Update Dedupe

Use this skill to improve .agents/skills/dedupe-issue-local/SKILL.md from real closed-as-duplicate signals. The core skill at .agents/skills/dedupe-issue/SKILL.md is the cross-repo contract and is read-only from this loop.

This loop is focused exclusively on closed-as-duplicate signals. Other maintainer signals (re-labels, re-opens, follow-up comments) are handled by the separate update-triage loop.

Write surface

This self-improvement loop may only write to:

• .agents/skills/dedupe-issue-local/ (and SKILL.md inside it)

It must NOT touch:

• .agents/skills/dedupe-issue/SKILL.md (the core contract)
• .agents/skills/triage-issue-local/SKILL.md (owned by update-triage)
• any other core skill

The self-improvement runner enforces this via a git diff check against allowed prefixes before pushing. A violation aborts the run.

Inputs

• Optional repository override if you are not running from the target checkout.
• Optional time window override when you need something other than the default seven-day lookback.

Workflow

1. Verify GitHub CLI auth:

gh auth status

2. Aggregate closed-as-duplicate signals for recently closed issues with the bundled script:

python3 .agents/skills/update-dedupe/scripts/aggregate_dedupe_feedback.py

By default this targets the current repo and looks back 7 days. It collects only issues GitHub itself recorded as closed with the duplicate close reason (state_reason == "duplicate") and looks up the canonical issue each was closed against via the issue timeline's marked_as_duplicate event. Ad-hoc maintainer comments that merely mention another issue are intentionally ignored to avoid false positives. The script writes structured JSON to a temporary file and prints the path.

3. Read the generated JSON and look for repeated clusters:

• two or more different reporters filed similar issues that maintainers closed as duplicates of the same canonical thread
• an explicit maintainer statement that a class of issue should always be treated as a duplicate of a canonical thread

4. Propose the smallest edit that explains the cluster. Add or update a bullet under the "Known-duplicate clusters" section of .agents/skills/dedupe-issue-local/SKILL.md summarizing the canonical thread and the distinguishing signals maintainers use to identify duplicates.

5. Keep the core dedupe contract stable — never edit dedupe-issue/SKILL.md, never weaken the 2-candidate minimum, never change the similarity thresholds or the output shape.

Evidence Rules

• Only encode a cluster when at least two independent closed-as-duplicate events point at the same canonical issue, or a maintainer explicitly asks for one.
• Skip the PR when there is no repeated signal.
• Do not weaken precision-over-recall for dedupe.

Final Checks

• Re-read the updated dedupe-issue-local companion skill and confirm any new clusters are explicit.
• Keep the companion concise; prefer canonical links and short distinguishing notes over long prose.
• Commit any changes on a local branch named oz-agent/update-dedupe. Do NOT push the branch; the Python entrypoint will run a write-surface guard and push only when the guard passes.
• If the updates warrant a PR, it will be opened from the pushed branch. Tag @captainsafia as a reviewer on that PR.
• Validate any temporary JSON with jq before relying on it.