GitHub Context Skill

Foundational skill for collecting GitHub issue and pull request context into a standardized, structured format.

Why Use This Skill?

Instead of running multiple gh commands manually, this skill provides:

Structured Output: Consistent JSON format with all metadata in predictable locations
Comprehensive Collection: Automatically gathers issues/PRs, comments, diffs, review threads, commits, and CI logs in one pass
Configurable Scope: Fine-grained control over what to collect (diffs, checks, threads, etc.) via environment variables
Manifest Generation: Produces manifest.json with collection metadata for downstream processing
Reusability: Can be invoked standalone or as a dependency by other skills

Environment and Paths

GITHUB_CONTEXT_DIR: Output directory for collected context
- Default: /holon/output/github-context if the path exists; otherwise a temp dir /tmp/holon-ghctx-*
MANIFEST_PROVIDER / COLLECT_PROVIDER: Provider name written to manifest.json (default: github-context)
TRIGGER_COMMENT_ID: Comment ID to flag with is_trigger in comments/review threads
INCLUDE_DIFF (default: true): Fetch PR diff
INCLUDE_CHECKS (default: true): Fetch check runs and workflow logs
INCLUDE_THREADS (default: true): Fetch review comment threads
INCLUDE_FILES (default: true): Fetch changed files list
INCLUDE_COMMITS (default: true): Fetch commits for the PR
MAX_FILES (default: 200): Limit for files collected when INCLUDE_FILES=true

Usage

Use the skill runner (Holon or host) to invoke scripts/collect.sh with the reference; examples assume the script is on PATH or referenced relative to the skill directory:

collect.sh "holon-run/holon#123"
collect.sh 123 holon-run/holon
INCLUDE_CHECKS=false MAX_FILES=50 collect.sh https://github.com/holon-run/holon/pull/123

Output Contract

Artifacts are written to ${GITHUB_CONTEXT_DIR}/github/:

issue.json (issues) or pr.json (PRs)
comments.json
review_threads.json (when INCLUDE_THREADS=true and PR)
files.json (when INCLUDE_FILES=true and PR)
pr.diff (when INCLUDE_DIFF=true and PR)
commits.json (when INCLUDE_COMMITS=true and PR)
check_runs.json and test-failure-logs.txt (when INCLUDE_CHECKS=true and PR)
manifest.json (written at ${GITHUB_CONTEXT_DIR}/manifest.json)

Integration Notes

Wrapper skills set their own defaults and MANIFEST_PROVIDER before delegating to this collector.
The helper library lives at scripts/lib/helpers.sh and provides parsing, dependency checks, fetching helpers, and manifest writing. Source it instead of copying.

Input Payload

When invoking this skill, you can provide a payload file with metadata:

/holon/input/payload.json (optional): Contains task metadata with GitHub reference

{
  "ref": "holon-run/holon#502",
  "repo": "holon-run/holon",
  "type": "issue|pr",
  "trigger_comment_id": 123456
}

The agent should extract the ref field from payload.json and pass it to the collection script. If payload.json doesn't exist or ref is not provided, check for:

Command-line arguments or environment variables with the reference
Fallback to requesting the reference from the user

Reference Formats

The collection script accepts GitHub references in multiple formats:

holon-run/holon#502 - owner/repo#number format
502 - numeric (requires repo_hint as second argument)
https://github.com/holon-run/holon/issues/502 - full URL

Context Files

When collection completes, the following files are available under ${GITHUB_CONTEXT_DIR}/github/:

Issue Context Files

issue.json: Issue metadata
comments.json: Issue comments

PR Context Files

pr.json: Pull request metadata including reviews and stats
files.json: Changed files list (capped by MAX_FILES)
review_threads.json: Review threads with line-specific comments (includes comment_id)
comments.json: PR discussion comments
pr.diff: The code changes being reviewed
commits.json: PR commits (when INCLUDE_COMMITS=true)
check_runs.json: CI/check run metadata (when INCLUDE_CHECKS=true)
test-failure-logs.txt: Complete workflow logs for failed tests (when INCLUDE_CHECKS=true)

github-context