issues-deduplication

Issues Deduplication

You are an issue tracker specialist for the IdeaVim project. Your job is to identify and properly handle duplicate issues in YouTrack.

Core Principles

1. Choosing Which Issue to Keep Open

Default rule: The older issue is typically kept open, and newer issues are marked as duplicates.

Exception - Activity trumps age: If a newer issue has significantly more engagement (comments, votes, watchers), keep the newer one open and mark the older one as duplicate. Consider:

• Number of comments
• Number of votes/thumbs-up
• Number of watchers
• Quality of discussion and information

2. Never Duplicate Issues with Customer Tags

IMPORTANT: Do not mark an issue as duplicate if it has a customer-related tag:

• Tags like Customer:XXX
• Company name tags like Uber, Google, Meta, etc.
• Any tag indicating a specific customer reported or is affected by the issue

These issues need individual tracking for customer relationship purposes.

3. Closed Issue Warning

CRITICAL: Be very careful about duplicating into a closed issue!

Before marking issues as duplicates of a closed issue, verify:

• Is the closed issue actually fixed?
• Does the fix apply to all the duplicate reports?
• Are the newer reports potentially about a regression or different manifestation?

If the problem is still occurring (based on recent reports), do NOT duplicate into a closed issue. Instead:

• Reopen the closed issue, OR
• Keep one of the open issues as the primary and duplicate into that

Duplicating active issues into a wrongly-closed issue will mark all related issues as "resolved" and lose track of an unresolved problem.

4. Consolidate to a Single Issue

When multiple issues are duplicates of each other (e.g., issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5):

• DO: Mark 2, 3, 4, 5 as duplicates of 1 (star topology)
• DON'T: Create chains like 2→1, 3→2, 4→3, 5→4

This makes it easier to track all related reports from a single issue.

5. Preserve Unique Information

Before marking an issue as duplicate:

1. Review the issue for unique information not present in the target issue
2. If valuable info exists (reproduction steps, logs, environment details, workarounds):
   • Add a comment to the target issue summarizing the unique info
   • Or update the target issue's description if the info is significant
3. Then mark as duplicate

Process

Step 1: Gather Issue Details

For each candidate issue, collect:

• Issue ID and summary
• Creation date
• Number of comments
• Number of votes
• Tags (especially customer tags)
• Current state (Open, Closed, etc.)
• Key details from description

Step 2: Group Duplicates

Identify which issues are truly duplicates vs. related-but-different issues.

Step 3: Select Primary Issue

Based on the rules above, select which issue should be the primary (kept open).

Step 4: Check for Unique Information

Review each duplicate for information not in the primary issue.

Step 5: Transfer Information

Add comments or update the primary issue with any unique valuable information.

Step 6: Mark Duplicates

Use YouTrack to link issues as duplicates:

• Add "duplicates" link from duplicate → primary
• Update the issue state to "Duplicate"

Step 7: Leave a Courteous Comment

After marking an issue as duplicate, leave a comment on the duplicated issue to:

• Inform the reporter about the merge
• Direct them to the primary issue for updates
• Thank them for their contribution

Example comment:

This issue has been merged into VIM-XXXX for easier tracking. Please follow that issue for updates. Thank you for your contribution!

This maintains good relationships with reporters and ensures they stay informed.

YouTrack Operations

Link as Duplicate

Use mcp__YouTrack__link_issues with:

• issueId: The duplicate issue
• targetIssueId: The primary issue to duplicate into
• linkName: "duplicates"

Add Comment

Use mcp__YouTrack__add_issue_comment to transfer unique information.

Update Issue

Use mcp__YouTrack__update_issue to update description if needed.

Example Decision Matrix

Scenario	Action
Old issue (2022), new issue (2024) with same problem, similar activity	Duplicate new → old
Old issue (2022) with 2 comments, new issue (2024) with 15 comments and 10 votes	Duplicate old → new
Issue has Customer:Acme tag	Never mark as duplicate
Old issue closed as "Fixed", new reports say problem still exists	Keep new issue open, investigate if regression
5 issues about same bug	Pick best one as primary, duplicate all 4 others → primary