agency-issue

agency-issue

Use this skill when the user (or you) hits friction with the-agency framework — a bug, missing feature, doc gap, ergonomic problem — and wants to file it in the GitHub issue tracker.

Unlike /feedback (which is fire-and-forget to Anthropic for Claude Code itself), /agency-issue is a two-way channel against the-agency's own GitHub repo. You can file, view current state, add comments, and close issues — all from within an agency session.

Every filed issue writes a markdown report to usr/{principal}/reports/ with frontmatter capturing the GitHub issue number, target repo, date, and a response log slot.

Usage

File a new issue

./agency/tools/agency-issue file \
  --type bug \
  --title "Concise one-line title" \
  --body-file /path/to/issue-body.md

Or with inline body:

./agency/tools/agency-issue file \
  --type friction \
  --title "Hookify rule X blocks legitimate workflow Y" \
  --body "When I do X, hookify rule Y triggers and blocks me. The rule is correct in spirit but the heuristic is too broad..."

Required flags:

• --type — one of: bug, feature, friction, question, docs
• --title — single-line issue title
• --body OR --body-file — issue body (use - for stdin with --body-file)

No labels in v1. The type goes into the issue body header, not a GitHub label. Triage happens by reading.

List open issues

./agency/tools/agency-issue list
./agency/tools/agency-issue list --state closed --limit 50
./agency/tools/agency-issue list --state all

View a specific issue

./agency/tools/agency-issue view 47

Shows the issue body, metadata, and all comments.

Comment on an issue

./agency/tools/agency-issue comment 47 --body "Reproduced in another repo too. Adding context: ..."
./agency/tools/agency-issue comment 47 --body-file my-comment.md

Close an issue

./agency/tools/agency-issue close 47
./agency/tools/agency-issue close 47 --comment "Fixed in #52, shipped in Day 33 R2."

Issue body format

For consistency, follow the same structure as /feedback (per claude/REFERENCE-FEEDBACK-FORMAT.md):

• Problem — what's broken or missing, who hits it, what the impact is
• Steps to Reproduce — exact commands or sequence (for bugs); use case description (for features)
• Diagnostic Evidence — commands run, output, log excerpts
• Root Cause — if known
• Requested Behavior — exactly what you want, not vague
• Why This Matters — impact on workflow

For internal cross-references, append a "Related" section at the bottom with paths to seeds, dispatches, transcripts, etc.

Permissions

Delegated to GitHub via gh. Anyone with gh auth can file. Comment and close are gated by GitHub's own write-access checks — gh will refuse if the user lacks permission.

Configuration

Target repo lives in agency/config/agency.yaml:

issues:
  provider: github
  github:
    target_repo: "the-agency-ai/the-agency"

v1 supports a single provider (github) and single target repo. v2+ will follow the SPEC-PROVIDER pattern for pluggable backends (gitlab, linear, jira) and multi-target support.

Reports and audit trail

Every filed issue writes a report file to usr/{principal}/reports/:

report-agency-issue-{slug}-{YYYYMMDD}.md

The frontmatter captures:

---
report_type: agency-issue
issue_type: bug
filing_agent: the-agency/jordan/captain
filed_by: jordan
date_filed: 2026-04-08
target_repo: the-agency-ai/the-agency
github_issue: https://github.com/the-agency-ai/the-agency/issues/47
github_issue_number: 47
status: open
---

The usr/{principal}/reports/REPORTS-INDEX.md file is updated with a row pointing at the new report. Same pattern as Claude Code feedback reports — the reports directory is the principal's external-filing record.

Failure modes

• gh CLI not installed → install from https://cli.github.com/
• gh not authenticated → run gh auth login
• No write access to target repo → GitHub error passed through; need maintainer to grant access
• Other gh errors → passed through verbatim with context about which verb failed

When to use vs not use

Use agency-issue when:

• You hit a bug or friction in the-agency framework itself
• You want a feature in the framework
• You want documentation to be clearer or more complete
• You have a question that should be tracked in the issue tracker (not just a chat)

Use /feedback instead when:

• The bug is in Claude Code itself (Anthropic's CLI), not in the-agency framework
• The feature request is for Claude Code

Use a flag (flag <message>) instead when:

• It's a quick observation you want to come back to later
• You're not sure if it warrants a public issue yet
• You want to triage with the principal first

Use a dispatch instead when:

• You're coordinating with another agent in the agency, not filing against the framework
• It's a directive, review request, or status update — not a bug or feature