---
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."
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>