Create Ticket Skill

When creating a ticket, follow this structured process. A good ticket gives the assignee everything they need to understand, implement, and verify the work without back-and-forth questions.

1. Classify the Ticket Type

Determine what kind of ticket this is:

Type	When	Icon
Bug	Something is broken or behaving incorrectly	🐛
Feature	New functionality or capability	✨
Improvement	Enhancing existing functionality	💡
Tech Debt	Refactoring, cleanup, or infrastructure improvement	🔧
Security	Vulnerability fix or security hardening	🔒
Performance	Speed, memory, or scalability improvement	⚡
Documentation	Missing or outdated docs	📝
Infrastructure	CI/CD, deployment, monitoring, DevOps	🏗️
Design	UI/UX changes, visual updates	🎨
Research / Spike	Investigation before implementation	🔍
Test	Adding or fixing tests	✅
Dependency	Library updates, version bumps	📦

2. Gather Context

Before writing the ticket, gather relevant information:

For Bugs

# Check recent commits that might be related
git log --oneline -20

# Check for related error handling
grep -rn "catch\|throw\|Error\|Exception" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" --include="*.py" src/ | grep -i "[relevant keyword]"

# Check related files
find src -name "*[relevant keyword]*" -type f

# Check for existing related issues
gh issue list --search "[keyword]" --state all 2>/dev/null

For Features

# Check if any related code or patterns exist
grep -rn "[related pattern]" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" --include="*.py" src/

# Check existing models/services that would be affected
find src -name "*[related area]*" -type f

# Check for related tickets already filed
gh issue list --search "[keyword]" --state all 2>/dev/null

3. Ticket Templates

🐛 Bug Report

## Title
[Component/Area]: [Clear description of the bug]

Examples:
- "Auth: Users get logged out after password change on other devices"
- "Checkout: Duplicate charges when clicking Pay button twice quickly"
- "Search: Results return 0 items for queries containing special characters"

## Type
Bug

## Priority
[Critical / High / Medium / Low]

## Description

### What Happens
[Describe the actual behavior — what the user sees or experiences]

### What Should Happen
[Describe the expected behavior — what the correct outcome should be]

### Steps to Reproduce
1. [First step — be specific about starting state]
2. [Second step — include exact inputs, clicks, actions]
3. [Third step — include any timing or sequence requirements]
4. **Observe**: [What goes wrong]

### Reproduction Rate
[Always / Intermittent (~X% of the time) / Only under specific conditions]

### Environment
- **Browser/Client**: [Chrome 120, Safari 17, iOS app v3.2, etc.]
- **OS**: [macOS 14.2, Windows 11, iOS 17, Android 14]
- **Environment**: [Production / Staging / Local]
- **User role**: [Admin / Editor / Viewer]
- **Account**: [test-user@example.com or account ID if relevant]

### Error Details
[Include any of the following if available:]
- Error message (exact text)
- Console errors
- Network request/response (status code, body)
- Stack trace
- Log entries
- Screenshot or recording

### Impact
- **Users affected**: [All users / Specific group / Edge case]
- **Severity**: [Data loss / Broken feature / Degraded experience / Visual only]
- **Workaround available**: [Yes — describe / No]
- **Revenue impact**: [Yes — describe / No / Unknown]

### Root Cause (if known)
[If you've investigated and have a hypothesis, include it here]

### Suggested Fix (if known)
[If you have an idea of how to fix it, describe the approach]

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Bug no longer occurs when following the reproduction steps
- [ ] Existing related tests still pass
- [ ] New test added covering this specific scenario
- [ ] Fix doesn't introduce regressions in [related area]
- [ ] [Any specific verification criteria]

## Related
- Related to: #[issue-number]
- Introduced in: [commit/PR if known]
- Affected files: [list key files if known]

## Labels
bug, [component], [priority]

✨ Feature Request

## Title
[Area]: [Clear description of the feature]

Examples:
- "Auth: Add SSO login via SAML for enterprise customers"
- "Dashboard: Add date range filter to analytics charts"
- "API: Add bulk create endpoint for products"

## Type
Feature

## Priority
[Critical / High / Medium / Low]

## Description

### User Story
As a [role/persona],
I want to [action/capability],
so that [benefit/value].

### Background / Context
[Why is this feature needed? What problem does it solve?
Link to customer feedback, support tickets, or product brief.]

