pick-up-github-issue

Pick Up GitHub Issue

Find, claim, and plan a GitHub issue labeled "ready-to-implement".

Prerequisites

• Must be in a git repo with a GitHub remote
• gh CLI must be authenticated

Steps

1. Detect the repo

gh repo view --json nameWithOwner -q '.nameWithOwner'

2. Find issues labeled "ready-to-implement"

gh issue list --label "ready-to-implement" --state open --json number,title,body,comments,assignees

If no issues found, tell the user and stop.

3. Check availability of each issue

For each issue, check if someone is already working on it:

• Assigned? Skip if .assignees is non-empty.
• Claimed in comments? Look for comments like "I'm on it", "taking this", "working on this", or similar intent signals.
  • If the most recent claim comment is < 24 hours old: skip this issue, someone is actively on it.
  • If the most recent claim comment is 24h - 7 days old: note it as "possibly abandoned".
  • If the most recent claim comment is > 7 days old: treat as abandoned / available.

Pick the first clearly available issue.

• Clearly available (unassigned, no claim comments, or claim >7 days old): print the issue summary + full body, then proceed directly to step 4 — no user confirmation needed.
• Possibly abandoned (claim comment 24h–7d old): ask the user first — mention the commenter, how long ago, and let them decide. Use AskUserQuestion with options: "Yes, pick it up" / "Show me other issues" / "Skip".

4. Comment on the issue

Post a comment to claim it. This serves as the "assignee" since Claude doesn't have a separate GitHub account:

gh issue comment <NUMBER> --body "Picking this up. - Claude (<your model name/version>)"

5. Enter plan mode

Call EnterPlanMode to plan the implementation for this issue.