triage

Triage issues, bug reports, support threads, or external PRs into clear labels, verification state, and agent-ready briefs. Use when the user says "/triage", "triage these issues", "sort my backlog", "verify these reports", "label these tickets", or asks to turn messy reports into actionable work. Adapted from mattpocock/skills.

Category
Engineering
Skill
184 of 261
Source
Kevin wiki

Move messy incoming work into a clear state machine. Read first; write labels/comments only after the target tracker and permissions are confirmed.

Inputs

  • GitHub issues / PRs
  • Linear issues
  • local issue markdown
  • support reports
  • QA notes

State Machine

Use repo-specific labels when configured. Otherwise map to:

  • needs-info: cannot proceed without more data
  • repro-needed: report is plausible but unverified
  • bug: verified defect
  • feature: requested capability
  • task: maintenance/internal work
  • duplicate: already represented elsewhere
  • wontfix: out of scope after explicit rationale
  • agent-ready: enough context, proof, and acceptance criteria for an agent

Triage Pass

For each item:

  1. Read the report and linked artifacts.
  2. Search for duplicates.
  3. Verify the claim when practical.
  4. Identify missing information.
  5. Assign category and state.
  6. Write a brief that another agent can execute.

External pull-request consolidation

When several external PRs appear to address the same symptom, do not triage them independently first. Cluster by the underlying fix, subsystem, affected tests, and compatibility boundary. Similar titles are a lead, not proof; inspect the actual diffs.

For each cluster:

  1. Identify the smallest technically correct base or salvageable combination.
  2. Record every contributor and which code, diagnosis, test, or reproduction they supplied.
  3. Recommend one landing path: select one PR, ask one author to consolidate, or create an owner-authored salvage that preserves credit.
  4. Show the dry-run plan, including which sibling PRs would close and the exact credit/comment language.
  5. Only after explicit approval, land or request the consolidated change, verify it, credit all material contributors, and close siblings as superseded.

Never close a competing PR merely because another opened first or has a cleaner description. The unit of triage is the underlying fix and its proof.

Brief Format

Summary:
Evidence:
Reproduction / verification:
Likely owner:
Recommended label/state:
Agent-ready next step:
Blocked on:

Safety

Do not close, label, or comment on external trackers without permission. Provide a dry-run table first unless Kevin explicitly asks for live mutation.

References

  • Read AGENT-BRIEF.md when turning a messy report into a handoff-ready issue.
  • Read OUT-OF-SCOPE.md before closing an enhancement as wontfix or deduplicating rejected requests.
  • to-issues when a plan needs new tickets.
  • gh-address-comments for PR review comments.
  • recent-code-bugfix for recent regression hunting.
  • diagnosing-bugs when verification requires a repro loop.

Upstream: github.com/mattpocock/skills/skills/engineering/triage/SKILL.md at 5d78bd0903420f97c791f834201e550c765699f8.