Triage

When to Use

Use when this workflow matches the user request: Move issues and external PRs through a state machine of triage roles — categorise, verify, grill if needed, and write agent-ready briefs.

Source: mattpocock/skills (MIT).

Move issues on the project issue tracker through a small state machine of triage roles.

If this repo treats external pull requests as a request surface (see the issue-tracker config), triage covers them too: a PR is an issue with attached code — same roles, same states, same machine, with a few deltas marked "for a PR" below. Resolve a bare #42 to an issue or PR per the tracker config.

Every comment or issue posted to the issue tracker during triage must start with this disclaimer:

> *This was generated by AI during triage.*

Reference docs

• AGENT-BRIEF.md — how to write durable agent briefs
• OUT-OF-SCOPE.md — how the .out-of-scope/ knowledge base works

Roles

Two category roles:

• bug — something is broken
• enhancement — new feature or improvement

Five state roles:

• needs-triage — maintainer needs to evaluate
• needs-info — waiting on reporter for more information
• ready-for-agent — fully specified, ready for an AFK agent
• ready-for-human — needs human implementation
• wontfix — will not be actioned

For a PR, the same states read against the attached code: ready-for-agent means a brief is attached and an agent should take the next step on the diff; ready-for-human means it's ready for a human to merge.

Every triaged issue should carry exactly one category role and one state role. If state roles conflict, flag it and ask the maintainer before doing anything else.

These are canonical role names — the actual label strings used in the issue tracker may differ. The mapping should have been provided to you - run /setup-matt-pocock-skills if not.

State transitions: an unlabeled issue normally goes to needs-triage first; from there it moves to needs-info, ready-for-agent, ready-for-human, or wontfix. needs-info returns to needs-triage once the reporter replies. The maintainer can override at any time — flag transitions that look unusual and ask before proceeding.

Invocation

The maintainer invokes /triage and describes what they want in natural language. Interpret the request and act. Examples:

• "Show me anything that needs my attention"
• "Let's look at #42" (issue or PR)
• "Move #42 to ready-for-agent"
• "What's ready for agents to pick up?"

Show what needs attention

Query the issue tracker and present three buckets, oldest first:

1. Unlabeled — never triaged.
2. needs-triage — evaluation in progress.
3. needs-info with reporter activity since the last triage notes — needs re-evaluation.

When PRs are in scope, include external PRs in these buckets and tag each line [PR] or [issue]. Discovery surfaces only external PRs (the tracker config defines who counts as external) — a collaborator's in-flight PR is not triage work. This filter is discovery-only; an explicitly named PR is always triaged regardless of author.

Show counts and a one-line summary per item. Let the maintainer pick.

Triage a specific issue or PR

1. Gather context. Read the full issue or PR (body, comments, labels, author, dates; for a PR, the diff too). Parse any prior triage notes so you don't re-ask resolved questions. Explore the codebase using the project's domain glossary, respecting ADRs in the area. Run two checks against the codebase: (a) redundancy — search for an existing implementation of the requested behavior by domain concept (not just the request's wording), and report where you looked. If found, it's an already-implemented wontfix (step 5). (b) prior rejection — read .out-of-scope/*.md and surface any that resembles this request.

2. Recommend. Tell the maintainer your category and state recommendation with reasoning, plus a brief codebase summary relevant to the request — including whether it's already implemented. Wait for direction.

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