Issue

issue: GitHub issues as resolution memory

Persist problem-solving state in GitHub issues so a later session (or a fresh context) can re-read an issue cold and continue. Each issue records the problem, a self-contained Pickup Directive, the working hypothesis, attempts, and the final resolution.

Prerequisites

• gh CLI authenticated (gh auth status).
• Inside a GitHub repo (a remote with issues enabled). If not, stop and tell the user.

Natural-language routing

Interpret intent and route:

User says	Action
"track this in an issue", "log this problem", "open an issue for this"	create
"update the issue", "note progress on #N", "I found the cause"	update
"resume issue #N", "what was I doing on #N", "pick up where I left off"	resume
"list my memory issues", "what issues am I tracking"	list

Default when ambiguous and a number is present → resume #N; otherwise → create.

create

1. Draft the issue body from references/issue-template.md (Problem / Pickup Directive / Hypothesis / Attempts / Resolution). Fill Problem + Pickup Directive + initial Hypothesis from the current context; leave Attempts/Resolution as stubs.
2. Confirm with the user before opening (opening an issue is outward-facing). Show the drafted title + body.
3. Create with the memory label so resume/list can filter:

   gh issue create --title "<concise title>" --label claude-memory --body "<rendered template>"
   

   If the label does not exist, create it once: gh label create claude-memory --description "Claude resolution memory" --color BFD4F2.
4. Report the issue number + URL.

update

1. Read before write: gh issue view <N> --comments to load current state.
2. Append progress as a comment (never overwrite the original body):

   gh issue comment <N> --body "<progress / revised hypothesis / new attempt>"
   

3. When solved, append the resolution and close (confirm before closing):

   gh issue comment <N> --body "Resolution: <what fixed it and why>"
   gh issue close <N> --reason completed
   

resume

1. Load the issue cold:

   gh issue view <N> --comments
   

   If no number given: gh issue list --label claude-memory --state open and ask which.
2. Reconstruct context strictly from the Pickup Directive + Hypothesis + latest comments. Do not assume prior chat memory.
3. State the recovered context back to the user, then continue the work.

list

gh issue list --label claude-memory --state open

Show number, title, and updated time.

Issue body template

The structure lives in references/issue-template.md. Read it before create so every issue is self-contained and re-readable cold. The Pickup Directive is mandatory: it is what makes the issue resumable without prior context.

Guardrails

• Read an issue (gh issue view) before commenting or closing; never blow away existing content.
• Confirm with the user before gh issue create and before gh issue close (outward-facing / state change).
• Use gh for all issue operations, not raw git; this skill never commits or pushes.
• Never modify a database; this skill only touches GitHub issues.
• Prose in English; technical terms and identifiers in English.
• Any web lookup uses Exa MCP only (web_search_exa, crawling_exa); never native WebSearch/WebFetch.
• No comments inside any generated code or scripts.

Delimitation

• issue != remember: remember is an ephemeral per-session snapshot. issue is durable and GitHub-native.
• issue != brain: brain is manual Obsidian capture. issue is the repo's tracker, auto-re-read on resume.