Pick Up Issue

Find an unassigned, open issue in a repository, claim it, implement the fix or feature, open a PR, shepherd it to merge, and confirm the issue is closed. This skill orchestrates the full lifecycle from issue selection through cleanup.

Multi-agent safety: Multiple agents may run this skill in parallel across different worktrees. Each agent works on its own issue and branch. The cleanup step at the end is session-scoped and will not interfere with branches or worktrees used by other agents.

Input

$ARGUMENTS should contain:

•Required: A repo reference in owner/repo format (e.g., my-org/my-app).
•Optional: An issue filter — a label name, milestone, or search term to narrow which issues to consider. If omitted, all open issues are candidates.

Examples:

•/pick-up-issue my-org/my-app — pick any open, unassigned issue
•/pick-up-issue my-org/my-app bug — prefer issues labeled bug
•/pick-up-issue my-org/my-app "good first issue" — prefer issues labeled good first issue

If $ARGUMENTS is empty, attempt to derive owner/repo from the current git remote. If not in a git repo, ask the user which repo to target.

Prerequisites

•You must be inside the target repository (or it will be derived from git context).
•The gh CLI must be authenticated.
•The /shepherd-to-merge and /cleanup skills must be available.

Detecting Context

•Owner and repo: Parse from the first positional argument in $ARGUMENTS, or derive from git remote get-url origin.
•Issue filter: Everything after the owner/repo argument (may be empty).

Steps

0. Worktree safety checks

If the current working directory is inside a git worktree (path contains .claude/worktrees/<name>/), perform these checks before proceeding:

•
Detect worktree name: Extract <name> from the path.
•
Check for active sessions: Count JSONL transcript files modified in the last 5 minutes for this worktree. The current session will have its own transcript, so only flag a conflict when 2 or more recent transcripts exist (indicating another session is also active):
sh
```
worktree_name=$(echo "$PWD" | sed -n 's|.*/.claude/worktrees/$[^/]*$$/.*$\{0,1\}$|\1|p')
if [ -n "$worktree_name" ]; then
  project_dir=$(find ~/.claude/projects/ -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "*worktrees-${worktree_name}" | head -1)
  if [ -n "$project_dir" ]; then
    active_count=$(find "$project_dir" -name '*.jsonl' -mmin -5 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
  fi
fi
```
If active_count is 2 or more, STOP with error: "Worktree <name> has an active session (multiple transcripts modified within 5 minutes). Refusing to dispatch — wait for the session to finish or use a different worktree."
•
Record current branch: The cleanup skill will independently return to claude/<name> in a worktree context. Verify the current branch matches this convention:
sh
```
current_branch=$(git branch --show-current)
expected_branch="claude/${worktree_name}"
```
If current_branch does not match expected_branch, warn but proceed.

1. Find a candidate issue

Search for open issues that are not assigned to anyone:

gh issue list -R <owner>/<repo> --state open --assignee "" --limit 30 --json number,title,labels,milestone,body,assignees

If an issue filter was provided, narrow the results:

•If the filter matches a label name, add --label "<filter>" to the query.
•If doing a text search instead, replace --assignee "" with --search "<filter> no:assignee" since --search and --assignee cannot be combined.

From the results, exclude issues that:

•Are already assigned (verify the assignees array is empty) — another agent may have just claimed an issue, so always re-check assignment before claiming.
•Have a wontfix, duplicate, or invalid label.
•Have a status:in-progress label (likely being worked on by another agent).
•Are pull request references (some repos track PRs as issues).

Present the top 5 candidates to the user and ask which one to work on. Include the issue number, title, labels, and a one-line summary of the body. If the user has a preference, respect it. If they say "any" or "you pick", choose the highest-priority candidate using this heuristic:

•Issues with a milestone sort first.
•Issues with priority or urgent labels sort next.
•Issues with bug labels sort before enhancement or feature.
•Older issues (lower number) sort before newer ones.

2. Claim the issue

Race-condition guard: Before claiming, re-fetch the issue to confirm it is still unassigned. Another agent running in parallel may have claimed it between step 1 and now:

gh issue view <number> -R <owner>/<repo> --json assignees --jq '.assignees | length'

If the count is > 0, skip this issue and try the next candidate from the list gathered in step 1. If all candidates have been claimed, re-run the search query from step 1. If the re-query also returns no unassigned issues, inform the user that no unclaimed issues are available.

Assign yourself to the issue and add an "in progress" signal:

gh issue edit <number> -R <owner>/<repo> --add-assignee "@me"

If assignment fails (e.g., insufficient permissions), proceed anyway — note it in the comment instead.