### Detailed Requirements

#### Functional Requirements
1. [Specific requirement — what the system must do]
2. [Specific requirement]
3. [Specific requirement]

#### Non-Functional Requirements
- **Performance**: [Response time, throughput expectations]
- **Scale**: [Expected data volume, concurrent users]
- **Security**: [Auth requirements, data sensitivity]
- **Accessibility**: [WCAG level, screen reader support]
- **Internationalization**: [Languages, locales, RTL support]

### User Flow
1. User navigates to [page/section]
2. User clicks [element]
3. System displays [response]
4. User enters [input]
5. System processes and shows [result]

### UI/UX
[Link to Figma/design mockups if available]

[If no designs yet, describe the expected interface:]
- Where does this feature appear in the UI?
- What does the user see?
- What interactions are available?
- What feedback does the user get?

### API Changes (if applicable)

#### New Endpoints

POST /api/v1/[resource] Request: { field1: string, field2: number } Response: 201 { id: string, field1: string, field2: number, createdAt: string }


#### Modified Endpoints

GET /api/v1/[resource] New query params: ?dateFrom=ISO&dateTo=ISO


### Database Changes (if applicable)
- New table: `[table_name]` with columns: [list]
- Modified table: `[table_name]` — add column: [column] ([type])
- New index: `[index_name]` on [table].[columns]

### Notifications / Emails (if applicable)
- When: [trigger condition]
- To: [recipient]
- Channel: [email / push / in-app / SMS]
- Content: [brief description]

### Configuration (if applicable)
- New env var: `[VAR_NAME]` — [purpose]
- New feature flag: `[flag_name]` — [purpose]
- New admin setting: [description]

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] [Specific, testable criterion — "User can ___"]
- [ ] [Specific, testable criterion]
- [ ] [Specific, testable criterion]
- [ ] [Edge case handled — "System handles ___ by ___"]
- [ ] [Error case handled — "When ___ fails, user sees ___"]
- [ ] [Performance criterion — "Response time under ___ms"]
- [ ] Unit tests added for new business logic
- [ ] Integration tests added for new endpoints
- [ ] Documentation updated
- [ ] Feature flag controls rollout (if applicable)

## Out of Scope
[Explicitly list what this ticket does NOT include.
This prevents scope creep and sets clear boundaries.]
- Not including [related but separate feature]
- Not supporting [specific edge case — future ticket]
- Not changing [related area that stays as-is]

## Dependencies
- Blocked by: #[issue-number] — [why]
- Depends on: [external service / team / decision]
- Blocks: #[issue-number] — [why]

## Design / Technical Approach (optional)
[If the approach has been discussed or decided, document it here.
Include alternatives considered and why this approach was chosen.]

### Option A: [Approach name]
- Pros: ...
- Cons: ...

### Option B: [Approach name] ✅ Recommended
- Pros: ...
- Cons: ...

## Subtasks
- [ ] [Subtask 1 — e.g., "Create database migration"]
- [ ] [Subtask 2 — e.g., "Implement API endpoint"]
- [ ] [Subtask 3 — e.g., "Build UI component"]
- [ ] [Subtask 4 — e.g., "Add tests"]
- [ ] [Subtask 5 — e.g., "Update documentation"]

## Estimation
- **Size**: [XS / S / M / L / XL] or [Story Points: 1/2/3/5/8/13]
- **Estimated time**: [X hours / X days]
- **Complexity**: [Low / Medium / High]
- **Risk**: [Low / Medium / High — describe risk factors]

## Related
- Product brief: [link]
- Design: [Figma link]
- Customer request: [support ticket / feedback link]
- Related tickets: #[number], #[number]

## Labels
feature, [component], [priority], [team]

💡 Improvement

## Title
[Area]: [Clear description of the improvement]

Examples:
- "Checkout: Add address autocomplete to reduce form abandonment"
- "Dashboard: Show loading skeletons instead of spinners"
- "Email: Add unsubscribe link to marketing emails"

## Type
Improvement

## Priority
[Critical / High / Medium / Low]

## Description

### Current Behavior
[How the feature works today]

### Proposed Improvement
[How it should work after this change]

### Motivation
[Why is this improvement needed? Metrics, user feedback, or observations that support it.]
- User feedback: [quote or link]
- Metric: [current value → target value]
- Competitive: [what competitors do]

### Impact
- **Users affected**: [who benefits]
- **Expected outcome**: [metric improvement, reduced friction, etc.]

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] [Specific, measurable criterion]
- [ ] [Specific, measurable criterion]
- [ ] Existing functionality not degraded
- [ ] Tests updated to cover the improvement

