GitHub Scanning

Search Query Patterns by Intent

Issues

Pull Requests

Discussions

Releases

• Use github_list_releases per repo - check for recent, draft, and pre-releases.
• Cross-reference merged PRs against release notes to identify unreleased work.
• Compare issue milestones against release schedules to flag upcoming deadline items.

Security

• Dependabot alerts: critical and high severity across monitored repos.
• Security advisories affecting dependencies.
• Pending dependency update PRs from dependabot[bot] or renovate[bot].

CI/CD

• Fetch recent workflow runs - identify failing workflows, long jobs, and flaky tests.
• For failing workflows: note repo, workflow name, branch, failure reason, and link to run.
• Cross-reference user's open PRs against CI results.

Date Range Handling

Convert natural language to GitHub query qualifiers:

Scope Narrowing

Add qualifiers to narrow by scope when the user specifies one:

Preferences File Integration

Read .github/agents/preferences.md and apply these filters before and after searching:

1. repos.discovery - determines the default search scope (all / starred / owned / configured / workspace).
2. repos.include - always include these repos even in restricted modes.
3. repos.exclude - skip these repos in all searches.
4. repos.overrides - per-repo settings:
   • track.issues: false -> skip issue searches for this repo
   • track.pull_requests: false -> skip PR searches for this repo
   • track.discussions: false -> skip discussions for this repo
   • track.releases: false -> skip release checks for this repo
   • track.security: false -> skip security alerts for this repo
   • track.ci: false -> skip CI status for this repo
   • labels.include / labels.exclude -> filter results by label
   • paths -> only trigger for changes touching these file paths (for PRs/CI)
   • assignees -> filter to specific assignees (empty = all)
5. search.default_window - default time range if the user doesn't specify one.
6. briefing.sections - which sections to include in the daily briefing.
7. accessibility_tracking - config for the a11y tracker (repos, labels, channels).

Cross-Repo Intelligence

When results arrive from different repos, look for and surface these patterns:

Parallel Stream Collection Model

For agents that collect from multiple data streams, run independent streams simultaneously. Don't serialize operations with no dependencies.

Example: Daily Briefing - 3 Parallel Batches

Batch 1 - fully independent, run simultaneously:

• Issues (assigned, mentioned, authored)
• Pull requests (review-requested, authored)
• Releases & deployments
• Accessibility updates

Batch 2 - run after Batch 1 (CI needs PR list from Batch 1):

• GitHub Discussions
• CI/CD health (cross-references PR list)
• Security alerts

Batch 3 - can overlap with Batch 2:

• Project board status
• Recently closed/merged work

Example: Analytics - 2 Parallel Batches

Batch 1 - collection (all independent):

• Closed/merged PRs in period
• Opened issues in period
• CI workflow runs in period
• Security alerts in period

Batch 2 - analysis (depends on Batch 1 data):

• Health score computation
• Velocity metrics calculation
• Bottleneck detection

Announcement Template for Parallel Work

 Running {N} searches in parallel... ({scope})
 Batch 1 complete - {X} items found

 Running {N} additional searches...
 Batch 2 complete - {Y} items found

 Scoring and prioritizing...
 Done - {Z} items need action, {W} to monitor

Auto-Recovery for Empty Results

If a search returns 0 results:

1. Automatically broaden: remove date filter, expand scope to all, or remove label filters.
2. Tell the user exactly what changed: "No results in last 7 days - broadened to last 30 days and found 3 items."
3. Never return 0 results without trying at least one broader query first.

Recovery cascade:

1. First try: Remove date qualifier
2. Second try: Expand scope (add org: or remove repo: qualifier)
3. Third try: Remove label filters
4. Report 0 results only if all three attempts return nothing

Pagination

• Paginate large result sets in batches of 10.
• Ask before loading more: "Showing 10 of 47. Load more?"
• Never silently truncate results - always disclose the total count.

Result Deduplication

When the same item appears in multiple searches (e.g., an issue you're both assigned to AND mentioned in):

• Show it once, with all context combined.
• In the Signal column, combine signals: "Assigned, @mentioned".
• In priority calculations, apply the highest-scoring signal, not additive.

Rate Limiting

• If rate-limited (403/429), tell the user the reset time in one sentence.
• Do not retry the same query - wait if reset is <60 seconds; otherwise report and move on.
• For multi-stream collection, skip rate-limited streams and complete them in a follow-up.