Positron Intake Rotation
Overview
This skill provides comprehensive guidance for handling issue intake rotation for the Positron IDE repository. Intake rotation is a weekly assignment (Monday-Friday) where team members review and respond to new issues, discussion posts, and support tickets to ensure timely responses and actionable issue tracking.
The goal is to respond to new items within approximately one business day and ensure all issues have the details required to be actionable.
🚨 CRITICAL: Manual Action Protocol
This skill assists with intake rotation but NEVER executes GitHub actions directly.
All GitHub interactions must be performed manually by the user:
✅ Draft responses for review before posting
✅ Suggest labels and categorization
✅ Prepare commands for user to execute
✅ Search and analyze issues/discussions
❌ NEVER post comments or responses directly
❌ NEVER edit issues, add labels, or change status
❌ NEVER close issues or create new ones
❌ NEVER execute
gh
commands that modify GitHub state
Workflow:
Analyze → Recommend → Draft → User executes manually
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill when:
Currently on intake rotation duty
Helping another team member with intake tasks
Learning the intake rotation process
Reviewing backlog items without status
Responding to GitHub discussions
Handling customer support tickets
Searching for duplicate or related issues
Quick Start
Essential Scripts
Four shell scripts are provided to streamline intake tasks:
scripts/fetch_intake_issues.sh
- List open issues without status (the intake queue)
scripts/fetch_discussions.sh
- List recent open discussions needing attention
scripts/fetch_labels.sh
- Show all available repository labels for categorization
scripts/search_related.sh
View issue with all comments
gh issue view < number
--repo posit-dev/positron --comments
Search issues
gh issue list
--repo
posit-dev/positron
--search
"
View discussion
gh api graphql -f query = '...'
(see scripts for examples)
Modification commands (prepare for user, NEVER execute directly):
Add labels - DRAFT THIS COMMAND for user to run
gh issue edit < number
--repo posit-dev/positron --add-label "area: console,Bug"
Close as duplicate - DRAFT THIS COMMAND for user to run
gh issue close < number
--repo posit-dev/positron --comment "Closing as duplicate of #
" Important: Present modification commands to the user in a code block with clear instructions to review and execute manually. Handling Different Scenarios Bug Reports For bug reports, assess completeness: Complete bug report: System details (Positron version, OS, commit hash) Clear reproduction steps Expected vs. actual behavior Error messages or screenshots If complete: Search for duplicates using scripts/search_related.sh Suggest labels (area, "Bug" type) for user to apply Recommend setting status to "Triage" Draft response thanking reporter and acknowledging the issue If incomplete: Draft message thanking the reporter Include specific questions about missing information Suggest referencing the bug report template if helpful Advise keeping issue open until information is provided Refer to references/intake_workflow.md for detailed bug handling workflows. Feature Requests For feature requests: Draft message thanking the user for the suggestion Search for existing related feature requests If duplicate, draft message linking to existing issue (user closes manually) If new, suggest labels and recommend adding to backlog Draft message setting realistic expectations about prioritization Discussions For discussions: Determine discussion type (question, idea, bug report, announcement) Draft appropriate response: Questions: Provide answer or link to docs Ideas: Acknowledge and link to related issues Bug reports: Ask user to create formal issue Off-topic: Politely redirect Recommend converting discussions to issues when they contain clear, actionable bug reports or feature requests (user performs conversion manually). Support Tickets Support tickets require special handling: ⚠️ CRITICAL: Never mention customer names in public issues or discussions Review ticket context in Jira Search for related public issues Draft response in Jira (not publicly) for user to post Recommend creating sanitized public issue if needed Suggest linking between ticket and issue Security Issues If an issue describes a security vulnerability: Do NOT discuss details publicly Draft message asking reporter to email security@posit.co Recommend closing public issue with note about private reporting (user closes manually) Advise alerting team privately Response Guidelines Tone and Style Be welcoming: Thank contributors for their time and effort Be clear: Use simple language, explain technical terms, provide examples Be helpful: Offer workarounds, link to resources, provide next steps Be realistic: Don't overpromise timelines or solutions Be professional: Remain calm and constructive, even with frustrated reporters Learning from Examples To see examples from experienced team members:
Find issues commented on by key team members
gh search issues --repo posit-dev/positron --commenter juliasilge --limit 20 gh search issues --repo posit-dev/positron --commenter jmcphers --limit 20
View specific issue with comments
gh issue view < number
--repo posit-dev/positron --comments Pay special attention to responses by juliasilge and jmcphers for tone and approach guidance. Load references/response_examples.md for detailed response patterns and anti-patterns. Important Reminders Team Collaboration Don't try to solve everything alone. Reach out to team members when: The issue requires specialized domain knowledge You're unsure how to categorize or prioritize The issue describes complex technical problems You need help understanding the user's concern Handoff Protocol If handling an item extends beyond your rotation week: Typically: Continue following up yourself to get to triage If not possible: Explicitly communicate handoff to next person on rotation Don't drop items without clear handoff Documentation If recurring issues or common questions emerge: Consider creating FAQ entries Suggest documentation improvements Note patterns for team discussion Quick Reference Links Issue Intake Board - Issues without status Discussions - Community discussions Support Tickets - Customer support (Jira) Rotation Schedule - Google Sheet Documentation - Official Positron docs Positron Assistant - GitHub issue assistant Workflow Summary Daily Intake (Assistant Mode - Draft & Recommend): 1. Fetch new items (scripts/fetch_intake_issues.sh, scripts/fetch_discussions.sh) 2. Review and assess each item 3. Search for related content (scripts/search_related.sh) 4. SUGGEST labels and categorization (scripts/fetch_labels.sh) 5. DRAFT response (references/response_examples.md) for user review 6. PREPARE gh commands for user to execute 7. RECOMMEND setting status to "Triage" (user executes) 8. ADVISE on follow-through or handoff Remember: The goal is to ASSIST the user with timely response and actionable organization. NEVER execute GitHub modification commands directly - always present drafts and recommendations for the user to review and execute manually.