GitHub Issue Operations Skill

Overview

This skill provides complete GitHub Issue management capabilities for orchestrator agents. It enables programmatic issue creation, labeling, milestone tracking, assignee management, and comment posting using the gh CLI tool.

Instructions

1. •Verify prerequisites are met (gh CLI installed and authenticated)
2. •Identify which GitHub Issue operation you need using the Decision Tree below
3. •Select the appropriate script from the Script Reference Table
4. •Execute the script with required arguments
5. •Check the JSON output for success or error codes (see Exit Codes section)
6. •Handle errors using the Error Handling section if needed

Checklist

Copy this checklist and track your progress:

• • Verify gh CLI is installed: gh --version
• • Verify gh CLI is authenticated: gh auth status
• • Verify write access to target repository
• • Identify operation needed using Decision Tree
• • Select appropriate script from Script Reference Table
• • Execute script with required arguments
• • Check JSON output for success ("error": false) or error ("error": true)
• • If error, check exit code (0=success, 1-6=specific errors)
• • Handle any errors using Error Handling section
• • Verify operation completed as expected (e.g., issue created, labels applied)

Output

All scripts return structured JSON output:

Prerequisites

Before using this skill, ensure:

1. •gh CLI is installed and authenticated (gh auth status)
2. •You have write access to the target repository
3. •jq is available for JSON processing

Decision Tree: Which Operation Do I Need?

Need to work with GitHub Issues?
│
├─► Need issue information?
│   └─► Use: eia_get_issue_context.py
│       Returns: title, body, state, labels, assignees, milestone, comments count, linked PRs
│
├─► Need to create a new issue?
│   └─► Use: eia_create_issue.py
│       Requires: --title, optional: --body, --labels, --assignee
│       Returns: issue number and URL
│
├─► Need to manage labels?
│   ├─► Adding labels? → eia_set_issue_labels.py --add "label1,label2"
│   ├─► Removing labels? → eia_set_issue_labels.py --remove "label1"
│   └─► Setting exact labels? → eia_set_issue_labels.py --set "label1,label2"
│       Note: Auto-creates missing labels if they don't exist
│
├─► Need to assign to milestone?
│   └─► Use: eia_set_issue_milestone.py
│       Option: --create-if-missing to auto-create milestone
│
└─► Need to post a comment?
    └─► Use: eia_post_issue_comment.py
        Option: --marker for idempotent comments (won't duplicate)

Reference Documents

Label Management

File: references/label-management.md

Contents:

• •1.1 Creating labels via GitHub API
  • •1.1.1 Using gh CLI to create labels
  • •1.1.2 Specifying label colors
  • •1.1.3 Adding label descriptions
• •1.2 Label naming conventions
  • •1.2.1 Kebab-case standard
  • •1.2.2 Category prefixes
• •1.3 Priority labels (P0-P4)
  • •1.3.1 Priority definitions
  • •1.3.2 Color scheme for priorities
  • •1.3.3 When to use each priority
• •1.4 Category labels
  • •1.4.1 Type labels (bug, feature, task, docs)
  • •1.4.2 Status labels (in-progress, blocked, review)
  • •1.4.3 Component labels
• •1.5 Auto-creating missing labels
  • •1.5.1 Detection logic
  • •1.5.2 Default colors and descriptions

Issue Templates

File: references/issue-templates.md

Contents:

• •2.1 Bug report template
  • •2.1.1 Required sections
  • •2.1.2 Environment information
  • •2.1.3 Reproduction steps format
• •2.2 Feature request template
  • •2.2.1 Problem statement
  • •2.2.2 Proposed solution
  • •2.2.3 Acceptance criteria
• •2.3 Task template
  • •2.3.1 Task description format
  • •2.3.2 Checklist syntax
  • •2.3.3 Dependencies section
• •2.4 Populating templates programmatically
  • •2.4.1 Variable substitution
  • •2.4.2 Dynamic content injection
  • •2.4.3 Template selection logic

Milestone Tracking

File: references/milestone-tracking.md

Contents:

• •3.1 Creating milestones
  • •3.1.1 Milestone title conventions
  • •3.1.2 Setting due dates
  • •3.1.3 Milestone descriptions
• •3.2 Assigning issues to milestones
  • •3.2.1 Single issue assignment
  • •3.2.2 Bulk assignment
  • •3.2.3 Moving between milestones
• •3.3 Milestone progress tracking
  • •3.3.1 Querying completion percentage
  • •3.3.2 Open vs closed issues count
  • •3.3.3 Overdue detection
• •3.4 Closing milestones
  • •3.4.1 When to close
  • •3.4.2 Handling incomplete issues
  • •3.4.3 Archive vs delete

