Epic cleanup

Epic Cleanup

Audit all active epics and initiatives for ownership gaps, staleness, and hygiene issues. Produces a person-by-person ownership map plus actionable task lists for assigning, closing, and deciding on epics.

When to use

• "Epic cleanup", "audit our epics", "who owns what"
• "Which epics need a DRI", "what should we close"
• Sprint planning: "clean up the board before we start"
• Quarterly: "are all our epics still relevant"

Prerequisites

• GitHub CLI (gh) authenticated with org access
• Team repo with issues labeled epic, initiative, or batch
• Team roster (team.json) for member identification

Output

Default: conversational (printed to screen). User can ask to save it as a vault note with task checkboxes for tracking.

Process

Step 1: Gather all open epics and parent issues

Same as epic-overview: query for all open issues that are epics, initiatives, batches, or have sub-issues.

Step 2: Build ownership map

For each team member, list every epic/initiative where they are assigned (DRI). Include:

• Issue number and title (linked)
• Progress (sub-issues completed / total)
• Activity status: ✅ Active, ⚠️ Stale (14+ days), ❓ No signal (30+ days)

Step 3: Identify action items

Categorize into:

Assign immediately — Epics with active work happening (sprint goals, recent PRs) but no DRI assigned.

Assign or close (nearly done) — Epics at 80%+ completion with no DRI to close out the remaining items.

Probably close — Epics that are:

• 100% complete but still open
• Superseded by newer work
• Stale for 60+ days with no indication of resuming
• From a previous fiscal year with no recent relevance

Needs a decision — Epics where it's unclear if the work is still planned, deprioritized, or abandoned. Surface these for the manager to make a call.

Unassigned parent issues — Issues acting as epics (have sub-issues) but no one is assigned. Need a DRI decision.

Step 4: Write the output

Person-by-person section:

### @login (Name)

- [#N Title](url) — X/Y (Z%) status_emoji description
- [#N Title](url) — X/Y (Z%) status_emoji description

Action items section (when saving to vault, use checkboxes):

## Suggested Actions

**Assign immediately:**
- [ ] [#N](url) Assign to [[Person]] (reason)

**Assign or close:**
- [ ] [#N](url) Title (X%) — who finishes this?

**Probably close:**
- [ ] [#N](url) Title (reason it's dead)

**Needs a decision:**
- [ ] [#N](url) Title — still planned or deprioritized?

**Unassigned:**
- [ ] [#N](url) Title (X/Y) — suggested owner?

Step 5: Output

Default: Print to screen as markdown (no checkboxes, just bullets with recommendations).

If user asks to save to vault: Use - [ ] task checkboxes so items are trackable. Include wikilinks to People files for assignee suggestions. Link all issue numbers.

Staleness thresholds

Days since last activity	Signal
0-14	✅ Active
14-30	⚠️ Getting stale
30-60	❓ No signal, needs check-in
60+	🔴 Likely dead or deprioritized

Activity = any of: comment posted, sub-issue closed, PR merged referencing the epic, label change, assignee change.

Content guidelines

• Be direct about recommendations. Don't just flag "unassigned" — suggest who should own it based on their existing work.
• Group actions by effort level. "Assign immediately" is 30 seconds of work. "Needs a decision" requires a conversation.
• Use wikilinks when saving to vault. Link People files so the user can navigate to context.
• Link every issue. Full URLs so items are one click away.
• Call out load imbalance. If one person has 8 epics and another has 0, say so.
• Don't mix cleanup with status. This isn't about "how is work going" — it's "is our board accurate and owned."

Relationship to other skills

• epic-overview: Overview is the "what exists" reference. Cleanup is the "what needs fixing" action list.
• project-status: Status reports on weekly progress. Cleanup is periodic hygiene (monthly or quarterly).
• sprint-management: Sprint management moves items between sprints. Cleanup ensures the backlog of epics is healthy.