## Subtasks
- [ ] [Subtask 1]
- [ ] [Subtask 2]
- [ ] [Subtask 3]

## Estimation
- **Size**: [XS / S / M / L / XL]
- **Complexity**: [Low / Medium / High]

## Labels
improvement, [component], [priority]

🔧 Tech Debt

## Title
[Area]: [Clear description of the tech debt]

Examples:
- "Auth: Refactor UserService into separate AuthService and ProfileService"
- "API: Replace manual validation with Zod schemas across all endpoints"
- "Tests: Fix flaky order integration tests caused by race conditions"

## Type
Tech Debt

## Priority
[Critical / High / Medium / Low]

## Description

### Current State
[Describe the current problematic code/architecture]
- What's wrong with it?
- Where in the codebase? [file paths]
- How long has it been this way?

### Problems It Causes
[Why does this matter? Be specific about the pain.]
- Slows down development: [how]
- Causes bugs: [which ones]
- Makes onboarding harder: [how]
- Increases risk: [what risk]
- Performance impact: [what impact]

### Proposed Solution
[Describe the target state]
- What should the code look like after?
- What pattern/approach should replace the current one?
- What files will be affected?

### Migration Strategy
[How to get from current state to target state]
1. [Step 1]
2. [Step 2]
3. [Step 3]

### Risk Assessment
- **Behavior changes**: [None / Minimal — describe / Significant — describe]
- **Regression risk**: [Low / Medium / High — describe]
- **Rollback plan**: [How to revert if something goes wrong]

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Code follows the new pattern/structure
- [ ] All existing tests pass without modification (behavior preserved)
- [ ] No new warnings or linting errors
- [ ] Performance not degraded (benchmark if applicable)
- [ ] [Specific structural criterion]

## Subtasks
- [ ] [Subtask 1]
- [ ] [Subtask 2]
- [ ] [Subtask 3]

## Estimation
- **Size**: [XS / S / M / L / XL]
- **Complexity**: [Low / Medium / High]
- **Risk**: [Low / Medium / High]

## Labels
tech-debt, refactor, [component], [priority]

🔒 Security

## Title
[Security]: [Clear description of the vulnerability or hardening]

Examples:
- "Security: Fix XSS vulnerability in user profile rendering"
- "Security: Add rate limiting to authentication endpoints"
- "Security: Rotate exposed API key in commit history"

## Type
Security

## Priority
[Critical / High / Medium / Low]

## ⚠️ Sensitivity
[Is this ticket sensitive? Should it be private/confidential?]
- If actively exploitable: Make ticket PRIVATE
- If theoretical/hardening: Can be public

## Description

### Vulnerability (if applicable)
- **Type**: [XSS / SQL Injection / IDOR / CSRF / etc.]
- **CWE**: [CWE-XXX if known]
- **CVSS Score**: [if assessed]
- **Affected component**: [file path / endpoint]
- **Exploitability**: [Easy / Moderate / Difficult / Theoretical]

### Current Risk
[What could an attacker do with this vulnerability?]

### Proposed Fix
[How to remediate]

### Discovery
[How was this found? Security audit, penetration test, dependency scan, etc.]

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Vulnerability is remediated
- [ ] Regression test added for the specific attack vector
- [ ] Security audit passes on the affected area
- [ ] No new vulnerabilities introduced by the fix
- [ ] Incident response completed (if applicable)

## Labels
security, [severity], [component]

⚡ Performance

## Title
[Perf]: [Clear description of the performance issue]

Examples:
- "Perf: Reduce /api/products response time from 2.3s to <500ms"
- "Perf: Fix N+1 query in order listing page"
- "Perf: Reduce initial bundle size from 1.8MB to under 500KB"

## Type
Performance

## Priority
[Critical / High / Medium / Low]

## Description

### Current Performance
- **Metric**: [Response time / Load time / Memory usage / Bundle size]
- **Current value**: [measured value with tool used]
- **Target value**: [acceptable threshold]
- **Affected area**: [endpoint / page / operation]

### Root Cause (if known)
[What's causing the slowness?]

### Proposed Solution
[How to improve performance]

### Measurement Plan
- **Tool**: [Lighthouse / Chrome DevTools / APM / custom benchmark]
- **Baseline**: [current measurement]
- **Target**: [goal measurement]
- **How to verify**: [specific steps to measure after fix]

