Project status

Project Status Report

Generate a signal-based project status report by reading actual GitHub activity across all active epics and initiatives your team touches. No manual updates required from DRIs; status is inferred from PRs merged, issues closed, comments posted, and board state changes.

When to use

• Monday mornings: "project status", "what's the state of everything"
• Start of sprint: "sprint kickoff status"
• Ad hoc: "where do things stand", "project health check"

Prerequisites

• Team roster (team.json) with member logins and project assignments
• GitHub CLI (gh) authenticated with org access
• Obsidian vault for output storage
• Access to the team's GitHub Project board (project number in team.json)

Output

A vault note saved to a configurable location (e.g., Projects/Status Reports/YYYY-MM-DD.md) plus a conversational summary highlighting items that need attention.

Process

Step 1: Identify all active epics and initiatives

Query the team's issue tracker for:

• All open issues labeled epic, initiative, or batch in the team repo
• All open issues with sub-issues (parent issues acting as epics)
• Issues assigned to any team member that have child tasks

Build the canonical list of "things the team is responsible for." This list should be stable week-to-week (projects don't appear/disappear frequently).

Step 2: Gather activity signals (last 7 days)

For each team member:

• PRs authored: merged and open, with repo and title
• PRs reviewed: to understand cross-pollination
• Issues closed: in the team repo
• Comments on epics: any DRI-posted status updates

For each epic/initiative:

• Sub-issue movement: how many sub-issues changed status (opened, closed, moved columns)
• PR activity: PRs that reference the epic or its sub-issues
• Comments: any status updates, decisions, or blockers posted
• Board status: current column (Planned, Doing, In Review, Done, Blocked)
• Trending field: if the project board has a trending/health indicator, read it

Step 3: Infer status per project

For each epic, assign an inferred status:

Signal	Inference
PRs merged + issues closed this week	🟢 Active, making progress
PRs open but not merged, reviews pending	🟡 In flight, waiting on reviews
Sub-issues moved to Doing/In Review	🟡 Work started, not yet landed
No activity, but sprint just started	⚪ Not started yet (OK if early sprint)
No activity for 7+ days on a "Doing" epic	🔴 Stale, needs attention
No activity for 14+ days	🔴 No signal, flag for check-in
Blocked label or blocker comments	🔴 Blocked, surface the blocker

Step 4: Categorize into report sections

Group findings into:

Wins (last 7 days)

• Epics or milestones completed
• Significant PRs merged that close out sprint goals
• Anything that moved from "In Progress" to "Done"

In Flight

• Active work with PRs open or issues moving
• Note who's doing what and expected landing

At Risk

• Projects with no activity that should have some
• Things approaching deadlines with incomplete work
• Blocked items with no resolution path visible

No Signal

• Epics assigned to the team with zero activity in the window
• Not necessarily bad (could be deprioritized), but worth acknowledging

Week Ahead

• Items in "Planned" that should start this week
• Upcoming deadlines (compliance, a11y audits, customer commitments)
• Anything from the sprint goals not yet on the board

Step 5: Write the report

Report format

## Project Status — YYYY-MM-DD

**Sprint:** [Sprint name] (Day N of 14)
**Report window:** [start date] → [end date]

---

### 🟢 Wins

**[Project Name]** ([#epic](url)) — @dri
- What shipped, what closed, what's done
- Specific PRs/issues with links

---

### 🟡 In Flight

**[Project Name]** ([#epic](url)) — @dri
- Current state: what's open, what's being reviewed
- Expected: when it should land

---

### 🔴 At Risk

**[Project Name]** ([#epic](url)) — @dri
- Why it's flagged: no activity / approaching deadline / blocked
- Last activity: [date]
- Suggested action: [what needs to happen]

---

### ⚪ No Signal

**[Project Name]** ([#epic](url)) — @dri
- Last activity: [date]
- Note: [deprioritized? waiting on external? just quiet?]

---

### 📅 Week Ahead

- [ ] [Thing that should start or land this week]
- [ ] [Deadline approaching]
- [ ] [Sprint goal not yet on board]

---

### DRI Update Tracker

| Person | Projects Owned | Updated This Week | Stale |
|--------|:-:|:-:|:-:|
| @name | N | N | N |

Step 6: Save and summarize

1. Save the full report to the vault
2. Present a brief conversational summary (5-8 lines) highlighting:
   • Number of projects on track vs at risk
   • Top 2-3 things that need your attention this week
   • Any patterns (e.g., "nobody updated anything", "Brian is carrying 4 projects")

Content guidelines

• Infer, don't require. The whole point is that DRIs don't need to manually post updates; you read the signals and write the status.
• Be honest about unknowns. If there's no signal, say "no signal" rather than guessing.
• Keep it scannable. Bold project names, use emoji status indicators, keep descriptions to 1-2 lines per project.
• Credit people. Name who shipped what.
• Flag load imbalance. If one person is DRI on 5 things and another on 0, note it.
• Don't repeat old news. Only wins from the last 7 days. Prior wins live in older reports.
• Link everything. Epic numbers, PR numbers, issue numbers. Make it clickable.

Relationship to other skills

• weekly-snippet: The snippet is YOUR update to YOUR manager. This report is the team-wide project health view that feeds into the snippet.
• sprint-status: Sprint status is focused on the current sprint board. This covers ALL active work, including things not in the sprint.
• team-activity: Team activity is raw data (PRs, reviews, issues). This is the analyzed, narrativized version.

Cadence

Best used Monday mornings as a "state of the world" before the week starts. Can also be run mid-sprint or before leadership syncs. The Monday framing lets you ask: "what landed last week, and what needs to happen this week?"

Configuration

The skill needs to know:

• Team repo: where epics/issues live (e.g., org/team-repo)
• Project board number: for sprint/status field data
• Vault output path: where reports are saved
• Epic labels: what labels identify epics in your repo (default: epic, initiative, batch)
• DRI field: how DRI is determined (default: issue assignee)