issue-prioritizer

Issue Prioritizer

Analyze issues from a GitHub repository and rank them by Adjusted Score — ROI penalized by Tripping Scale (solution sanity), Architectural Impact, and Actionability.

This is a read-only skill. It analyzes and presents information. The user makes all decisions.

When to use

• Triaging or ranking issues in a repository
• Identifying quick wins for contributors
• Filtering out non-actionable items (questions, duplicates)
• Detecting over-engineered proposals
• Matching issues to contributor skill levels

When NOT to use

• Managing forks or syncing with upstream → use fork-manager instead
• General GitHub CLI queries (PR status, CI runs) → use github instead
• Reviewing code changes before publishing → use pr-review instead

Requirements

• gh CLI authenticated (gh auth login)

Instructions

Step 1: Get Repository

If the user didn't specify a repository, ask which one to analyze (format: owner/repo).

Step 2: Fetch Issues

Basic fetch (most recent):

gh issue list --repo {owner/repo} --state open --limit {limit} --json number,title,body,labels,createdAt,comments,url

Default limit is 30. Store the full JSON response.

Targeted fetch with --topic:

When the user specifies --topic <keyword> (e.g. --topic telegram, --topic agents), use GitHub search to find issues matching that topic instead of just fetching the most recent:

# Search by topic keywords in title and body
gh issue list --repo {owner/repo} --state open --limit {limit} --search "{topic} in:title,body" --json number,title,body,labels,createdAt,comments,url

Multiple topics can be combined: --topic "telegram agents" searches for issues containing either term.

Targeted fetch with --search:

When the user specifies --search <query>, pass it directly as a GitHub search query for full control:

gh issue list --repo {owner/repo} --state open --limit {limit} --search "{query}" --json number,title,body,labels,createdAt,comments,url

Examples:

• --search "telegram in:title" — only title matches
• --search "label:bug telegram" — bugs mentioning telegram
• --search "label:bug,enhancement telegram agents" — bugs or enhancements about telegram/agents
• --search "comments:>5 telegram" — active discussions about telegram

Label-based fetch with --label:

gh issue list --repo {owner/repo} --state open --limit {limit} --label "{label}" --json number,title,body,labels,createdAt,comments,url

All fetch modes can be combined: --topic telegram --label bug --limit 50 fetches up to 50 open bugs about telegram.

Error handling:

• Auth error → tell user to run gh auth login
• Rate limited → inform user, suggest reducing --limit
• Repo not found → check format owner/repo
• No issues → report and exit (if using --topic/--search, suggest broadening the query)
• Missing fields → treat null/missing body and labels as empty

Step 3: Filter Issues with Existing PRs

Note: If user specified --include-with-prs, skip this entire step and proceed to Step 4 with all fetched issues.

Before analyzing, check for open PRs that already address issues to avoid duplicate work.

gh pr list --repo {owner/repo} --state open --json number,title,body,url

Detect linked issues using ALL of these methods:

Method 1 — Explicit Keywords (high confidence): Scan PR title and body (case-insensitive):

• fixes #N, fix #N, fixed #N
• closes #N, close #N, closed #N
• resolves #N, resolve #N, resolved #N

Method 2 — Issue References (medium confidence):

• #N anywhere in text
• issue N, issue #N, related to #N, addresses #N

Method 3 — Title Similarity (fuzzy): Normalize titles (lowercase, remove punctuation/common words). If 70%+ word overlap → likely linked.

Method 4 — Semantic Matching (ambiguous cases): Extract key terms from issue (error names, function names, components). Check if PR body discusses same things.

Confidence icons:

• 🔗 Explicit link (fixes/closes/resolves)
• 📎 Referenced (#N mentioned)
• 🔍 Similar title (fuzzy match)
• 💡 Semantic match (same components)

Remove linked issues from analysis. Report them separately before the main report.

If all issues have PRs, report that and exit.

Step 4: Analyze Each Issue

For each remaining issue, score the following:

Difficulty (1-10)

Base score: 5. Adjustments:

Signal	Adjustment
Documentation only	-3
Has proposed solution	-2
Has reproduction steps	-1
Clear error message	-1
Unknown root cause	+3
Architectural change	+3
Race condition/concurrency	+2
Security implications	+2
Multiple systems involved	+2

Importance (1-10)

Range	Level	Examples
8-10	Critical	Crash, data loss, security vulnerability, service down
6-7	High	Broken functionality, errors, performance issues
4-5	Medium	Enhancements, feature requests, improvements
1-3	Low	Cosmetic, documentation, typos

Tripping Scale (1-5) — Solution Sanity (How "Out There" Is It?)

