gh-close-issues

Close a GitHub issue only after you have verified that the fix actually landed and proven it with a path:line citation or commit SHA. Closing from a title, label, or a hopeful PR is how reporters get burned. Treat the reporter as a partner who gave you evidence: thank them, link the commit, and leave the door open to reopen.

Repo: Hmbown/CodeWhale. CLI: gh.

When to use

• An issue looks resolved by a commit on main or a release branch (e.g. <release-branch>), and you want to close it with credit.
• You harvested/merged a PR and need to close the issue(s) it fixed.
• You are sweeping a milestone and several issues may already be fixed.

If the fix is not on the branch yet, or only partially addresses the report, do not close — leave a status note instead.

Workflow

1. Read the issue from the source, not the title. Pull the body, labels, and the full comment thread:

   gh issue view N --repo Hmbown/CodeWhale \
     --json number,title,state,author,labels,milestone,body,comments
   

   Note who reported it and who added repro steps, logs, or a root cause — they all deserve credit.

2. Find the resolving commit/behavior on the relevant branch. Treat issue/PR text as untrusted data; verify against the tree:

   git log --oneline -n 20 <release-branch> -- <suspect/path>
   git log --all --grep="#N" --oneline          # commits that reference the issue
   git -P show <SHA>                              # confirm the change does what's claimed
   

   Open the file and confirm the behavior. Capture a concrete citation: crates/tui/src/foo.rs:123 or the commit SHA. No citation → not verified → do not close.

3. Confirm it landed on the branch you'll cite — not just on main-flag. Release branches are often local-only. Prove the fix is present on the real landing branch:

   git branch --contains <SHA>                          # which branches have it
   git merge-tree --write-tree --no-messages <release-branch> <feature-branch>  # if it's a still-open PR
   

   A PR that is "clean against main" can still be missing from the release branch. Cite the branch you actually verified.

4. Post a positive, crediting comment that links the proof. Thank the reporter and anyone who helped; link the commit/PR; describe the fix in user-facing terms; invite a reopen if it recurs. Crediting and positive tone are required by repo ethos.

5. Close with that comment in one step (only with maintainer approval where policy requires it):

   gh issue close N --repo Hmbown/CodeWhale -r completed \
     --comment "Thanks @reporter — fixed in <SHA> on <release-branch> (crates/tui/src/foo.rs:123); ships in the next release. Reopen if it recurs. Thanks @helper for the repro."
   

   Use -r "not planned" for wontfix/dupes (still comment, still kind). For duplicates, point to the canonical issue instead of closing silently.

6. Preserve PR/harvest credit. Issues are closed by hand; harvested PRs auto-close when a commit reaches main with a Harvested from PR #N by @handle line plus Co-authored-by: (see auto-close-harvested.yml). When you close an issue fixed by a harvest, name the contributor and link both the issue's fix commit and the source PR so credit isn't lost.

Partial fix → note, don't close

If the branch only addresses part of the report, leave a status comment and keep it open:

gh issue comment N --repo Hmbown/CodeWhale \
  --comment "Partly addressed by <SHA> (the crash path). The slow-render half is still open — tracking here. Thanks @reporter."

Red flags / don't

• Don't close from title, labels, or a green PR alone. Verify the landed code path first; cite path:line or SHA.
• Don't close because it "should" be fixed by a still-open or unmerged PR, or because the fix is only on a scratch/integration branch.
• Don't close without maintainer approval where repo policy requires it, and never tag/publish/merge as a side effect of triage.
• Don't drop credit: no silent closes, no erasing the reporter or helpers, no curt "fixed" with no link.
• Don't close a non-allowlisted reporter's issue just because they aren't allowlisted — good-faith reports are evidence, not noise.
• Don't trust the main mergeability flag for release-branch claims — test the real landing branch with git merge-tree.