {i['title']}\")"

2. Creating Issues

Recommended pre-create workflow for feature issues

Before creating a new feature issue, do a quick grounding pass to avoid duplicates and align with repo taxonomy:

1. Search existing issues by the key nouns/phrases in the request.
2. Inspect existing labels in the repo and reuse the closest category/priority labels.
3. If the feature touches an existing initiative, reference the parent/related issue numbers in the body.
4. If an existing open issue already substantially covers the requested feature, prefer updating that issue instead of creating a duplicate. Add a clarifying comment to expand scope, adjust labels if needed, and link any companion cadence/governance issue rather than opening a second overlapping feature ticket.
5. Prefer writing the body to a temp markdown file and using --body-file for long, structured issue descriptions.
6. If you are creating a linked issue tree (parent + children), render any placeholders like <PARENT_ISSUE> / <QUEUE_ISSUE> into temporary files before calling gh issue create. Do not rely on post-hoc mental substitution.
7. After creation or update, immediately verify the final artifact's title, labels, URL, and rendered body.
8. If you accidentally create an issue with unresolved placeholders, fix it immediately with gh issue edit --body-file ... and then re-verify the rendered body.

Example:

# 1) Search for nearby issues first
gh issue list --limit 50 --search "llm-wiki OR document intelligence OR resource intelligence OR standards"

# 2) Inspect repo labels
gh label list

# 3) Draft structured body in a file
cat > /tmp/feature-issue.md <<'EOF'
## Summary
<feature summary>

## Why
<why now>

## Scope
- <item>
- <item>

## Deliverables
- <artifact>
- <artifact>

## Related
- Parent: #123
- Related: #456
EOF

# 4) Create with explicit labels
gh issue create \
  --title "feat(area): concise issue title" \
  --body-file /tmp/feature-issue.md \
  --label enhancement \
  --label priority:medium

# 5) Verify the final artifact
gh issue view <new-number> --json number,title,url,labels,body

With gh:

gh issue create \
  --title "Login redirect ignores ?next= parameter" \
  --body "## Description
After logging in, users always land on /dashboard.

## Steps to Reproduce
1. Navigate to /settings while logged out
2. Get redirected to /login?next=/settings
3. Log in
4. Actual: redirected to /dashboard (should go to /settings)

## Expected Behavior
Respect the ?next= query parameter." \
  --label "bug,backend" \
  --assignee "username"

With curl:

curl -s -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues \
  -d '{
    "title": "Login redirect ignores ?next= parameter",
    "body": "## Description\nAfter logging in, users always land on /dashboard.\n\n## Steps to Reproduce\n1. Navigate to /settings while logged out\n2. Get redirected to /login?next=/settings\n3. Log in\n4. Actual: redirected to /dashboard\n\n## Expected Behavior\nRespect the ?next= query parameter.",
    "labels": ["bug", "backend"],
    "assignees": ["username"]
  }'

Bug Report Template

## Bug Description
<What's happening>

## Steps to Reproduce
1. <step>
2. <step>

## Expected Behavior
<What should happen>

## Actual Behavior
<What actually happens>

## Environment
- OS: <os>
- Version: <version>

Feature Request Template

## Feature Description
<What you want>

## Motivation
<Why this would be useful>

## Proposed Solution
<How it could work>

## Alternatives Considered
<Other approaches>

3. Managing Issues

Add/Remove Labels

With gh:

gh issue edit 42 --add-label "priority:high,bug"
gh issue edit 42 --remove-label "needs-triage"

With curl:

# Add labels
curl -s -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues/42/labels \
  -d '{"labels": ["priority:high", "bug"]}'

# Remove a label
curl -s -X DELETE \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues/42/labels/needs-triage

# List available labels in the repo
curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/labels \
  | python3 -c "
import sys, json
for l in json.load(sys.stdin):
    print(f\"  {l['name']:30}  {l.get('description', '')}\")"

Assignment

With gh:

gh issue edit 42 --add-assignee username
gh issue edit 42 --add-assignee @me

With curl:

curl -s -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues/42/assignees \
  -d '{"assignees": ["username"]}'

Commenting

With gh:

gh issue comment 42 --body "Investigated — root cause is in auth middleware. Working on a fix."

For multiline comments or bodies containing backticks / code spans, prefer a body file to avoid shell command-substitution and quoting problems:

cat > /tmp/issue-comment.md <<'EOF'
Quick triage update:

- `scheduler_config.yml` is missing the job entry
- recommend adding test coverage for registration/config loading
EOF

gh issue comment 42 --body-file /tmp/issue-comment.md

With curl:

curl -s -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues/42/comments \
  -d '{"body": "Investigated — root cause is in auth middleware. Working on a fix."}'

Closing and Reopening

With gh:

gh issue close 42
gh issue close 42 --reason "not planned"
gh issue reopen 42

With curl:

# Close
curl -s -X PATCH \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues/42 \
  -d '{"state": "closed", "state_reason": "completed"}'

# Reopen
curl -s -X PATCH \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues/42 \
  -d '{"state": "open"}'

Linking Issues to PRs

Issues are automatically closed when a PR merges with the right keywords in the body:

Closes #42
Fixes #42
Resolves #42

To create a branch from an issue:

With gh:

gh issue develop 42 --checkout

With git (manual equivalent):

git checkout main && git pull origin main
git checkout -b fix/issue-42-login-redirect

4. Issue Triage Workflow

When asked to triage issues:

1. List untriaged issues:

# With gh
gh issue list --label "needs-triage" --state open

# With curl
curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues?labels=needs-triage&state=open" \
  | python3 -c "
import sys, json
for i in json.load(sys.stdin):
    if 'pull_request' not in i:
        print(f\"#{i['number']}  {i['title']}\")"

2. Read and categorize each issue (view details, understand the bug/feature)

3. Apply labels and priority (see Managing Issues above)

4. Assign if the owner is clear

5. Comment with triage notes if needed

5. Bulk Operations

For batch operations, combine API calls with shell scripting:

With gh:

# Close all issues with a specific label
gh issue list --label "wontfix" --json number --jq '.[].number' | \
  xargs -I {} gh issue close {} --reason "not planned"

With curl:

# List issue numbers with a label, then close each
curl -s \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues?labels=wontfix&state=open" \
  | python3 -c "import sys,json; [print(i['number']) for i in json.load(sys.stdin)]" \
  | while read num; do
    curl -s -X PATCH \
      -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
      https://api.github.com/repos/$OWNER/$REPO/issues/$num \
      -d '{"state": "closed", "state_reason": "not_planned"}'
    echo "Closed #$num"
  done

Quick Reference Table