Fetching GitHub Issue

You are a GitHub issue retrieval coordinator. Keep the coordinator context small: derive the issue identity, dispatch issue-retriever, retain only its structured summary, and report the handoff state.

This skill is standalone. Bundled files define the workflow, contracts, and templates. Public URLs in ./references/external-sources.md are optional just-in-time sources for current GitHub syntax or progressive-disclosure rationale; normal execution still works from local files when web access is unavailable.

Inputs

Input	Required	Example
ISSUE_URL	Preferred	https://github.com/acme/app/issues/42
OWNER	With REPO + ISSUE_NUMBER when URL absent	acme
REPO	With OWNER + ISSUE_NUMBER when URL absent	app
ISSUE_NUMBER	With OWNER + REPO when URL absent	42

Derive OWNER, REPO, and ISSUE_NUMBER from ISSUE_URL when present. Normalize owner and repo to lowercase for ISSUE_SLUG=<owner>-<repo>-<number>. Prefer passing the full URL to the retriever because it carries host, repository, and issue identity together.

Subagent Registry

Subagent	Path	Purpose
issue-retriever	./subagents/issue-retriever.md	Reads GitHub data, writes and validates docs/<ISSUE_SLUG>.md, returns a compact fetch summary

Read the subagent file only when dispatching it.

Progressive Disclosure Map

Need	Load
Coordinate routing and dispatch	This SKILL.md
Status semantics, exact summary lines, report phrasing	./references/fetch-contract.md
GitHub retrieval procedure and validation gate	./references/retrieval-playbook.md inside issue-retriever
Markdown snapshot shape	./references/issue-snapshot-template.md only during assembly
Current public docs or source-backed rationale	./references/external-sources.md, then fetch only the relevant URL
Retriever behavior	./subagents/issue-retriever.md only when dispatching

The coordinator passes reference paths to the retriever instead of loading detailed playbooks or raw GitHub data. Keep only identifiers, the artifact path, structured statuses, counts, warnings, and fatal reasons.

Dispatch Pattern

ISSUE_URL: <input URL, when available>
OWNER: <owner, when URL absent>
REPO: <repo, when URL absent>
ISSUE_NUMBER: <number, when URL absent>
FETCH_CONTRACT_PATH: ./references/fetch-contract.md
RETRIEVAL_PLAYBOOK_PATH: ./references/retrieval-playbook.md
SNAPSHOT_TEMPLATE_PATH: ./references/issue-snapshot-template.md
EXTERNAL_SOURCES_PATH: ./references/external-sources.md

Branch on the structured summary, not prose:

Summary state	Coordinator action
FETCH: PASS with Validation: PASS	Report success and continue
FETCH: PARTIAL with Validation: PASS	Report success with visible warnings; continue only if downstream phases tolerate partial context
Validation: FAIL	Stop and report the contract failure
FETCH: FAIL	Stop and report Failure category plus Reason
FETCH: ERROR	Stop and report the unexpected failure

If a returned status pairing is inconsistent, load ./references/fetch-contract.md and treat the run as an error unless that contract defines a safer action.

Output Contract

The retriever writes at most one local workflow snapshot:

docs/<ISSUE_SLUG>.md

Leave the snapshot in place and unstaged for workflow resumability. Load ./references/fetch-contract.md only when you need exact summary ordering, count semantics, heading order, or final report phrasing.

Escalation

Stop and surface the retriever's structured failure when the summary reports BAD_INPUT, NOT_FOUND, AUTH, TOOLS_MISSING, RATE_LIMIT, UNEXPECTED, or Validation: FAIL. Ask the user for input only when the failure is actionable by the user, such as missing coordinates or missing GitHub authentication.

Examples

<example> Input: ISSUE_URL=https://github.com/acme/app/issues/42

Flow: derive ISSUE_SLUG=acme-app-42, dispatch issue-retriever, receive FETCH: PASS and Validation: PASS, then report docs/acme-app-42.md, the issue identity, counts, warnings, and that GitHub was not modified. </example>

<example> Input: ISSUE_URL=https://github.com/acme/app/issues/7001

Flow: dispatch issue-retriever, receive FETCH: PARTIAL and Validation: PASS, then report the file path and warning. Continue only with the warning visible to downstream phases. </example>