Agent skill

discover-tasks

Use when user asks to "discover tasks", "find next task", "prioritize issues", "what should I work on", or "list open issues". Discovers and ranks tasks from GitHub, GitLab, local files, and custom sources.

Stars 720
Forks 79

Install this agent skill to your Project

npx add-skill https://github.com/agent-sh/agentsys/tree/main/.kiro/skills/discover-tasks

SKILL.md

discover-tasks

Discover tasks from configured sources, validate them, and present for user selection.

When to Use

Invoked during Phase 2 of /next-task workflow, after policy selection. Also usable standalone when the user wants to discover and select tasks from configured sources.

Workflow

Phase 1: Load Policy and Claimed Tasks

javascript
// Use relative path from skill directory to plugin lib
// Path: skills/discover-tasks/ -> ../../lib/state/workflow-state.js
const workflowState = require('../../lib/state/workflow-state.js');

const state = workflowState.readState();
const policy = state.policy;

// Load claimed tasks from registry
const claimedTasks = workflowState.readTasks().tasks || [];
const claimedIds = new Set(claimedTasks.map(t => t.id));

Phase 2: Fetch Tasks by Source

Source types:

  • github / gh-issues: GitHub CLI
  • gh-projects: GitHub Projects (v2 boards)
  • gitlab: GitLab CLI
  • local / tasks-md: Local markdown files
  • custom: CLI/MCP/Skill tool
  • other: Agent interprets description

GitHub Issues:

bash
# Fetch with pagination awareness
gh issue list --state open \
  --json number,title,body,labels,assignees,createdAt,url \
  --limit 100 > /tmp/gh-issues.json

GitLab Issues:

bash
glab issue list --state opened --output json --per-page 100 > /tmp/glab-issues.json

Local tasks.md:

bash
for f in PLAN.md tasks.md TODO.md; do
  [ -f "$f" ] && grep -n '^\s*- \[ \]' "$f"
done

GitHub Projects (v2):

javascript
// Extract gh-projects parameters from policy
const projectNumber = policy.taskSource.projectNumber;
const owner = policy.taskSource.owner;
if (!projectNumber || !owner) {
  throw new Error('gh-projects source missing projectNumber or owner in policy.taskSource');
}
bash
# Requires 'project' token scope. If permission error: gh auth refresh -s project
gh project item-list "$PROJECT_NUMBER" --owner "$OWNER" --format json --limit 100 > /tmp/gh-project-items.json
javascript
const fs = require('fs');
const raw = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('/tmp/gh-project-items.json', 'utf8'));
const items = (raw.items || []);

// Filter to ISSUE type only (exclude PULL_REQUEST, DRAFT_ISSUE)
const issues = items
  .filter(item => item.content && item.content.type === 'ISSUE')
  .map(item => ({
    number: item.content.number,
    title: item.content.title,
    body: item.content.body || '',
    labels: (item.content.labels || []).map(l => typeof l === 'object' ? l.name || '' : l).filter(Boolean),
    url: item.content.url,
    createdAt: item.content.createdAt
  }));

[WARN] If gh project item-list returns a permission error, tell the user: Run: gh auth refresh -s project

Custom Source:

javascript
const { sources } = require('../../lib');
const capabilities = sources.getToolCapabilities(toolName);
// Execute capabilities.commands.list_issues

Phase 2.5: Collect PR-Linked Issues (GitHub only)

javascript
// Default for non-GitHub sources - always defined so Phase 3 filter is safe
let prLinkedIssues = new Set();

For GitHub sources (policy.taskSource?.source === 'github', 'gh-issues', or 'gh-projects'), fetch all open PRs and build a Set of issue numbers that already have an associated PR. Skip to Phase 3 for all other sources.

bash
# Only run when policy.taskSource?.source is 'github', 'gh-issues', or 'gh-projects'
# Note: covers up to 100 open PRs. If repo has more, some linked issues may not be excluded.
gh pr list --state open --json number,title,body,headRefName --limit 100 > /tmp/gh-prs.json
javascript
const fs = require('fs');
try {
  const prs = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('/tmp/gh-prs.json', 'utf8') || '[]');

  for (const pr of prs) {
    // 1. Branch name suffix: fix/some-thing-123 extracts 123
    // Note: heuristic - branches like "release-2026" will false-positive on issue #2026.
    // Patterns 2 and 3 are more precise; this is a best-effort supplement.
    const branchMatch = (pr.headRefName || '').match(/-(\d+)$/);
    if (branchMatch) prLinkedIssues.add(branchMatch[1]);

    // 2. PR body closing keywords (GitHub's full keyword set, with word boundary)
    if (pr.body) {
      const bodyMatches = pr.body.matchAll(/\b(?:close[sd]?|fix(?:e[sd])?|resolve[sd]?)\s+#(\d+)/gi);
      for (const m of bodyMatches) prLinkedIssues.add(m[1]);
    }

