Consolidate Issues

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Reduces issue backlog to prevent AI-created issue spam and maintain healthy project hygiene.

When to Use This Skill

• Before creating any new GitHub issue (always check limits first)
• When preflight returns enforcement_mode: CONSOLIDATION
• When issue:PR ratio exceeds 3:1
• When AI-created issues reach 25
• When total open issues approach 50
• Proactively during maintenance cycles

Enforcement Modes

Hard Limits

• 50 total issues: Run paused
• 25 AI-created issues: Skip issue creation
• 10 open PRs: PR_FOCUS mode
• 3:1 ratio: CONSOLIDATION mode

Consolidation Workflow

Step 1: Check Current Counts

TOTAL=$(gh issue list --state open --json number | jq length)
AI=$(gh issue list --state open --label ai-created --json number | jq length)
PRS=$(gh pr list --state open --json number | jq length)
RATIO=$(echo "scale=1; $TOTAL / ($PRS + 1)" | bc)
echo "Total: $TOTAL, AI: $AI, PRs: $PRS, Ratio: $RATIO:1"

Step 2: Fetch All Open Issues

gh issue list --state open --limit 100 --json number,title,body,labels,createdAt

Step 3: Close Duplicates

Identify duplicate issues. For each duplicate issue number, run the following commands as separate tool calls:

For issue #123:

gh issue edit 123 --add-label duplicate
gh issue close 123 --reason "not planned" \
  --comment "Duplicate of #456. Closing."

For issue #124:

gh issue edit 124 --add-label duplicate
gh issue close 124 --reason "not planned" \
  --comment "Duplicate of #456. Closing."

Step 4: Close Resolved Issues

Search for issues fixed by merged PRs:

gh pr list --state merged --limit 50 --json number,title,body

For each issue resolved by a merged PR, run the following command as a separate tool call:

gh issue close 456 --reason completed \
  --comment "Resolved by PR #789."

Step 5: Link Related Issues

For related (non-duplicate) issues, run the following command as a separate tool call for each related issue pair:

gh issue comment 123 --body "Related to #456."

For 3+ related issues, create an umbrella issue as a separate tool call.

Step 6: Report Summary

Document consolidation results:

• Duplicates closed: N
• Issues resolved by merged PRs: K
• Related issues linked: M

Best Practices

1. Check before creating - Always verify limits first
2. Close aggressively - When in doubt, close as duplicate/​resolved
3. Report to Slack - Never create issues for status updates
4. Focus on PRs - PRs close issues; issues don't close themselves