Triage GitHub Issues, PRs & Discussions in Parallel

When to use

The user wants a prioritized view of everything open on the current repo's GitHub: which PRs to merge/review first, which issues to fix first, and which discussions need maintainer engagement. Trigger phrases include "triage the backlog", "what should I look at first", "prioritize open PRs and issues", "sweep open work", "triage discussions".

Do not invoke for single-item review (just look at it directly) or when the user wants ongoing automation (use /schedule instead).

Prerequisites

• gh CLI is authenticated (gh auth status). If not, stop and ask the user to authenticate — do not attempt to fix auth automatically.
• Run from inside a git repo whose origin points at the GitHub repo to triage. Confirm with gh repo view --json nameWithOwner,hasDiscussionsEnabled.
• If hasDiscussionsEnabled is false, skip the discussions section entirely (don't fetch, don't include in budget, note in report that discussions are disabled).

Procedure

1. Fetch open work

Run these gh calls in parallel. Use JSON so the downstream agent prompts are self-contained. The discussions call is a GraphQL query because gh has no built-in discussion list command.

gh pr list --state open --limit 200 --json number,title,url,author,createdAt,updatedAt,isDraft,mergeable,reviewDecision,labels,additions,deletions,changedFiles,statusCheckRollup

gh issue list --state open --limit 200 --json number,title,url,author,createdAt,updatedAt,labels,comments,reactionGroups

gh api graphql -f query='
query($owner: String!, $name: String!) {
  repository(owner: $owner, name: $name) {
    discussions(first: 100, orderBy: {field: UPDATED_AT, direction: DESC}, states: OPEN) {
      totalCount
      nodes {
        number
        title
        url
        createdAt
        updatedAt
        upvoteCount
        isAnswered
        locked
        category { name }
        author { login }
        labels(first: 5) { nodes { name } }
        comments(first: 0) { totalCount }
        reactions { totalCount }
      }
    }
  }
}' -F owner=<OWNER> -F name=<REPO>

Substitute <OWNER> and <REPO> from gh repo view --json nameWithOwner.

If the combined total exceeds 100 items, tell the user the counts (PRs / issues / discussions) and ask whether to cap at 100 most-recently-updated or split into batches. The agent cap is 100 total across all three categories.

2. Decide the parallel split

• Count nPRs, nIssues, nDiscussions.
• If nPRs + nIssues + nDiscussions <= 100: spawn one agent per item.
• Otherwise: prioritize PRs first (they block contributors), then issues by most-recently-updated, then discussions by most-recently-updated, up to the 100 budget. Note in the final report which items were skipped.

3. Fan out subagents

Dispatch all agents in a single message using multiple Agent tool calls (Claude Code parallelizes when they're in one block). Use subagent_type: "general-purpose" and run_in_background: false — you need the results synchronously to write the report.

Per-PR prompt template (substitute the bracketed values):

Triage GitHub PR [URL]. You have read-only access via `gh` and web tools.

Gather:
- `gh pr view [NUMBER] --json title,body,author,createdAt,updatedAt,isDraft,mergeable,mergeStateStatus,reviewDecision,labels,additions,deletions,changedFiles,statusCheckRollup,comments`
- `gh pr diff [NUMBER]` (skim — don't dump it)
- Recent review comments if any

Return ONLY a JSON object on a single line (no prose, no fences), matching:
{"kind":"pr","number":N,"title":"...","url":"...","author":"...","ageDays":N,"sizeLOC":N,"ciStatus":"passing|failing|pending|none","mergeable":true|false,"reviewState":"approved|changes_requested|review_required|none","draft":true|false,"priority":"P0|P1|P2|P3","reason":"<=140 chars","blockedBy":"<=80 chars or empty","recommendedAction":"merge|review|request-changes|close|wait"}

Priority rubric:
- P0: ready-to-merge (approved + green CI + mergeable + non-draft), or fixes broken main
- P1: small/focused, passing CI, needs review; or bug fix with clear reproduction
- P2: feature work, larger diff, no blockers
- P3: draft, stale (>30 days no activity), or has unresolved conflicts/failures

Be terse. One JSON object. No commentary.

Per-issue prompt template:

Triage GitHub issue [URL]. Read-only access via `gh`.

Gather:
- `gh issue view [NUMBER] --json title,body,author,createdAt,updatedAt,labels,comments,reactionGroups,assignees`
- Skim comments for repro steps, workarounds, related PRs

Return ONLY a JSON object on one line:
{"kind":"issue","number":N,"title":"...","url":"...","author":"...","ageDays":N,"reactions":N,"comments":N,"hasRepro":true|false,"linkedPR":"<url or empty>","category":"bug|feature|docs|question|chore","priority":"P0|P1|P2|P3","reason":"<=140 chars","recommendedAction":"fix|investigate|answer|close|wait-for-info"}

Priority rubric:
- P0: regression / data loss / security / blocks many users (high reactions + recent activity)
- P1: confirmed bug with reproduction, or high-engagement feature request
- P2: feature requests, minor bugs, docs gaps
- P3: questions, unreproducible, no activity in 60+ days

One JSON object. No commentary.

Per-discussion prompt template:

Triage GitHub discussion [URL]. Read-only access via `gh api graphql`.

