engram-backlog-triage

A backlog-triage process for Engram or another GitHub repository. Backlog triage means reviewing open issues and pull requests, classifying them, and deciding what should happen next.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to audit issues and pull requests, decide whether to merge, request changes, close, approve, or send an item for design, and produce an actionable report.
Why use it?
It turns a noisy issue tracker into specific decisions based on the project's stated values and maintainer expectations.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/gentleman-programming/engram/backlog-triage
Any agent
npx skills add Gentleman-Programming/engram --skill backlog-triage
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Gentleman-Programming/engram

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 75 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,879 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found 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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00075 $0.02879
Opus 5 $0.00037 $0.01439
Sonnet 5 $0.00015 $0.00576
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00288

Measured yesterday against content hash 9c7020ab3df0, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

engram-backlog-triage 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 yesterday.

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.

skills/backlog-triage/SKILL.md · 272 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 272 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

  • Running a full backlog audit on Engram (or any repo)
  • Deciding merge / request-changes / close / needs-design / approve-issue
  • Cleaning noise from the issue tracker
  • Prioritizing what to act on next

Maintainer Philosophy (Engram)

These are the non-negotiable product values. Every triage decision is filtered through them.

Principle What it means in practice
Zero-config Works out of the box. No required flags, env vars, or setup beyond install.
Local-first Data lives in ~/.engram/engram.db. No cloud dependency by default.
Single binary One engram binary. No daemon, no service, no secondary processes needed.
Terminal-first CLI and TUI are the primary UX. No web dashboard, no Electron.
Thin adapters Plugin scripts (Claude, OpenCode, Gemini, Codex) are thin shims — logic lives in Go core.
Issue-first Every PR must link a status:approved issue. No approved issue → no PR.
Evidence-based reviews Request changes with specific, actionable items. No vague "needs improvement".
Tight scope Reject features that expand Engram's surface area without a compelling case.
Small focused contributions Prefer 50-line PRs solving one problem over 500-line PRs solving five.
Reject vague/scope-breaking work Close scope-creep issues and PRs that turn Engram into something else.

Disposition Classification

Assign exactly ONE disposition to each issue or PR:

Disposition When to use
MERGE PR is correct, scoped, tests pass, linked approved issue. Merge immediately.
REQUEST CHANGES PR has the right idea but needs specific fixes. List each item.
CLOSE Noise, duplicate, vague, scope-breaking, no approved issue, or stale with no activity.
NEEDS DESIGN Idea is valid but architectural decision required before any PR is welcome. Open discussion or design issue first.
APPROVE ISSUE Issue is valid, clear, reproducible/specific, and in scope. Add status:approved label.
REJECT ISSUE Vague, duplicate, scope-breaking, or belongs in Discussions. Close with explanation.

Read the full file on GitHub · 272 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.

  1. yesterday First seen · 272 lines · 75 tokens per session scan A 9c7020ab3df0

Subscribe to this mod's changes

engram-backlog-triage is a skill published in the GitHub repository Gentleman-Programming/engram (6,232 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 75 tokens to every session and 2,879 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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