triage_skill

Overview

This skill triage analyzes and prioritizes a Linear backlog to surface stale work, blockers, and priority mismatches. It recommends concrete actions to unblock high-impact issues, reassign orphaned tasks, and reduce backlog noise. Use it to keep the backlog healthy and aligned with team capacity.

How this skill works

The skill inspects issue metadata (last updated, assignee, priority, state) and dependency graphs to detect staleness, blocking relationships, circular dependencies, and long blocking chains. It scores and groups issues into urgent attention, recommended actions, and a health summary so maintainers can act quickly. Outputs include suggested priority updates, assignment actions, and specific dependency resolutions.

When to use it

• Weekly or bi-weekly backlog cleanup cadence
• Before sprint planning to ensure high-priority work is unblocked
• When the backlog grows noisy with stale or orphaned issues
• After product changes that create new dependencies or blockers
• When stakeholders ask for a health summary of team work

Best practices

• Run automated searches for blocked, high-priority, and stale issues weekly
• Close or archive very stale issues (>60 days) after confirmation
• Assign owners to orphaned work or convert to backlog notes
• Document triage decisions with comments when changing priority or closing
• Escalate blockers on P1/P2 work immediately and track unblock actions

Example use cases

• Identify P1 issues that are blocked and require a dependency fix before sprint start
• Clean up backlog by closing or archiving issues with no activity for 60+ days
• Find circular dependencies and produce a short remediation plan
• Generate a triage report showing counts of blocked, stale, and healthy issues
• Assign or reassign orphaned tasks to restore ownership and momentum