Skip to content
Octopus Octopus Octopus

triage-issues

/octopus:triage-issues drives the triage protocol explicitly for a single issue the user names inline — the same state-machine flow the agent applies whenever the task involves incoming issues, surfaced as a command for deliberate, one-issue-at-a-time control.

What it solves

Untriaged issues accumulate noise that makes a backlog unreadable. Without a consistent protocol, bugs get closed without a reproduction attempt, enhancements get rejected without a written record, and the same proposals cycle through triage repeatedly because there is no institutional memory of why they were declined.

triage-issues moves one issue through a small, disciplined state machine — categorizing it, reproducing bugs before asking questions, preserving work even when the issue is blocked on the reporter, and recording rejected enhancements so future triagers don’t re-litigate them.

How it works

The protocol is seven steps:

  1. Read context — pull the issue body, comments, related ADRs, and .out-of-scope/ entries. If the issue echoes an existing out-of-scope entry, close as wontfix immediately — no re-litigation.

  2. Recommend category + state — output one sentence: recommended category (bug or enhancement), recommended state, and the reason. Wait for confirmation before applying labels.

  3. Reproduce before grilling (bugs only) — attempt to reproduce the failure before asking any questions. Failure to reproduce is a signal for needs-info, not for wontfix.

  4. Grill if unclear — for ambiguous bugs and most enhancements, run a grilling sub-loop. Questions that hit a wall blocked on the reporter transition to needs-info.

  5. Preserve needs-info work — the needs-info comment includes two sections: what was established during grilling, and what specific questions still need answers. This prevents the next agent from restarting the conversation.

  6. Record rejected enhancements — closing an enhancement as wontfix requires a one-paragraph entry in .out-of-scope/<slug>.md: what was proposed, why it was rejected, and which ADR or spec made it out of scope.

  7. Hand off ready-for-agent cleanly — attach a comment listing acceptance criteria, the most relevant files, and the skills the implementing agent should invoke.

Every comment generated during triage carries a mandatory AI disclaimer so future readers can weight AI-generated content appropriately.

Usage & parameters

/octopus:triage-issues <issue number or URL>
  • <issue number or URL> — the GitHub issue number or full issue URL to triage.

Relationship to the skill

The triage-issues skill defines the triage discipline and is active by default when tasks involve incoming issues. This command drives it explicitly for a single named issue, useful for focused triage work where you want to step through each state transition deliberately.

Source: commands/triage-issues.md