Issue/PR Cluster Deduper

Use this skill when a cluster of GitHub issues and pull requests has been reported for a common failure mode (Slack, iMessage, support threads, or manual list), and you need an evidence-based dedupe recommendation or execution.

Purpose

Provide a consistent, evidence-driven triage pass for issue and PR clusters so duplicate work is folded, contributor credit is preserved, and cleanup actions stay auditable.

When to use

You have a cluster of suspected duplicates to classify as canonical/related/independent.
You need a concise dedupe plan with explicit credit and rationale before taking action.
The user asked to execute safe closure/label/comment steps (or return a vetted plan only).
You need to avoid duplicate PR churn by identifying which change should stay canonical.

Inputs

```
cluster_refs
```
(required): list of issue/PR references as IDs or URLs.
```
mode
```
(optional):
```
plan
```
(default) or
```
execute
```
.
```
channel
```
(optional): source context like
```
slack
```
,
```
discord
```
,
```
support
```
, etc.
```
repo
```
(optional): explicit
```
owner/repo
```
when not using current checkout.
```
canonical_hint
```
(optional): explicit preference when ambiguity exists.
```
merge_guard
```
(optional):
```
high|medium
```
mergeability strictness; default
```
high
```
.
```
max_changed_files_for_canonical
```
(optional): default
```
30
```
.
```
max_delta_lines_for_canonical
```
(optional): default
```
2500
```
.
```
min_greptile_score
```
(optional): default
```
65
```
when available.
```
body_noise_mode
```
(optional):
```
strict|medium
```
for junk body tolerance; default
```
medium
```
.
```
reuse_copy_detection
```
(optional):
```
off|on
```
with default
```
on
```
for bot/copied-work checks.
```
bot_author_pattern
```
(optional): list of substrings for suspicious authors.

merge_tool_pref

(optional):

auto

gh

merge-skill

, or

land-skill

; default

auto

Workflow

Fetch cluster evidence.

For PRs:

gh pr view <ref> --json number,title,body,state,author,labels,createdAt,updatedAt,mergedAt,closedAt,mergeable,mergeStateStatus,isDraft,changedFiles,additions,deletions,statusCheckRollup,commits,url

For issues:

gh issue view <ref> --json number,title,body,state,labels,author,createdAt,updatedAt,url,comments

Pull quick file scope context if needed:
```
gh pr diff <ref> --name-only
```
Pull status checks:
```
gh pr checks <ref>
```
Pull review/AI-tool comments for score hints:
```
gh issue view <ref> --json comments
```
Record common bot/copied-work signals:
- ```
author.login
```
  ending with
```
[bot]
```
  or matching
```
bot_author_pattern
```
  .
- PR body that advertises generated/copied content (
```
generated by
```
  ,
```
copy/pasted
```
  ,
```
cherry-picked from
```
  , etc.).
- Commit messages that indicate lifted or mechanical work without problem-specific reasoning.

