A command that reads a GitHub issue and turns it into an implementation plan using TDD, a method of writing a failing test before the code that makes it pass.

Use it to prepare work from a GitHub issue, identify the issue from a branch name, and outline the tests and code changes needed. It requires GitHub access to fetch the issue.

It gives developers a concrete plan from an issue instead of leaving requirements scattered across the ticket. It also helps connect the work to the correct issue when given a number or branch name.

How wbern/agent-instructions configures Claude Code

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to wbern/agent-instructions. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wbern/agent-instructions/main/.claude/commands/issue.md

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wbern/agent-instructions

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/wbern/agent-instructions/issue/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/commands/wbern/agent-instructions/issue)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/wbern/agent-instructions/issue"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/wbern/agent-instructions/issue/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/wbern/agent-instructions/issue"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/wbern/agent-instructions/issue.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 10 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.

When invoked 1,511 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.

Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.

Origin 86% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.00010	$0.01511
Opus 5.5	$0.00004	$0.00604
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00002	$0.00302
Haiku 4.5	$0.00001	$0.00151

Measured 2mo ago against content hash 9949ac5008f6, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

issue scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2mo ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

86% identical to cycle — 82 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

.claude/commands/issue.md · 173 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 173 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Analyze GitHub issue and create TDD implementation plan.

General Guidelines

Output Style

Never explicitly mention TDD in code, comments, commits, PRs, or issues
Write natural, descriptive code without meta-commentary about the development process
The code should speak for itself - TDD is the process, not the product

Beads is available for task tracking. Use mcp__beads__* tools to manage issues (the user interacts via bd commands).

Plan File Restriction

NEVER create, read, or update plan.md files. Claude Code's internal planning files are disabled for this project. Use other methods to track implementation progress (e.g., comments, todo lists, or external tools).

Process:

Get Issue Number

User arguments:

Issue: $ARGUMENTS

End of user arguments

Check if argument is an issue number
Otherwise try branch name patterns: issue-123, 123-feature, feature/123, fix/123
If not found: ask user

Fetch Issue

Try to fetch the issue using GitHub MCP (mcp__github__issue_read tool).

If GitHub MCP is not configured, show:

GitHub MCP not configured!
See: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/tree/main/src/github
Trying GitHub CLI fallback...

Then try using gh issue view [ISSUE_NUMBER] --json as fallback.

Analyze and Plan

Summarize the issue and requirements, then:

Discovery Phase

Understand the requirement by asking (use AskUserQuestion if needed):

Problem Statement

What problem does this solve?
Who experiences this problem?
What's the current pain point?

Desired Outcome

What should happen after this is built?
How will users interact with it?
What does success look like?

Scope & Constraints

What's in scope vs. out of scope?
Any technical constraints?
Dependencies on other systems/features?

Context Check

Search codebase for related features/modules
Check for existing test files that might be relevant

Beads Integration

Use Beads MCP to:

Track work with bd ready to find next task
Create issues with bd create "description"
Track dependencies with bd dep add

Read the full file on GitHub · 173 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

2mo ago First seen · 173 lines · 10 tokens per session scan A 9949ac5008f6

Subscribe to this mod's changes

issue is a command published in the GitHub repository wbern/agent-instructions (168 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 10 tokens to every session and 1,511 once invoked, about $0.0000 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 86% identical to cycle, differing in 82 lines, and is treated as a copy.

Planning TDD Testing

agent-instructions: Command for Claude Code