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] [Metric] improved from [current] to [target]
- [ ] No functionality regression
- [ ] Performance test added to prevent future regression
- [ ] Measured in production-like environment

## Labels
performance, [component], [priority]

🔍 Research / Spike

## Title
[Spike]: [Clear description of what needs investigation]

Examples:
- "Spike: Evaluate real-time notification options (WebSocket vs SSE vs polling)"
- "Spike: Investigate feasibility of migrating from REST to GraphQL"
- "Spike: Research GDPR compliance requirements for user data export"

## Type
Research / Spike

## Priority
[High / Medium / Low]

## Description

### Question to Answer
[The specific question(s) this spike should answer]

1. [Question 1]
2. [Question 2]
3. [Question 3]

### Context
[Why do we need this research? What decision depends on it?]

### Scope
[What should be investigated and what's out of scope]

### Time Box
[Maximum time to spend: e.g., 2 days, 4 hours, 1 sprint]

## Expected Deliverables
- [ ] Written summary of findings
- [ ] Pros/cons comparison of options (if applicable)
- [ ] Recommendation with reasoning
- [ ] Proof of concept (if applicable)
- [ ] Estimated effort for implementation
- [ ] Follow-up tickets created based on findings

## Labels
spike, research, [component]

🏗️ Infrastructure

## Title
[Infra]: [Clear description of the infrastructure change]

Examples:
- "Infra: Set up staging environment with automated deployments"
- "Infra: Add Datadog APM monitoring to production services"
- "Infra: Migrate database from RDS t3.medium to r6g.large"

## Type
Infrastructure

## Priority
[Critical / High / Medium / Low]

## Description

### Current State
[Current infrastructure setup for the affected area]

### Desired State
[Target infrastructure setup]

### Changes Required
1. [Change 1]
2. [Change 2]
3. [Change 3]

### Impact
- **Downtime required**: [Yes — estimated duration / No]
- **Cost change**: [+$X/month / -$X/month / Neutral]
- **Services affected**: [list]
- **Rollback plan**: [how to revert]

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] [Infrastructure change verified]
- [ ] Monitoring/alerting configured
- [ ] Documentation updated
- [ ] Team notified of changes
- [ ] Runbook updated (if applicable)

## Labels
infrastructure, devops, [priority]

4. Estimation Guide

Size Estimation

Size	Story Points	Time Estimate	Characteristics
XS	1	< 2 hours	Config change, copy update, one-line fix
S	2	2-4 hours	Simple bug fix, small component, add test
M	3-5	1-2 days	New feature within existing patterns, moderate refactor
L	8	3-5 days	Complex feature, new patterns, multiple components
XL	13	1-2 weeks	Large feature, architectural change, cross-team work
XXL	21+	2+ weeks	Should be broken into smaller tickets

Complexity Factors

Low: Follows existing patterns, well-understood area, minimal dependencies
Medium: Some new patterns needed, touches 2-3 modules, moderate testing effort
High: New architecture, cross-team dependencies, unfamiliar territory, high risk

Signals That a Ticket Is Too Big

More than 5 subtasks
Estimated at L or larger
Touches more than 3 unrelated areas
Requires multiple reviewers from different teams
Can't be described in a single user story
Estimated at more than 1 week

If too big: Break it into smaller tickets and create an epic to group them.

5. Priority Framework

Priority	Criteria	Response
🔴 Critical	Production down, data loss, security breach, revenue blocking	Fix immediately, drop everything
🟠 High	Major feature broken, significant user impact, approaching deadline	Fix this sprint
🟡 Medium	Minor feature issue, workaround exists, improvement with clear value	Schedule for next sprint
🟢 Low	Cosmetic, nice-to-have, minor tech debt, edge case	Add to backlog, address when convenient

6. Auto-Generate Subtasks

Based on the ticket type and scope, generate appropriate subtasks:

Feature Subtasks Pattern

- [ ] Design: Create/review UI mockups
- [ ] DB: Create migration for [new table/columns]
- [ ] API: Implement [endpoint(s)]
- [ ] Service: Implement business logic in [service]
- [ ] UI: Build [component(s)]
- [ ] Tests: Add unit tests for [service/component]
- [ ] Tests: Add integration tests for [endpoint(s)]
- [ ] Docs: Update API documentation
- [ ] Docs: Update README / user docs
- [ ] Review: Code review and QA

