Triage

Move tickets through the pre-implementation part of the board: from raw

Triage

to a fully groomed

Ready for Agent

Ready for Human

, so

engineer

only ever executes work that is already spec'd. Division of labour: triage grooms, engineer executes, reviewer merges. All three share one vocabulary.

Every comment posted during triage MUST start with:

> *This was generated by AI during triage.*

Resolve the tracker first (tracker-agnostic)

Look up the repo root (

git rev-parse --show-toplevel

) in

~/.claude/afk.json

under

repos

. The entry names the

tracker

(

github

linear

, or any future one) and the board coordinates. If there is no entry, suggest

/afk-setup

This skill is written in a canonical vocabulary; the actual status/label strings live on the board, and boards SHOULD be configured to use these names verbatim. Any tracker only needs to support these five operations:

fetch a ticket (title, body, comments, labels, status, reporter, dates, blockers)
set status (to a canonical column)
add / remove a label
post a comment
close / cancel a ticket

Adapters today: GitHub Projects (

gh issue ...

gh project item-edit

), Linear (MCP

get_issue

save_issue

save_comment

list_comments

, loaded via ToolSearch). Any new tracker: implement those five operations and map the canonical names to its strings; nothing else here is tracker-specific.

The board vocabulary (shared with engineer + reviewer)

Status = pipeline stage (columns). Triage works the left end:

```
Triage
```
: raw; needs evaluation/grooming. Triage's input.
```
Ready for Agent
```
: fully spec'd; an AFK agent can pick it up. Triage output.
```
Ready for Human
```
: fully spec'd, but needs a human (judgment, manual testing, or access an agent lacks). Triage output.

In Progress

In Review

Changes Requested

Done

: owned by

engineer

and

reviewer

; triage does not move these.

Terminal:
```
Won't Fix
```
/
```
Canceled
```
(close the ticket).

Category = kind of work (labels), orthogonal to status (same set as engineer):

bug

enhancement

security

tech-debt

documentation

research

Sub-state labels:

```
needs-info
```
: a
```
Triage
```
ticket blocked on the reporter. Stays in
```
Triage
```
; clears when they reply.

Priority = urgency, a required field (the board's native priority, not a label). Every groomed ticket carries one. Linear's names and our shorthand:

Linear	Shorthand	When
Urgent	P0	drop-everything: broken prod, data loss, a live security hole
High	P1	`bug` and `security` by default; anything blocking other work
Medium	P2	the default: features, enhancements, tech-debt
Low	P3	nice-to-have, no near-term cost

Default to Medium. A

bug

security

ticket is at least High, Urgent if it is actively breaking production or losing/leaking data; use judgment beyond that. Set a best-guess priority when you CREATE an issue, and make sure it is set by the time the ticket leaves

Triage

. On a tracker with no native priority field, carry it as a

P0

P3

label.

A groomed ticket carries exactly one category label, a priority, and lands in exactly one status. If signals conflict, flag it and ask the maintainer before acting.

Invocation

The maintainer invokes

/triage

and describes intent in natural language. Interpret and act. Examples:

"Show me anything that needs my attention"
"Triage JAM-12" / "let's look at #42"
"Move #42 to Ready for Agent"
"What's ready for agents to pick up?"

Show what needs attention

Query the board and present, oldest first:

Untriaged: never evaluated (no category label).
Triage
: evaluation in progress.
needs-info
with reporter activity since the last triage notes: needs re-evaluation.

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

Triage one ticket

Gather context. Read the full ticket (body, comments, labels, reporter, dates) and any prior triage notes (don't re-ask resolved questions). Explore the codebase via the repo's knowledge vault (start at
```
docs/<repo>-vault/_index.md
```
if present) and the domain glossary, respecting ADRs in the area. Read
```
.out-of-scope/*.md
```
and surface any prior rejection that resembles this ticket.
Recommend. State your category + priority + target-status recommendation with reasoning, plus a brief relevant codebase summary. Wait for direction.
Reproduce (bugs only). Before any grilling, attempt reproduction: read the steps, trace the code, run tests/commands. Report the result: successful repro with code path, failed repro, or insufficient detail (a strong
```
needs-info
```
signal). A confirmed repro makes a much stronger brief.
Grill (if needed). If the ticket needs fleshing out, run
```
/grill-with-docs
```
.
Apply the outcome:
- ```
Ready for Agent
```
  : post an agent brief (
```
references/agent-brief.md
```
  ), set the priority (required; see the priority table), and set status
```
Ready for Agent
```
  .
- ```
Ready for Human
```
  : same brief structure, plus why it can't be delegated (judgment calls, external access, design decisions, manual testing); set the priority and status
```
Ready for Human
```
  .
- ```
needs-info
```
  : add the label, post triage notes (template below), keep status
```
Triage
```
  .
- ```
Won't Fix
```
  (bug): polite explanation, then close.
- ```
Won't Fix
```
  (enhancement): write to
```
.out-of-scope/
```
  (
```
references/out-of-scope.md
```
  ), link to it from a comment, then close.

Quick status override

If the maintainer says "move #42 to Ready for Agent", trust them and apply it directly. Confirm what you're about to do (status change, label, comment, close), then act. Skip grilling. If moving to

Ready for Agent

without a grilling session, ask whether they want an agent brief written first.

Needs-info template

markdown

## Triage Notes

**What we've established so far:**

- point 1
- point 2

**What we still need from you (@reporter):**

- question 1
- question 2

Capture everything resolved during grilling under "established so far" so the work isn't lost. Questions must be specific and actionable, not "please provide more info".

Resuming a previous session

If prior triage notes exist on the ticket, read them, check whether the reporter has answered outstanding questions, and present an updated picture before continuing. Don't re-ask resolved questions.

Pairs with

engineer pulls
```
Ready for Agent
```
(and co-pilots
```
Ready for Human
```
).
reviewer owns
```
In Review
```
-> merge /
```
Changes Requested
```
. Keep the vocabulary identical across all three; that is what lets a ticket flow Triage -> Ready -> In Progress -> In Review -> Done on any tracker.

References (load on demand)

```
references/agent-brief.md
```
: the durable agent-brief format (the contract an agent works from; survives refactors, no file paths/line numbers).
```
references/out-of-scope.md
```
: the
```
.out-of-scope/
```
rejected-request knowledge base (institutional memory + dedup of feature rejections).

triage

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content