Script Reference Table

Examples

Get Issue Context

# Get full issue context
./scripts/eia_get_issue_context.py --repo owner/repo --issue 123

# Output:
{
  "number": 123,
  "title": "Bug: Application crashes on startup",
  "state": "open",
  "labels": ["bug", "P1"],
  "assignees": ["developer1"],
  "milestone": "v2.0",
  "comments_count": 5,
  "linked_prs": [456, 789]
}

Create Issue

# Create issue with labels and assignee
./scripts/eia_create_issue.py \
  --repo owner/repo \
  --title "Implement new feature X" \
  --body "## Description\nFeature details here" \
  --labels "feature,P2" \
  --assignee "developer1"

# Output:
{
  "number": 124,
  "url": "https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/124"
}

Manage Labels

# Add labels (auto-creates if missing)
./scripts/eia_set_issue_labels.py \
  --repo owner/repo \
  --issue 123 \
  --add "in-progress,needs-review" \
  --auto-create

# Remove labels
./scripts/eia_set_issue_labels.py \
  --repo owner/repo \
  --issue 123 \
  --remove "needs-triage"

Assign Milestone

# Assign to existing milestone
./scripts/eia_set_issue_milestone.py \
  --repo owner/repo \
  --issue 123 \
  --milestone "v2.0"

# Create milestone if it doesn't exist
./scripts/eia_set_issue_milestone.py \
  --repo owner/repo \
  --issue 123 \
  --milestone "v3.0" \
  --create-if-missing

Post Idempotent Comment

# Post comment with marker (won't duplicate if marker exists)
./scripts/eia_post_issue_comment.py \
  --repo owner/repo \
  --issue 123 \
  --body "## Status Update\nTask completed successfully." \
  --marker "status-update-2024-01-15"

# Output:
{
  "comment_id": 12345,
  "url": "https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/123#issuecomment-12345",
  "created": true  # false if marker already existed
}

Error Handling

All scripts return JSON with an error field on failure:

{
  "error": true,
  "message": "Issue not found: 999",
  "code": "ISSUE_NOT_FOUND"
}

Common error codes:

• •AUTH_REQUIRED: gh CLI not authenticated
• •REPO_NOT_FOUND: Repository doesn't exist or no access
• •ISSUE_NOT_FOUND: Issue number doesn't exist
• •LABEL_CREATE_FAILED: Failed to create label
• •MILESTONE_NOT_FOUND: Milestone doesn't exist (without --create-if-missing)
• •PERMISSION_DENIED: Insufficient permissions

Exit Codes (Standardized)

All scripts use standardized exit codes for consistent error handling:

Note: eia_post_issue_comment.py returns exit code 5 when a comment with the specified --marker already exists. The JSON output will have "created": false.

Error Handling

Issue: "gh: command not found"

Solution: Install gh CLI:

# macOS
brew install gh

# Linux
sudo apt install gh  # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dnf install gh  # Fedora

Issue: "not logged into any GitHub hosts"

Solution: Authenticate with gh:

gh auth login

Issue: Labels not being created

Solution: Ensure you have write access to the repository. Label creation requires at least "triage" permission level.

Issue: Milestone assignment fails silently

Solution: Check that the milestone exists. Use --create-if-missing flag or create the milestone first via GitHub UI or API.

Issue: Duplicate comments being posted

Solution: Use the --marker flag with a unique identifier. The script checks for existing comments containing the marker before posting.

Integration with Integrator Agent

This skill integrates with the Integrator Agent workflow:

1. •Task Creation: When orchestrator receives a new task, use eia_create_issue.py to create a tracking issue
2. •Progress Updates: Use eia_post_issue_comment.py with markers to post status updates
3. •Completion: Use eia_set_issue_labels.py to mark issues as completed
4. •Milestone Tracking: Use eia_set_issue_milestone.py to organize work into releases

See the main Integrator Agent documentation for workflow integration details.

Resources

• •references/label-management.md - Label creation and naming conventions
• •references/issue-templates.md - Bug report, feature request, task templates
• •references/milestone-tracking.md - Milestone creation and assignment