Normalize signals into a guardrail matrix.
- Mergeability signal: mergeable state, draft status, merge-state blockers, and check conclusions.
- Churn signal:
```
changedFiles
```
  ,
```
additions
```
  , and
```
deletions
```
  .
- Body hygiene signal: body length, meaningful root-cause description, and presence of placeholder/junk patterns (e.g.
```
WIP
```
  ,
```
TODO
```
  , blank text, automation template only, no concrete impact).
- AI review signal: Greptile or equivalent score-like comments. If score is present and below threshold, downgrade confidence.
- Source integrity signal: bot/copied-work risk and commit provenance.
  - Any PR matched by bot/copied-work signals is marked
    review-heavy
    and cannot become canonical without explicit manual confirmation.
Run full review-on-candidate for likely canonical PR(s).
- For the top canonical candidate(s), perform a complete pass:
  - gh pr view <id> --json files
    and
    gh pr diff <id>
    .
  - gh pr checks <id>
    and ensure required checks are passing or have explicit acceptable exceptions.
  - Quick duplicate/conflict scan against canonical cluster references via file overlap and root-cause text.
- If mergeability and hygiene are clean, treat this as the "winning PR" candidate and move to merge-prep.
Choose canonical outputs.
- Prefer merged + validated PRs with mergeability and a strong scope match.
- If a newer item is a strict superset and still merge-safe, prefer the newer item.
- If two items have equivalent scope, keep the most stable/least conflicting anchor.
- If uncertainty is high, do not close anything; return a report of open questions.
Apply hard guardrails before assigning
```
canonical
```
or
```
duplicate
```
.
- Mergeability hard-stop:
  - Reject as canonical if
    isDraft
    is true.
  - Reject as canonical if
    mergeable
    is false or
    mergeStateStatus
    indicates blocking.
  - If checks are failing, mark as
    manual-review-required
    unless user explicitly wants forced action.
- Churn hard-stop:
  - If
    changedFiles > max_changed_files_for_canonical
    or
    additions + deletions > max_delta_lines_for_canonical
    , do not auto-close other PRs as duplicate.
  - Treat as related/review-needed even if overlap appears strong.
- Body hygiene hard-stop:
  - For empty/junk bodies or no concrete root cause, classify confidence as low and require explicit manual confirmation before duplicate actions.
- AI review hard-stop:
  - If a recognized score (for example Greptile) is below
    min_greptile_score
    , require manual confirmation before duplicates and avoid auto-canonicalization.
- Bot/copy hard-stop:
  - If author appears as bot/auto-generated and work appears copied with low evidence of original validation, classify as
    manual-review-required
    .
  - Do not suppress original human credit; keep attribution to originator and include a provenance note.
Map outcomes.
- Canonical issue/PR: keep open.
- Duplicate PRs/issues: close with explicit duplicate rationale and credit.
- Winning PR that passes all guardrails: perform final review and help merge.
- Related but not duplicate: keep open and add explicit relationship note.
- Unrelated: split into separate routing plan.
- For any hard-stop failures, return
```
manual-review-required
```
  with blockers listed.
Merge and OpenClaw follow-up.
- If user asked
```
mode=execute
```
  and the winning PR is green:
  - Use
    merge_tool_pref
    :
    - merge-skill
      /
      land-skill
      : invoke local merge/land workflow/skill if available.
    - gh
      : run
      gh pr merge <id> --auto --merge
      (or
      --squash
      ,
      --rebase
      based on repo policy).
    - auto
      : prefer merge/land skill first if detected; otherwise fallback to
      gh
      merge.
  - Re-check checks after merge and report final state.
- If canonical PR is merge-ready but not yet merged, add/verify OpenClaw changelog entry in that PR:
  - Check presence of
    CHANGELOG.md
    .
  - If entry exists, do not duplicate; otherwise add a concise bullet under current unreleased
    Fixes
    section with PR number + credits.
  - Prefer including this within the canonical PR before merge.
  - If not possible, create follow-up squash commit after merge to add changelog.
Run boundary check.
- If
```
mode=plan
```
  , return a precise command plan and message drafts with confidence and blocker list.
- If
```
mode=execute
```
  , run GH commands only for items with no blockers; otherwise stop and report.
Emit results with explicit evidence and attribution.

Outputs

A canonicality assessment for the cluster with evidence bullets.
A
```
plan
```
table: item, role (canonical/duplicate/related/unrelated), rationale, and confidence.

risk register

per item for:

mergeability

churn

body_hygiene

ai_review_score

A merge-readiness checklist for each candidate (checks, approvals, conflicts, branch state, policy alignment).
For chosen canonical PR: explicit merge command used, merge result, and OpenClaw changelog action status.
Draft close/keep messages containing contributor credits.
Command list for labels/comments/close steps (and execution status when run).
Explicit escalation notes for manual review and uncertainty.

Message templates

Canonical PR credit line

This final fix is in #{canonical_pr} by @{canonical_author}. Earlier related work is credited to #{prior_pr} by @{prior_author}; thanks for that groundwork.