Score	Label	Description
1	Total Sanity	Proven approach, standard patterns
2	Grounded w/Flair	Practical with creative touches
3	Dipping Toes	Exploring cautiously
4	Wild Adventure	Bold, risky, unconventional
5	Tripping	Questionable viability

Red Flags (+score): rewrite from scratch, buzzwords (blockchain, AI-powered, ML-based), experimental/unstable, breaking change, custom protocol Green Flags (-score): standard approach, minimal change, backward compatible, existing library, well-documented

Architectural Impact (1-5)

Always ask: "Is there a simpler way?" before scoring.

Score	Label	Description
1	Surgical	Isolated fix, 1-2 files, no new abstractions
2	Localized	Small addition, follows existing patterns exactly
3	Moderate	New component within existing architecture
4	Significant	New subsystem, new patterns, affects multiple modules
5	Transformational	Restructures core, changes paradigms, migration needed

Red Flags (+score): "rewrite", "refactor entire", new framework for existing capability, changes across >5 files, breaking API changes, scope creep Green Flags (-score): single file fix, uses existing utilities, follows established patterns, backward compatible, easily revertible

Critical: If a simple solution exists, architectural changes are wrong. Don't create a "validation framework" when a single if-check suffices.

Actionability (1-5) — Can it be resolved with a PR?

Score	Label	Description
1	Not Actionable	Question, discussion, duplicate, support request
2	Needs Triage	Missing info, unclear scope, needs clarification
3	Needs Investigation	Root cause unknown, requires debugging first
4	Ready to Work	Clear scope, may need some design decisions
5	PR Ready	Solution is clear, just needs implementation

Blockers (-score): questions ("how do I?"), discussions ("thoughts?"), labels (duplicate, wontfix, question), missing repro Ready signals (+score): action titles ("fix:", "add:"), proposed solution, repro steps, good-first-issue label, specific files mentioned

Derived Values

issueType: "bug" | "feature" | "docs" | "other"
suggestedLevel:
  - "beginner": difficulty 1-3, no security/architecture changes
  - "intermediate": difficulty 4-6
  - "advanced": difficulty 7+ OR security implications OR architectural changes

Calculation Formulas

ROI = Importance / Difficulty
AdjustedScore = ROI × TripMultiplier × ArchMultiplier × ActionMultiplier

Tripping Scale Multiplier:

Score	Label	Multiplier
1	Total Sanity	1.00 (no penalty)
2	Grounded w/Flair	0.85
3	Dipping Toes	0.70
4	Wild Adventure	0.55
5	Tripping	0.40

Architectural Impact Multiplier:

Score	Label	Multiplier
1	Surgical	1.00 (no penalty)
2	Localized	0.90
3	Moderate	0.75
4	Significant	0.50
5	Transformational	0.25

Actionability Multiplier:

Score	Label	Multiplier
5	PR Ready	1.00 (no penalty)
4	Ready to Work	0.90
3	Needs Investigation	0.70
2	Needs Triage	0.40
1	Not Actionable	0.10

Step 5: Categorize

• Quick Wins: ROI ≥ 1.5 AND Difficulty ≤ 5 AND Trip ≤ 3 AND Arch ≤ 2 AND Actionability ≥ 4
• Critical Bugs: issueType = "bug" AND Importance ≥ 8
• Tripping Issues: Trip ≥ 4
• Over-Engineered: Arch ≥ 4 (simpler solution likely exists)
• Not Actionable: Actionability ≤ 2

Sort all issues by AdjustedScore descending.

Step 6: Present Results

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  ISSUE PRIORITIZATION REPORT
  Repository: {owner/repo}
  Filter: {topic/search/label or "latest"}
  Analyzed: {count} issues
  Excluded: {excluded} issues with existing PRs
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  Quick Wins: {n} | Critical Bugs: {n} | Tripping: {n} | Over-Engineered: {n} | Not Actionable: {n}

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  TOP 10 BY ADJUSTED SCORE
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  #123 [Adj: 3.50] ⭐ Quick Win
  Fix typo in README
  ├─ Difficulty: 1/10 | Importance: 4/10 | ROI: 4.00
  ├─ Trip: ✅ Total Sanity (1/5) | Arch: ✅ Surgical (1/5)
  ├─ Act: ✅ PR Ready (5/5) | Level: beginner
  └─ https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/123

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  QUICK WINS (High Impact, Low Effort, Sane & Actionable)
═══════════════════════════════════════════════

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