|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +name: meta-issue-creation |
| 3 | +description: How an agent files a GitHub issue on cipherstash repos — required structure (Background / Problem / Proposal), dumbed-down wording rules, and pre-filing checks. Use whenever drafting or filing an issue on this repo or a sibling CipherStash repo (encrypt-query-language, protectjs-ffi, …). |
| 4 | +--- |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | +# Filing issues as an agent |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | +These are **internal** skills for agents working on CipherStash repos. They are |
| 9 | +deliberately outside `skills/` — everything in that directory ships to |
| 10 | +customers inside the `stash` tarball; nothing in `.claude/skills/` does. |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +## Before filing anything |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +1. **Search for existing coverage** — open *and* closed, this repo *and* the |
| 15 | + sibling repo the problem might belong to: |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | + ```bash |
| 18 | + gh search issues --repo cipherstash/stack "<term>" --limit 30 --json number,title,state |
| 19 | + ``` |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | + A closed issue that covers your problem is a finding, not a dead end — check |
| 22 | + *why* it closed (linked PR? shipped artifact? silent close?) before filing a |
| 23 | + duplicate. Reopening with a comment often beats a new issue. |
| 24 | +2. **Verify every mechanical claim** against code or the installed package |
| 25 | + before asserting it. Cite `file:line`. Separate what you **verified** from |
| 26 | + what is **plausible** — say which is which in the issue. |
| 27 | +3. **Pick the right repo.** A problem caused upstream (EQL SQL, prisma-next, |
| 28 | + protect-ffi) gets its issue upstream, with a consumer-impact issue here only |
| 29 | + if this repo needs its own mitigation. Cross-reference with the full |
| 30 | + `owner/repo#N` form so links work from both sides. |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +## Structure |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +Required sections, in this order: |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +- **Background** — orient a reader who is *new to CipherStash, stack, and EQL*. |
| 37 | + One short paragraph: what the relevant piece does and why it exists. Define |
| 38 | + every product term and acronym at first use ("EQL — the SQL library we |
| 39 | + install into the customer's database as the `eql_v3` schema"). |
| 40 | +- **Problem** — the mechanism (what actually happens, step by step), then the |
| 41 | + impact (who hits it, when, how often), then why nothing catches it today. |
| 42 | + A concrete failure narrative beats an abstraction: "queries slow from |
| 43 | + instant to scan-every-row, silently" — not "performance degradation may |
| 44 | + occur". |
| 45 | +- **Proposal** — numbered, concrete steps. If the full fix is large, include a |
| 46 | + cheap interim step that could ship first. State the failure behaviour you |
| 47 | + want ("fail loudly listing the statements — a loud failure beats a silent |
| 48 | + deletion"). |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +Optional sections, when they earn their place: |
| 51 | + |
| 52 | +- **Affected versions** — when the problem is version-bounded. |
| 53 | +- **Evidence / Verification** — commands run, output observed, `file:line`. |
| 54 | +- **Relationship to other work** — links to sibling issues, and what each one |
| 55 | + does/doesn't cover. After filing, leave a short cross-link comment **on the |
| 56 | + related issues pointing back** — links must work in both directions or one |
| 57 | + side is never found. |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | +## Wording |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +Dumbed down, always. Assume the reader joined yesterday: |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +- Short sentences. Plain verbs. No internal shorthand or codenames. |
| 64 | +- Every acronym expanded at first use, even "obvious" ones (EQL, ZeroKMS, PSL). |
| 65 | +- Say what breaks in the user's world, not just in the code's world. |
| 66 | +- Titles are symptom-first and name the command or package: |
| 67 | + `` `stash eql upgrade` silently deletes search indexes — save and restore them `` |
| 68 | + beats "Improve EQL upgrade robustness". |
| 69 | +- Write `#N` **only** for a real GitHub issue or PR reference — GitHub |
| 70 | + autolinks every `#N`, so "step #2 of the plan" mints a bogus link to issue 2. |
| 71 | + Write "step 2", "item 3" instead. |
| 72 | +- **Never** reference internal Linear issues (`CIP-…` numbers) anywhere on |
| 73 | + GitHub — issues, PRs, comments, commit messages. GitHub is public; Linear is |
| 74 | + not. GitHub refs are fine. |
| 75 | + |
| 76 | +## Mechanics |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | +- `gh issue create --repo cipherstash/<repo> --title '…' --label <label> --body "…"`. |
| 79 | +- Reuse existing labels (`enhancement`, `bug`, `SDK`, …) — check with |
| 80 | + `gh label list` rather than inventing new ones. |
| 81 | +- Sibling skill: [meta-pr-creation](../meta-pr-creation/SKILL.md) for the PR |
| 82 | + that eventually closes the issue. |
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