GitHub Scanning

Search Query Patterns by Intent

Issues

Intent	Query Pattern	Scope
Assigned to you	`is:open assignee:USERNAME`	All repos
You were @mentioned	`is:open mentions:USERNAME`	All repos
Authored by you	`is:open author:USERNAME`	All repos
Specific repo	`repo:owner/repo is:open`	Single repo
By keyword	`{keyword} is:open`	All repos
Org-wide	`org:ORGNAME is:open`	Org repos
Closed (for recap)	`is:closed author:USERNAME`	All repos

Pull Requests

Intent	Query Pattern	Scope
Awaiting your review	`review-requested:USERNAME state:open`	All repos
Your open PRs	`author:USERNAME state:open`	All repos
Assigned to you	`assignee:USERNAME state:open`	All repos
You reviewed, check for updates	`reviewed-by:USERNAME state:open`	All repos
Specific PR	Fetch directly with owner, repo, number	Single repo
Org-wide	`org:ORGNAME state:open`	Org repos

Discussions

Intent	Action
You're mentioned	Search with `mentions:USERNAME`
You're participating	Search discussions you've commented on
High activity	Filter for 10+ comments in last 24h
Linked to your issues	Scan description/comments for issue references

Releases

Use
```
github_list_releases
```
per repo - check for recent, draft, and pre-releases.
Cross-reference merged PRs against release notes to identify unreleased work.
Compare issue milestones against release schedules to flag upcoming deadline items.

Security

Dependabot alerts: critical and high severity across monitored repos.
Security advisories affecting dependencies.
Pending dependency update PRs from
```
dependabot[bot]
```
or
```
renovate[bot]
```
.

CI/CD

Fetch recent workflow runs - identify failing workflows, long jobs, and flaky tests.
For failing workflows: note repo, workflow name, branch, failure reason, and link to run.
Cross-reference user's open PRs against CI results.

Date Range Handling

Convert natural language to GitHub query qualifiers:

User Says	GitHub Qualifier
"last week"	`created:>YYYY-MM-DD` (7 days ago)
"this month"	`created:>YYYY-MM-01`
"today"	`closed:YYYY-MM-DD`
"this week"	`closed:>YYYY-MM-DD` (7 days ago)
"between X and Y"	`created:X..Y`
Not specified	Use `search.default_window` from preferences (default: `updated:>YYYY-MM-DD` 30 days) - mention this assumption
"for current month" (a11y tracker)	`milestone:"{Month} {Year}"`

Scope Narrowing

Add qualifiers to narrow by scope when the user specifies one:

Scope	Qualifier
Single repo	`repo:owner/name`
All org repos	`org:orgname`
All repos by user	`user:username`
Everything (default)	No qualifier - searches all accessible repos

Preferences File Integration

Read

.github/agents/preferences.md

and apply these filters before and after searching:

repos.discovery
- determines the default search scope (all / starred / owned / configured / workspace).
repos.include
- always include these repos even in restricted modes.
repos.exclude
- skip these repos in all searches.
repos.overrides
- per-repo settings:
- ```
track.issues: false
```
  -> skip issue searches for this repo
- ```
track.pull_requests: false
```
  -> skip PR searches for this repo
- ```
track.discussions: false
```
  -> skip discussions for this repo
- ```
track.releases: false
```
  -> skip release checks for this repo
- ```
track.security: false
```
  -> skip security alerts for this repo
- ```
track.ci: false
```
  -> skip CI status for this repo
- ```
labels.include
```
  /
```
labels.exclude
```
  -> filter results by label
- ```
paths
```
  -> only trigger for changes touching these file paths (for PRs/CI)
- ```
assignees
```
  -> filter to specific assignees (empty = all)
search.default_window
- default time range if the user doesn't specify one.
briefing.sections
- which sections to include in the daily briefing.
accessibility_tracking
- config for the a11y tracker (repos, labels, channels).

Cross-Repo Intelligence

When results arrive from different repos, look for and surface these patterns:

Pattern	Action
Cross-repo references	When issue A contains `owner/repo#N` , fetch and surface item N
Shared label patterns	Group items in different repos tagged `P0` together in triage
Related PRs in different repos	Flag: "This issue depends on PR #N in repo-B which is still open"
Merged PR not yet released	Note: "Your PR #N is merged but not in any release yet"
Issue with merged fix PR	Flag: "This may be resolved - PR #N that closes it was merged on {date}"
Branch naming patterns	Group PRs in different repos using the same branch naming convention

Parallel Stream Collection Model

For agents that collect from multiple data streams, run independent streams simultaneously. Don't serialize operations with no dependencies.

Example: Daily Briefing - 3 Parallel Batches

Batch 1 - fully independent, run simultaneously:

Issues (assigned, mentioned, authored)
Pull requests (review-requested, authored)
Releases & deployments
Accessibility updates

Batch 2 - run after Batch 1 (CI needs PR list from Batch 1):

GitHub Discussions
CI/CD health (cross-references PR list)
Security alerts

Batch 3 - can overlap with Batch 2:

Project board status
Recently closed/merged work

Example: Analytics - 2 Parallel Batches

Batch 1 - collection (all independent):

Closed/merged PRs in period
Opened issues in period
CI workflow runs in period
Security alerts in period

Batch 2 - analysis (depends on Batch 1 data):

Health score computation
Velocity metrics calculation
Bottleneck detection

Announcement Template for Parallel Work

text

 Running {N} searches in parallel... ({scope})
 Batch 1 complete - {X} items found

 Running {N} additional searches...
 Batch 2 complete - {Y} items found

 Scoring and prioritizing...
 Done - {Z} items need action, {W} to monitor

Auto-Recovery for Empty Results

If a search returns 0 results:

Automatically broaden: remove date filter, expand scope to
```
all
```
, or remove label filters.
Tell the user exactly what changed: "No results in last 7 days - broadened to last 30 days and found 3 items."
Never return 0 results without trying at least one broader query first.

Recovery cascade:

First try: Remove date qualifier
Second try: Expand scope (add org: or remove repo: qualifier)
Third try: Remove label filters
Report 0 results only if all three attempts return nothing

Pagination

Paginate large result sets in batches of 10.
Ask before loading more: "Showing 10 of 47. Load more?"
Never silently truncate results - always disclose the total count.

Result Deduplication

When the same item appears in multiple searches (e.g., an issue you're both assigned to AND mentioned in):

Show it once, with all context combined.
In the Signal column, combine signals: "Assigned, @mentioned".
In priority calculations, apply the highest-scoring signal, not additive.

Rate Limiting

If rate-limited (403/429), tell the user the reset time in one sentence.
Do not retry the same query - wait if reset is <60 seconds; otherwise report and move on.
For multi-stream collection, skip rate-limited streams and complete them in a follow-up.

github-scanning

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content