Bug Fix Subtasks Pattern

- [ ] Investigate: Reproduce and identify root cause
- [ ] Fix: Implement the fix in [file(s)]
- [ ] Test: Add regression test for this specific scenario
- [ ] Test: Verify fix in staging environment
- [ ] Verify: Confirm related features not affected

Tech Debt Subtasks Pattern

- [ ] Analyze: Map current code and dependencies
- [ ] Plan: Document migration strategy
- [ ] Implement: Refactor [component/module] (phase 1)
- [ ] Implement: Refactor [component/module] (phase 2)
- [ ] Test: Verify behavior is preserved
- [ ] Cleanup: Remove deprecated code
- [ ] Docs: Update architecture documentation

7. Platform-Specific Issue Creation

GitHub Issues

# Create issue
gh issue create \
  --title "feat(auth): Add OAuth2 login with Google and GitHub" \
  --body "$(cat ticket.md)" \
  --label "feature,auth,size/M" \
  --assignee "@me" \
  --milestone "v2.4.0"

# Create with project board
gh issue create \
  --title "fix(checkout): Prevent duplicate charges on retry" \
  --body "$(cat ticket.md)" \
  --label "bug,critical,checkout" \
  --project "Sprint 24"

GitLab Issues

# Create issue
glab issue create \
  --title "feat(auth): Add OAuth2 login with Google and GitHub" \
  --description "$(cat ticket.md)" \
  --label "feature,auth" \
  --assignee "@me" \
  --milestone "v2.4.0"

Jira (via API)

# Create via Jira REST API
curl -X POST "https://your-domain.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/issue" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Basic $(echo -n email:api-token | base64)" \
  -d '{
    "fields": {
      "project": { "key": "PROJ" },
      "summary": "feat(auth): Add OAuth2 login with Google and GitHub",
      "description": { "type": "doc", "version": 1, "content": [...] },
      "issuetype": { "name": "Story" },
      "priority": { "name": "High" },
      "labels": ["feature", "auth"],
      "story_points": 5
    }
  }'

Linear (via API)

# Create via Linear API
curl -X POST "https://api.linear.app/graphql" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LINEAR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "query": "mutation { issueCreate(input: { title: \"...\", description: \"...\", teamId: \"...\", priority: 2 }) { success issue { id identifier url } } }"
  }'

8. Quality Checklist

Before finalizing any ticket, verify:

### Ticket Quality Check
- [ ] **Title is clear** — someone can understand the scope from the title alone
- [ ] **Type is correct** — bug vs feature vs tech debt etc.
- [ ] **Priority is justified** — based on impact and urgency, not gut feeling
- [ ] **Description is complete** — no critical information missing
- [ ] **Acceptance criteria are testable** — each one can be verified as done/not done
- [ ] **Scope is bounded** — out of scope is explicitly stated
- [ ] **Dependencies are listed** — blockers and related work identified
- [ ] **Estimation is reasonable** — sized appropriately, broken down if too large
- [ ] **Labels are applied** — type, component, priority, size
- [ ] **Assignee or team is clear** — someone knows this is theirs
- [ ] **No jargon without explanation** — a new team member could understand this
- [ ] **Subtasks are actionable** — each subtask can be independently worked on

Output Format

Present the ticket as:

1. Ticket Preview

Show the complete formatted ticket ready to be filed.

2. Metadata Summary

Type: Feature
Priority: High
Size: M (3-5 story points, ~2 days)
Complexity: Medium
Labels: feature, auth, size/M
Subtasks: 6
Dependencies: None

3. Filing Options

Command to create on GitHub/GitLab/Jira
Or the formatted markdown ready to paste

4. Related Tickets (if applicable)

Suggest related tickets that should also be created
Identify if this should be part of an epic

Adaptation Rules

Detect project tracker — check for .github/, .gitlab-ci.yml, or ask the user
Match existing ticket style — look at recent issues to match team conventions
Detect from conversation — if the user describes a bug casually, extract the structured information
Detect from code — if pointed at a file or error, analyze the code to fill in technical details
Break down large scope — if the request is too big for one ticket, suggest an epic with multiple tickets
Ask only what's missing — if the user provides most details, don't ask for information you can infer
Security sensitivity — if it's a vulnerability, recommend making the ticket private
Suggest priority — based on impact analysis, suggest a priority with reasoning

Summary

End every ticket creation with:

Ticket ready — formatted and ready to file
Filing command — platform-specific command to create it
Suggested assignee — based on code ownership if detectable
Related work — other tickets that should be created alongside this one
Questions — anything that needs clarification before filing

create-ticket