gh-issues — Auto-fix GitHub Issues with Parallel Sub-agents
You are an orchestrator. Follow these 6 phases exactly. Do not skip phases.
IMPORTANT — No gh CLI dependency. This skill uses curl + the GitHub REST API exclusively. The GH_TOKEN env var is already injected by OpenClaw. Pass it as a Bearer token in all API calls:
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $GH_TOKEN" -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" ...
Phase 1 — Parse Arguments
Parse the arguments string provided after /gh-issues.
Positional:
- owner/repo — optional. This is the source repo to fetch issues from. If omitted, detect from the current git remote:
git remote get-url originExtract owner/repo from the URL (handles both HTTPS and SSH formats).- HTTPS: https://github.com/owner/repo.git → owner/repo
- SSH: git@github.com:owner/repo.git → owner/repo If not in a git repo or no remote found, stop with an error asking the user to specify owner/repo.
Flags (all optional):
| Flag | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| --label | (none) | Filter by label (e.g. bug, enhancement) |
| --limit | 10 | Max issues to fetch per poll |
| --milestone | (none) | Filter by milestone title |
| --assignee | (none) | Filter by assignee (@me for self) |
| --state | open | Issue state: open, closed, all |
| --fork | (none) | Your fork (user/repo) to push branches and open PRs from. Issues are fetched from the source repo; code is pushed to the fork; PRs are opened from the fork to the source repo. |
| --watch | false | Keep polling for new issues and PR reviews after each batch |
| --interval | 5 | Minutes between polls (only with --watch) |
| --dry-run | false | Fetch and display only — no sub-agents |
| --yes | false | Skip confirmation and auto-process all filtered issues |
| --reviews-only | false | Skip issue processing (Phases 2-5). Only run Phase 6 — check open PRs for review comments and address them. |
| --cron | false | Cron-safe mode: fetch issues and spawn sub-agents, exit without waiting for results. |
| --model | (none) | Model to use for sub-agents (e.g. glm-5, zai/glm-5). If not specified, uses the agent's default model. |
| --notify-channel | (none) | Telegram channel ID to send final PR summary to (e.g. -1002381931352). Only the final result with PR links is sent, not status updates. |
Store parsed values for use in subsequent phases.
Derived values:
- SOURCE_REPO = the positional owner/repo (where issues live)
- PUSH_REPO = --fork value if provided, otherwise same as SOURCE_REPO
- FORK_MODE = true if --fork was provided, false otherwise
If --reviews-only is set: Skip directly to Phase 6. Run token resolution (from Phase 2) first, then jump to Phase 6.
If --cron is set:
- Force
--yes(skip confirmation) - If
--reviews-onlyis also set, run token resolution then jump to Phase 6 (cron review mode) - Otherwise, proceed normally through Phases 2-5 with cron-mode behavior active
Phase 2 — Fetch Issues
Token Resolution: First, ensure GH_TOKEN is available. Check environment:
echo $GH_TOKEN
If empty, read from config:
cat ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json | jq -r '.skills.entries["gh-issues"].apiKey // empty'
If still empty, check /data/.clawdbot/openclaw.json:
cat /data/.clawdbot/openclaw.json | jq -r '.skills.entries["gh-issues"].apiKey // empty'
Export as GH_TOKEN for subsequent commands:
export GH_TOKEN="<token>"
Build and run a curl request to the GitHub Issues API via exec:
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $GH_TOKEN" -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
"https://api.github.com/repos/{SOURCE_REPO}/issues?per_page={limit}&state={state}&{query_params}"
Where {query_params} is built from:
- labels={label} if --label was provided
- milestone={milestone} if --milestone was provided (note: API expects milestone number, so if user provides a title, first resolve it via GET /repos/{SOURCE_REPO}/milestones and match by title)
- assignee={assignee} if --assignee was provided (if @me, first resolve your username via
GET /user)
IMPORTANT: The GitHub Issues API also returns pull requests. Filter them out — exclude any item where pull_request key exists in the response object.
If in watch mode: Also filter out any issue numbers already in the PROCESSED_ISSUES set from previous batches.
Error handling:
- If curl returns an HTTP 401 or 403 → stop and tell the user:
"GitHub authentication failed. Please check your apiKey in the OpenClaw dashboard or in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under skills.entries.gh-issues."
- If the response is an empty array (after filtering) → report "No issues found matching filters" and stop (or loop back if in watch mode).
- If curl fails or returns any other error → report the error verbatim and stop.
Parse the JSON response. For each issue, extract: number, title, body, labels (array of label names), assignees, html_url.
Phase 3 — Present & Confirm
Display a markdown table of fetched issues:
| # | Title | Labels |
|---|---|---|
| 42 | Fix null pointer in parser | bug, critical |
| 37 | Add retry logic for API calls | enhancement |
If FORK_MODE is active, also display:
"Fork mode: branches will be pushed to {PUSH_REPO}, PRs will target
{SOURCE_REPO}"
If --dry-run is active:
- Display the table and stop. Do not proceed to Phase 4.
If --yes is active:
- Display the table for visibility
- Auto-process ALL listed issues without asking for confirmation
- Proceed directly to Phase 4
Otherwise: Ask the user to confirm which issues to process:
- "all" — process every listed issue
- Comma-separated numbers (e.g.
42, 37) — process only those - "cancel" — abort entirely
Wait for user response before proceeding.
Watch mode note: On the first poll, always confirm with the user (unless --yes is set). On subsequent polls, auto-process all new issues without re-confirming (the user already opted in). Still display the table so they can see what's being processed.
Phase 4 — Pre-flight Checks
Run these checks sequentially via exec:
-
Dirty working tree check:
git status --porcelainIf output is non-empty, warn the user:
"Working tree has uncommitted changes. Sub-agents will create branches from HEAD — uncommitted changes will NOT be included. Continue?" Wait for confirmation. If declined, stop.
-
Record base branch:
git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEADStore as BASE_BRANCH.
-
Verify remote access: If FORK_MODE:
- Verify the fork remote exists. Check if a git remote named
forkexists:
If it doesn't exist, add it:git remote get-url forkgit remote add fork https://x-access-token:$GH_TOKEN@github.com/{PUSH_REPO}.git - Also verify origin (the source repo) is reachable:
git ls-remote --exit-code origin HEAD
If not FORK_MODE:
git ls-remote --exit-code origin HEADIf this fails, stop with: "Cannot reach remote origin. Check your network and git config."
- Verify the fork remote exists. Check if a git remote named
-
Verify GH_TOKEN validity:
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -H "Authorization: Bearer $GH_TOKEN" https://api.github.com/userIf HTTP status is not 200, stop with:
"GitHub authentication failed. Please check your apiKey in the OpenClaw dashboard or in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under skills.entries.gh-issues."
-
Check for existing PRs: For each confirmed issue number N, run:
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $GH_TOKEN" -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ "https://api.github.com/repos/{SOURCE_REPO}/pulls?head={PUSH_REPO_OWNER}:fix/issue-{N}&state=open&per_page=1"(Where PUSH_REPO_OWNER is the owner portion of
PUSH_REPO) If the response array is non-empty, remove that issue from the proces