Close duplicate PR

Thanks for the earlier contribution. Closing as a duplicate of #{canonical_pr}. Your PR covered part of the same root cause and is credited in the canonical fix. If this is a mistake, please tell me and we'll reopen a review path.

Keep canonical issue open

Keeping this open as canonical for this {channel}-specific failure cluster.

Close duplicate issue

Closing as duplicate of #{canonical}. This matches the same root-cause path and behavior. Credit is tracked in #{canonical_pr} with foundational work from #{prior_pr}. If this is a mistake, please tell me and we'll reopen a review path.

Related (not duplicate)

This appears related but not a duplicate: symptom path diverges at {reason}. Keeping it open separately.

Winning PR full-review summary

I reviewed the winning PR for scope, checks, and mergeability. Conflicts: {status}. Check status: {status}. Final action: {merged|ready|blocked}.

Unrelated (routing only)

This appears separate from this cluster and should be tracked independently.

Action commands

Run commands from repo checkout unless explicitly using full
owner/repo
URLs.

Add labels for closed duplicates

PR/issue duplicate:

gh issue edit <id> --add-label dedupe:child --add-label close:duplicate

(repo labels vary; use

duplicate

fallback as needed).

Canonical issue:

gh issue edit <canonical_id> --add-label dedupe:parent

Close with comment (issues)

Comment first, then close:

gh issue comment <id> --body "..."

gh issue close <id> --reason not planned

Close PR

For duplicate PR:
```
gh pr close <id> --comment "..."
```
.

Guardrail helper checks

Mergeability snapshot:

gh pr view <id> --json mergeable,mergeStateStatus,isDraft,statusCheckRollup

Churn snapshot:

gh pr view <id> --json changedFiles,additions,deletions

Greptile/AI review scan (optional):
```
gh issue view <id> --json comments
```

Changelog policy

If changelog already has an entry, do not duplicate it.
If adding new entry, place under current Unreleased
```
### Fixes
```
section with PR number and contributor credits.

Suggested merge helpers

Prefer local merge/land skill (
```
merge_tool_pref=merge-skill
```
or
```
land-skill
```
) when available and configured.

Otherwise use:

gh pr merge <id> --merge --auto

gh pr merge <id> --squash --auto

gh pr merge <id> --rebase --auto

Select merge mode based on repo policy and branch protection requirements.

scripts/alias.sh helper

Run the tiny helper directly from this skill directory for repetitive cluster operations:

./scripts/alias.sh run-cluster /path/to/cluster.txt

Minimal

cluster.txt

format:

<type>:<id>|<action>|<target>

Supported actions:

```
inspect
```
→ fetch issue/PR views, diff file list, and checks.
```
close-pr-duplicate
```
→ close PR as duplicate of target PR.
```
close-issue-duplicate
```
→ comment + close issue as duplicate of target issue.
```
noop
```
→ no action.

Typical example file:

text

pr:20988|inspect|
pr:20377|close-pr-duplicate|20988
issue:19839|close-issue-duplicate|20337
issue:12714|noop|

Use

ODGH_DRY_RUN=1

for dry-run mode to print command intent without making mutations. You can also use it inline:

./scripts/alias.sh --dry-run run-cluster /path/to/cluster.txt

For safe editing without real references, copy:

scripts/cluster-example.txt

Git cleanup option

To remove stale branch:

git branch -D <branch>

git push origin --delete <branch>

Safety / anti-patterns

Do not assume duplicate status from metadata alone; always inspect body + diff for scope overlap.
Do not use failed closure defaults when hard-stop guardrails fail.
Do not invent non-existent GH close reasons (for example,
```
--reason duplicate
```
in
```
gh issue close
```
is invalid; use
```
not planned
```
plus label/comments).
Preserve evidence in each comment text for auditability.
Do not merge or close items while mergeability/churn/AI-review warnings are unresolved.

openclaw-github-dedupe

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content