# Check Human Issues

> Check and respond to GitHub Issues from the human researcher team. Use this skill whenever you need to handle a human_issue event, respond to human issues, or check team communications. Also triggers for: "any human messages?", "check issues", "respond to humans".

- Skill: `wandb/check-human-issues` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add wandb/check-human-issues`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/wandb/check-human-issues/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: wandb (https://skillmd.com/u/wandb)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/wandb/check-human-issues

---


# check-human-issues

Check GitHub Issues tagged `human` for messages from the research team, and respond to any that need a reply.

## Arguments

- **$0** — The configured advisor branch for `ADVISOR`, or student name for
  `STUDENT`
- **$1** — Either `ADVISOR` or `STUDENT`

## How it works

Human researchers communicate with agents through GitHub Issues. Issues are
tagged with `human` plus `team` for a broadcast, the configured advisor branch
for an advisor, or `student:<student-name>` for a student. Your job is to check
messages routed to your exact role, respond to new ones, and skip ones you've
already handled.

## Steps

1. **Read the current `human_issue` event.** The controller supplies the issue
   identity and the exact human message ID that triggered the wake. It polls
   GitHub for issues addressed to you or the whole team.

2. **Decide whether to respond:**
   - If you haven't commented on this issue yet → respond.
   - If you have commented, check if the human posted a new comment *after* your last response. If so → respond to the new message. If not → skip, you're waiting for the human.
   - Record the exact numeric `id` of the issue body or human comment you are
     answering. Never substitute the issue number for a comment ID.

3. **Respond** through `respond_to_human_issue` with the issue number, the exact
   `human_message_id`, and the response text without a role prefix. This verified,
   idempotent operation refuses closed issues, pull requests, missing `human`
   labels, stale message IDs, messages authored by the agent identity, and
   issues not addressed to this configured advisor branch or student.

```json
{
  "issue_number": 123,
  "human_message_id": 987654,
  "response": "<your response>"
}
```

Never mutate the issue through `gh` or `curl`.

4. **Never close human issues.** Only the human does that.

## Return format

When you're done, record a structured summary of the issues you checked and
responded to in the current conversation:

### New research directives from the human researcher team

If there are research directives in the issues, include them in detail so they
remain available for subsequent planning in this conversation.