GitHub Issue Creator

This skill guides the creation of high-quality GitHub issues that adhere to the repository's standards and use the appropriate templates.

Workflow

Follow these steps to create a GitHub issue:

1. Identify Issue Type: Determine if the request is a bug report, feature request, or other category.

2. Locate Template: Search for issue templates in .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/.

   • bug_report.yml
   • feature_request.yml
   • website_issue.yml
   • If no relevant YAML template is found, look for .md templates in the same directory.

3. Read Template: Read the content of the identified template file to understand the required fields.

4. Draft Content: Draft the issue title and body/fields.

   • If using a YAML template (form), prepare values for each id defined in the template.
   • If using a Markdown template, follow its structure exactly.
   • Default Label: Always include the 🔒 maintainer only label unless the user explicitly requests otherwise.

5. Create Issue: Use the gh CLI to create the issue.

   • CRITICAL: To avoid shell escaping and formatting issues with multi-line Markdown or complex text, ALWAYS write the description/body to a temporary file first.

   For Markdown Templates or Simple Body:

   # 1. Write the drafted content to a temporary file
   # 2. Create the issue using the --body-file flag
   gh issue create --title "Succinct title" --body-file <temp_file_path> --label "🔒 maintainer only"
   # 3. Remove the temporary file
   rm <temp_file_path>

   For YAML Templates (Forms): While gh issue create supports --body-file, YAML forms usually expect key-value pairs via flags if you want to bypass the interactive prompt. However, the most reliable non-interactive way to ensure formatting is preserved for long text fields is to use the --body or --body-file if the form has been converted to a standard body, OR to use the --field flags for YAML forms.

   Note: For the gemini-cli repository which uses YAML forms, you can often submit the content as a single body if a specific field-based submission is not required by the automation.

6. Verify: Confirm the issue was created successfully and provide the link to the user.

Principles

• Clarity: Titles should be descriptive and follow project conventions.
• Defensive Formatting: Always use temporary files with --body-file to prevent newline and special character issues.
• Maintainer Priority: Default to internal/maintainer labels to keep the backlog organized.
• Completeness: Provide all requested information (e.g., version info, reproduction steps).