Bootstrap Issue Config

Bootstrap issue triage configuration

Analyze the target repository and generate (or update) the issue triage configuration files used by the triage-new-issues workflow.

Outputs

This skill produces two files:

1. .github/issue-triage/config.json — label definitions used during triage.
2. .github/STAKEHOLDERS — CODEOWNERS-style ownership mappings from path patterns to GitHub usernames.

Workflow

1. Discover existing labels

• Use gh label list --repo <owner>/<repo> --limit 200 --json name,color,description to fetch all labels currently defined on the repository.
• Classify each label into one of three categories:
  • area labels — identify a component or subsystem (e.g. area:api, area:docs).
  • feature labels — identify a capability or request type (e.g. enhancement, bug, documentation).
  • status labels — identify workflow state (e.g. triaged, needs-info, wontfix).
• If the repository has very few or no labels, seed the config with sensible defaults:
  • triaged (status), bug (feature), enhancement (feature), documentation (feature), needs-info (status), duplicate (status)
  • repro:high, repro:medium, repro:low, repro:unknown (status)

2. Analyze recent issues

• Use gh issue list --repo <owner>/<repo> --state all --limit 100 --json number,title,labels,createdAt to fetch recent issues.
• If issues use labels that are not yet captured, add them to the appropriate category.
• Look at .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ for template files — template names and labels referenced in templates can inform label discovery.

3. Generate or update config.json

• Read any existing .github/issue-triage/config.json.
• Merge newly discovered labels into the existing labels object. Do not remove labels that already exist in the config — only add or update.
• The config must contain only the labels key. Do not include stakeholders or default_experts.
• Each label entry should have color (6-character hex without #) and description (one-sentence summary).
• Write the result to .github/issue-triage/config.json.
• Validate with jq . .github/issue-triage/config.json.

4. Generate or update .github/STAKEHOLDERS

• Inspect CODEOWNERS if it exists for initial ownership hints.
• Use git log --format='%aN <%aE>' --since='6 months ago' -- <path> and gh api to identify recent contributors to major directories.
• Read any existing .github/STAKEHOLDERS file and merge new entries rather than overwriting.
• Write the file using CODEOWNERS conventions:

  # Syntax follows CODEOWNERS conventions: later rules take precedence.
  # NOTE: This file is advisory only — GitHub does not enforce it.
  
  # --- Section comment ---
  /path/pattern/ @owner1 @owner2

• Each line maps a path glob to one or more @username owners.

5. Create missing labels

• For every label in the final config.json that does not already exist on the repository, create it:

  gh label create "<name>" --color "<color>" --description "<description>" --repo <owner>/<repo>

• Skip labels that already exist (the gh label create command will error on duplicates — ignore those errors).