Triage stale pull requests
Skill zacharygcook/agent-skills/skills/triage-stale-pull-requests
A curated collection of practical, evidence-backed skills for coding agents.
npx -y skills add zacharygcook/agent-skills --skill triage-stale-pull-requestsAssembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.
2 things to look at
- 27 days oldThe repository was created 27 days ago. New is not bad, but a brand new repository carrying a familiar-sounding name is the shape a typosquat arrives in, and there has been no time for anyone else to find a problem with it.
- 2 stars2 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.
What its author says it does
Copied from the file, not written here
Evaluate an old or explicitly stale pull request against current default-branch behavior, product plans, code quality, and architecture. Use for backlog cleanup and close, salvage, refresh, or merge recommendations; do not close or modify a PR without authorization.
SKILL.md
2.2 KB, 397 tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it
Triage Stale Pull Requests
Decide whether a stale PR should be closed, salvaged, refreshed, or kept as a merge candidate. Age is a prompt to re-evaluate assumptions, not proof the work is bad.
Gather Evidence
- PR age, metadata, base/head refs, diff, files, checks, comments, and mergeability.
- Current default branch and repository instructions.
- Current vision, goals, milestones, architecture, and domain docs.
- Commit history and searches for equivalent capabilities already landed.
Fetch and inspect the PR without switching the active working tree when possible. Treat unrelated dirty files as other work and do not alter them.
Score 1–5 on Four Dimensions
- Remaining capability gap — 1 means current code already solves it better; 5 means the gap remains.
- Current plan alignment — 1 means misaligned or harmful; 5 means directly supports current priorities.
- Code quality / bug risk — 1 means serious defects or CI risk; 5 means clean, tested, idiomatic, and low risk.
- Architecture fit — 1 means assumptions conflict with current architecture; 5 means minimal adaptation.
Total the score out of 20, but do not let arithmetic replace judgment. A small valuable idea inside an obsolete implementation may deserve salvage even when the PR should close.
Recommendation
Choose one:
- close as redundant or obsolete;
- close after preserving specific ideas or follow-up work;
- refresh/refactor against current default branch;
- keep for merge after named fixes;
- merge candidate.
Explain each dimension, exact reusable parts, current equivalents, and concrete follow-up. Distinguish “same general capability landed” from identical code.
If asked to comment, begin with the score and recommendation, remain direct but respectful, and state what should or should not be pulled forward. Only comment, close, edit, or merge when explicitly authorized.