    // 3. PR title (#N) convention - capture all occurrences
    const titleMatches = (pr.title || '').matchAll(/\(#(\d+)\)/g);
    for (const m of titleMatches) prLinkedIssues.add(m[1]);
  }
} catch (e) {
  console.log('[WARN] Could not parse open PRs, skipping PR-link filter:', e.message);
  prLinkedIssues = new Set();
}

Phase 3: Filter and Score

Exclude claimed tasks:

javascript
const available = tasks.filter(t => !claimedIds.has(String(t.number || t.id)));

Exclude issues with open PRs (GitHub only):

javascript
const filtered = available.filter(t => {
  const id = String(t.number || t.id);
  if (prLinkedIssues.has(id)) {
    console.log(`[INFO] Skipping #${id} - already has an open PR`);
    return false;
  }
  return true;
});

Apply priority filter (pass filtered through scoring pipeline):

javascript
const LABEL_MAPS = {
  bugs: ['bug', 'fix', 'error', 'defect'],
  security: ['security', 'vulnerability', 'cve'],
  features: ['enhancement', 'feature', 'improvement']
};

function filterByPriority(tasks, filter) {
  if (filter === 'continue' || filter === 'all') return tasks;
  const targetLabels = LABEL_MAPS[filter] || [];
  return tasks.filter(t => {
    const labels = (t.labels || []).map(l => (l.name || l).toLowerCase());
    return targetLabels.some(target => labels.some(l => l.includes(target)));
  });
}

const prioritized = filterByPriority(filtered, policy.priorityFilter);
// Assign score to each task so it is available for display in the UI
const topTasks = prioritized.map(t => ({ ...t, score: scoreTask(t) })).sort((a, b) => b.score - a.score);

Score tasks:

javascript
function scoreTask(task) {
  let score = 0;
  const labels = (task.labels || []).map(l => (l.name || l).toLowerCase());

  // Priority labels
  if (labels.some(l => l.includes('critical') || l.includes('p0'))) score += 100;
  if (labels.some(l => l.includes('high') || l.includes('p1'))) score += 50;
  if (labels.some(l => l.includes('security'))) score += 40;

  // Quick wins
  if (labels.some(l => l.includes('small') || l.includes('quick'))) score += 20;

  // Age (older bugs get priority)
  if (task.createdAt) {
    const ageInDays = (Date.now() - new Date(task.createdAt)) / 86400000;
    if (labels.includes('bug') && ageInDays > 30) score += 10;
  }

  return score;
}

Phase 4: Present to User via AskUserQuestion

CRITICAL: Labels MUST be max 30 characters (OpenCode limit).

javascript
function truncateLabel(num, title) {
  const prefix = `#${num}: `;
  const maxLen = 30 - prefix.length;
  return title.length > maxLen
    ? prefix + title.substring(0, maxLen - 1) + '...'
    : prefix + title;
}

const options = topTasks.slice(0, 5).map(task => ({
  label: truncateLabel(task.number, task.title),
  description: `Score: ${task.score} | ${(task.labels || []).slice(0, 2).join(', ')}`
}));

AskUserQuestion({
  questions: [{
    header: "Select Task",
    question: "Which task should I work on?",
    options,
    multiSelect: false
  }]
});

Phase 5: Update State

javascript
workflowState.updateState({
  task: {
    id: String(selectedTask.number),
    source: policy.taskSource?.source || policy.taskSource,
    title: selectedTask.title,
    description: selectedTask.body || '',
    labels: selectedTask.labels?.map(l => l.name || l) || [],
    url: selectedTask.url
  }
});

workflowState.completePhase({
  tasksAnalyzed: tasks.length,
  selectedTask: selectedTask.number
});

Phase 6: Post Comment (GitHub only)

Skip this phase entirely for non-GitHub sources (GitLab, local, custom). Run for github, gh-issues, and gh-projects sources.

bash
# Only run for GitHub sources (github, gh-issues, gh-projects). Use policy.taskSource?.source from Phase 1 to check.
gh issue comment "$TASK_ID" --body "[BOT] Workflow started for this issue."

Output Format

markdown
## Task Selected

**Task**: #{id} - {title}
**Source**: {source}
**URL**: {url}

Proceeding to worktree setup...

Error Handling

If no tasks found:

  1. Suggest creating issues
  2. Suggest running /audit-project
  3. Suggest using 'all' priority filter

Constraints

  • MUST use AskUserQuestion for task selection (not plain text)
  • Labels MUST be max 30 characters
  • Exclude tasks already claimed by other workflows
  • Exclude issues that already have an open PR (GitHub and GitHub Projects sources)
  • PR-link detection covers up to 100 open PRs (--limit 100 is the fetch cap)
  • Top 5 tasks only

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