Check if the repo has a status:in-progress label:

gh label list -R <owner>/<repo> --search "status:in-progress" --json name --jq '.[].name'

If it exists, apply it:

gh issue edit <number> -R <owner>/<repo> --add-label "status:in-progress"

If not, skip — don't create labels automatically.

Leave a comment so others know the issue is being worked on:

gh issue comment <number> -R <owner>/<repo> --body "Picking this up — working on a fix now."

3. Preflight validation

Before writing any code, verify the environment is correct. Wrong repo/branch targeting is the #1 source of wasted work.

•
Confirm the remote matches the intended repo. Parse the actual owner/repo from the git remote and compare to the target:
sh
```
actual_remote=$(git remote get-url origin | sed -E 's|.*github\.com[:/]||; s|\.git$||')
```
If actual_remote does not match <owner>/<repo>, stop and error — you're in the wrong repo. Do not proceed.
•
Check CI on the base branch. Ensure the base branch isn't broken before building on it:
sh
```
gh run list -R <owner>/<repo> --branch main --limit 1 --json conclusion --jq '.[0].conclusion'
```
If the latest run failed, warn the user — your PR may inherit pre-existing CI failures.

4. Set up a branch

Fetch latest and create a feature branch. Use the human's GitHub username as the branch prefix.

In a worktree, NEVER switch to the default branch (e.g., main or master) using git switch or git checkout. The default branch may be checked out in another worktree, and switching to it would fail with fatal: 'main' is already used by worktree at .... Instead, always create the feature branch directly from origin/<default>:

USERNAME=$(gh api user --jq .login)
git fetch origin
default=$(git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null | sed 's|refs/remotes/origin/||')
[ -z "$default" ] && default="main"
git switch -c "${USERNAME}/<issue-slug>" "origin/${default}"

This creates the branch from the remote ref without needing to check out the default branch locally.

For the issue slug, derive a short kebab-case name from the issue title (e.g., issue #42 "Fix login timeout" becomes fix-login-timeout). Keep it under 50 characters.

5. Start session memory (if available)

If the repo has a docs/agent-sessions/ directory, run:

code

/session-memory start

Update memory.md with the issue reference and goal throughout the implementation.

6. Implement the fix

Read the issue body carefully. Understand the requirements, acceptance criteria, and any linked discussions or references.

Before writing code:

•Read the relevant parts of the codebase — grep for related functions, types, and tests.
•Check for a CONTRIBUTING.md, AGENTS.md, or CLAUDE.md in the repo for project-specific conventions.
•Identify the files that need to change and the expected impact.
•Plan the implementation.

While implementing:

•Make minimal, focused changes — only what the issue requires.
•Follow existing code style and conventions.
•Write or update tests to cover the change.
•
Commit incrementally with clear messages referencing the issue:
code
```
fix(scope): short description

Resolves #<number>
```

After implementing:

•Run the project's test suite, linter, and type checker.
•Fix any failures before proceeding.

7. Verify and push

Before pushing, confirm you're on the correct branch and it tracks the right remote:

git branch -vv | grep '^\*'

Verify the output shows your feature branch tracking origin/<your-branch>, not main or another branch. If something looks wrong, stop and fix it before pushing.

Then push:

git push -u origin HEAD

8. Open a pull request

Create a PR that links to the issue:

gh pr create -R <owner>/<repo> --title "<concise title>" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary

<1-3 bullet points describing the change>

## Issue

Closes #<number>

## Test plan

- [ ] <how to verify the change>

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
EOF
)"

Use Closes #<number> in the body so GitHub auto-closes the issue when the PR merges.

9. Shepherd the PR to merge

Invoke the shepherd skill to handle review, feedback, CI, and merge:

code

/shepherd-to-merge <owner>/<repo>#<pr-number>

Wait for the shepherd process to complete. If it encounters issues it cannot resolve, surface them to the user.

10. Confirm the issue is closed

After the PR is merged, verify the issue was automatically closed:

gh issue view <number> -R <owner>/<repo> --json state --jq .state

If the state is not CLOSED, close it manually with a reference to the PR:

gh issue close <number> -R <owner>/<repo> --comment "Resolved in #<pr-number>."

11. Remove in-progress signals

If a status:in-progress label was added in step 2, remove it:

gh issue edit <number> -R <owner>/<repo> --remove-label "status:in-progress"

If no status label was added, skip this step.

12. Clean up

Run the cleanup skill to prune branches and check for loose work. If running in a worktree, /cleanup will attempt to return to claude/<worktree-name> instead of the default branch. If that branch does not exist or switching fails, it will skip changing branches.

code

/cleanup

13. Print summary

Display:

•Issue: number, title, and URL
•Branch: name of the feature branch (now deleted or merged)
•PR: number, title, URL, and merge status
•Issue status: confirmed closed
•Cleanup: workspace tidied