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/CODEOWNERS — 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.
• labels must be a flat object keyed by the exact GitHub label name, including prefixes such as area:workflow or repro:high. Do not nest labels by category.
• Each label entry must have color (6-character hex without #) and description (one-sentence summary):

  {
    "labels": {
      "triaged": {
        "color": "0E8A16",
        "description": "Initial triage has been completed for this issue"
      },
      "area:workflow": {
        "color": "7057FF",
        "description": "GitHub workflows, Python automation, or integration"
      }
    }
  }
  

• Write the result to .github/issue-triage/config.json.
• Validate with jq . .github/issue-triage/config.json.