git:20261019.df78482 to git:20261019.84b981b

2 added, 28 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: close-issues

- description: "Close GitHub issues only with proof, and sweep a tracker for work hidden under closed issues. Use every time an issue is about to close or has just closed: before `gh issue close`, before pushing a commit with `Closes #N`, when work looks done, when marking a duplicate, when someone says drop it or won't fix, and when asked to clean up, triage or sweep issues. Closes through a script that refuses open sub-issues and unticked lines, records the proof, the duplicate's carried details or the owner's decision in the body, and reports every verdict."

- short_description: "Close issues only with proof; sweep for hidden open work."

+ description: "Close GitHub issues only with proof. Use every time an issue is about to close or has just closed: before `gh issue close`, before pushing a commit with `Closes #N`, when work looks done, when marking a duplicate, and when someone says drop it or won't fix. Closes through a script that refuses open sub-issues and unticked lines, and records the proof, the duplicate's carried details or the owner's decision in the body."

+ short_description: "Close issues only with proof."

allow_implicit_invocation: true

---

# Close issues

A closed issue tells everyone the work is finished or deliberately dropped.

A close without proof, or with open work under it, hides that work from every

view, and GitHub does nothing to stop it. Every close in this skill goes

through `scripts/close_issue.py`, which refuses those closes and reads the

issue back afterwards. Never close with a bare `gh issue close`.

- ## Closing one issue

<what-to-do>

1. **Check it can close.** Run

`python3 <folder of this SKILL.md>/scripts/close_issue.py ready --repo OWNER/REPO --issue N`.

It lists open sub-issues and unticked checklist lines. Finish each one,

move it under an open parent, or close it with its own reason first.

2. **Pick the reason from the evidence:**

- **Completed.** Read the current code and run the check that proves each

"Done when" line: the passing test, the commit that shipped it, a walk

through the product. The issue's text describes the past; only the check

says it is done now.

`close_issue.py completed --repo R --issue N --proof "<commit url>" --proof "<test and its result>"`

writes the proof under `## Proof` and closes it. A commit with

`Closes #N` closes the issue when it is pushed: run `ready` before that

commit, and `completed` with the commit as proof right after the push.

A commit that does only part of the work says `Part of #N` and ticks

its checklist line.

- **Duplicate.** Copy every detail the surviving issue lacks into its

body, word for word, under a line ending `(was #N)`, then run

`close_issue.py duplicate --repo R --issue N --of M`.

- **Not planned.** Dropping work is the owner's call, and a bug closed as

won't fix is the owner's call too. Ask them, then quote their answer:

`close_issue.py not-planned --repo R --issue N --owner-said "<their words>"`.

Age, noise and "nobody has touched it" are never reasons.

3. **A decision issue** closes as completed once its answer is written under

`## Decision` in the body; `ready` refuses it until then.

Done when the script printed "closed as <reason>" for the issue.

</what-to-do>

- ## Sweeping a tracker

- <what-to-do>

- 1. Run `close_issue.py sweep --repo OWNER/REPO`. It finds work that went

- invisible: open issues under closed parents, issues closed as completed

- with open sub-issues or unticked lines, duplicates of nothing, decisions

- closed without a `## Decision`, and decision issues waiting on the owner.

- Fix each structural finding as it says and rerun until it exits 0.

- 2. Give every open issue in scope one verdict:

- - **Done:** you ran the check that proves it; close it as completed.

- - **Duplicate:** of a named issue; close it as a duplicate.

- - **Still real:** you reproduced it or read the code that still has it.

- - **Unsure:** name the one exact check that would settle it.

- 3. Never decide scope in a sweep. Dropping a feature, changing a priority or

- answering a decision goes to the owner as a question, using the client's

- question tool where it has one, with the facts behind each choice.

- 4. Report to the owner: each issue closed, its reason and proof; each

- duplicate and the issue it went into; each issue left open, with its

- verdict; and the decisions waiting on them. Name every issue as a link

- with its title.

- Done when the sweep exits 0, every open issue in scope has a verdict, and

- the owner has the report.

- </what-to-do>