Gather:
- `gh api graphql -f query='{ repository(owner:"<OWNER>", name:"<REPO>") { discussion(number: [NUMBER]) { title body url createdAt updatedAt upvoteCount isAnswered locked category { name } author { login } labels(first: 10) { nodes { name } } comments(first: 30) { totalCount nodes { author { login } body createdAt isAnswer upvoteCount } } reactions { totalCount } } } }'`
- Skim comments for: maintainer engagement, repro steps that suggest a real bug, links to issues/PRs

Return ONLY a JSON object on one line:
{"kind":"discussion","number":N,"title":"...","url":"...","author":"...","category":"Q&A|Ideas|General|Show and tell|Announcements|Polls|other","ageDays":N,"updatedDaysAgo":N,"upvotes":N,"comments":N,"reactions":N,"isAnswered":true|false|null,"maintainerEngaged":true|false,"looksLikeBug":true|false,"priority":"P0|P1|P2|P3","reason":"<=140 chars","recommendedAction":"answer|convert-to-issue|engage|mark-answered|close|wait"}

Priority rubric (category-aware):
- Q&A:
  - P0: unanswered AND (looksLikeBug OR upvotes>=5 OR ageDays>=7 with no maintainer reply)
  - P1: unanswered with clear question, some engagement, recent
  - P2: recently asked, no engagement yet, awaiting community signal
  - P3: effectively answered but not marked, stale (60+ days), or low-effort
- Ideas:
  - P0: upvotes>=10 AND updatedDaysAgo<=14 — strong roadmap demand
  - P1: upvotes>=3 with clear scope, or moderate engagement
  - P2: legitimate idea, low engagement so far
  - P3: stale, duplicate, off-roadmap, or off-topic
- General / Show and tell / Announcements / Polls / other:
  - P1: high engagement (upvotes+comments>=10) and recent — surfaces trends
  - P2: normal engagement
  - P3: low engagement, off-topic, or stale (60+ days)

Notes for recommendedAction:
- "convert-to-issue" if looksLikeBug is true and no linked issue exists
- "answer" for unanswered Q&A
- "mark-answered" for Q&A where a comment clearly answers but isAnswered is false
- "engage" for high-signal Ideas needing maintainer feedback
- "close" for off-topic, duplicate, or out-of-scope
- "wait" if community signal is still forming

One JSON object. No commentary.

4. Aggregate

Collect every agent's JSON line. If an agent returned prose instead of JSON (rare), extract what you can or mark priority: "P3", reason: "agent parse failed".

Sort:

1. PRs by priority (P0→P3), then by ageDays ascending within each tier (newer first for P0/P1 to capture momentum; for P3 by oldest first — those are stalest).
2. Issues by priority, then by reactions + comments desc within each tier.
3. Discussions by priority, then by upvotes * 2 + comments + reactions desc within each tier. Inside the same tier, surface Q&A above Ideas above other categories (response latency matters most for Q&A).

5. Write the report

Save to TRIAGE_REPORT.md at the repo root (or .agent/triage/TRIAGE_REPORT-YYYY-MM-DD.md if the repo has a .agent/ directory). Ask before overwriting an existing report from today.

Report skeleton:

# Triage Report — <repo nameWithOwner> — <YYYY-MM-DD>

Scanned **N PRs**, **M issues**, and **D discussions**. Skipped K items over the 100-agent budget (listed at bottom).

## PRs to review first

### P0 — merge/fix today

- [#NUM Title](url) — <reason>. _Action: <recommendedAction>_

### P1 — review this week

- [#NUM Title](url) — <reason>. _Action: <recommendedAction>_

### P2 — when time permits

<one-line per item>

### P3 — needs author input or close

<one-line per item>

## Issues to address first

### P0 — fix now

- [#NUM Title](url) — <reason>. _Action: <recommendedAction>_

### P1 — schedule this sprint

- [#NUM Title](url) — <reason>. _Action: <recommendedAction>_

### P2 — backlog

<one-line per item>

### P3 — close or ask for info

<one-line per item>

## Discussions to engage with

### P0 — respond today

- [#NUM Title](url) _(<category>)_ — <reason>. _Action: <recommendedAction>_

### P1 — respond this week

- [#NUM Title](url) _(<category>)_ — <reason>. _Action: <recommendedAction>_

### P2 — when time permits

<one-line per item, prefix with category>

### P3 — close, mark answered, or let community drive

<one-line per item, prefix with category>

## Skipped (over budget)

<list any items not triaged>

## How this was generated

N parallel triage agents ran via the `triage-github` skill on <date>. Each agent independently scored its item; this report aggregates and ranks them. Priorities are heuristic — sanity-check P0s before acting, especially `convert-to-issue` and `close` recommendations on discussions.

If discussions are disabled on the repo, omit the "Discussions to engage with" section and add a one-liner near the top noting they're disabled.

6. Summarize for the user

After writing the file, give the user a 3–5 line summary: total counts, top 3 PRs to review, top 3 issues to fix, top 3 discussions to engage with, and the report path. Do not paste the full report into chat.

Notes

• Cost: 100 agents is expensive. If the combined open-item total is small (say <20), just triage them yourself in the main thread instead of fanning out — mention this and proceed.
• Rate limits: gh shares one auth token; 100 concurrent gh calls usually fits inside GitHub's per-hour quota for authenticated users, but if the user has run heavy gh traffic recently, batch the agents in two waves of 50. Discussion GraphQL queries cost more rate-limit points per call than REST — factor that in.
• Failed agents: if an agent times out or returns garbage, include it in the report under a "Triage failures" subsection rather than silently dropping it.
• Don't take actions: this skill is read-only. Do not close issues, request changes, merge PRs, comment on discussions, convert discussions to issues, or post any reply. The report is for the human to act on.
• Discussion category names vary per repo. The common GitHub defaults are Q&A, Ideas, General, Show and tell, Announcements, Polls. Unknown categories should be tagged as "other" and ranked under the General rubric.