name: investigating-github-issues description: Investigates and analyzes GitHub issues for Shopify/shopify-app-js. Fetches issue details via gh CLI, searches for duplicates, examines the codebase for relevant context, applies version-based maintenance policy classification, and produces a structured investigation report. Use when a GitHub issue URL is provided, when asked to analyze or triage an issue, or when understanding issue context before starting work.

Investigating GitHub Issues

Use the GitHub CLI (gh) for all GitHub interactions — fetching issues, searching, listing PRs, etc. Direct URL fetching may not work reliably.

Early Exit Criteria

Before running the full process, check if you can stop early:

• Clear duplicate: If Step 3 finds an identical open issue with active discussion, stop after documenting the duplicate link.
• Wrong repo: If the issue clearly belongs to a different project, note it and stop.
• Insufficient information: If the issue has no reproducible details and no version info, skip to the report and recommend the author provide more context.

Investigation Process

Step 1: Fetch Issue Details

Retrieve the issue metadata:

gh issue view <issue-url> --json title,body,author,labels,comments,createdAt,updatedAt

Extract:

• Title and description
• Author and their context
• Existing labels and comments
• Timeline of the issue
• Version information: identify what version the issue is reported against
• Package scoping: identify which package(s) in the monorepo this issue affects (e.g., packages/apps/shopify-app-remix, packages/api-clients/api-codegen-preset). Scope all subsequent investigation to those packages.

Step 2: Assess Version Status

Determine the current latest major version before going deeper — this drives the entire classification:

gh release list --limit 5
git tag -l | grep -E '^v?[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sort -V | tail -5

Compare the reported version against the latest major version and apply the version maintenance policy (see ../shared/references/version-maintenance-policy.md).

Also check if the issue may already be fixed in a newer release:

• Review the CHANGELOG.md in the affected package(s)
• Compare the reported version against the latest published version for that package

Step 3: Search for Similar Issues and Existing PRs

Search before deep code investigation to avoid redundant work:

gh issue list --search "keywords from issue" --limit 20
gh issue list --search "error message or specific terms" --state all
gh pr list --search "related terms" --state all
gh pr list --search "fixes #<issue-number>" --state all

• Look for duplicates (open and closed)
• Check if someone already has an open PR addressing this issue
• Check if this has been previously discussed or attempted
• Note previous solutions, workarounds, or explanations
• Always provide full GitHub URLs when referencing issues/PRs (e.g., https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/123)

Step 4: Attempt Reproduction

Before diving into code, verify the reported behavior:

• Check if the described behavior matches what the current codebase would produce
• If the issue includes a code snippet or reproduction steps, trace through the relevant code paths
• If the issue references specific error messages, search for them in the codebase

This doesn't require running an app — code-level verification (reading the logic, tracing the flow) is sufficient.

Step 5: Investigate Relevant Code

Based on the issue, similar issues found, and reproduction attempt, examine the codebase within the scoped package(s):

• Files and modules mentioned in the issue
• Related tests that provide context
• Recent commits in the affected area
• Code changes from similar resolved issues

Step 6: Classify and Analyze

Apply version-based classification from ../shared/references/version-maintenance-policy.md:

• Identify if the issue involves a technical limitation or architectural constraint
• For feature requests hitting technical limitations, assess the need for business case clarification

Step 7: Produce the Investigation Report

Write the report following the template in references/investigation-report-template.md. Ensure every referenced issue and PR uses full GitHub URLs.

If a PR review is needed for a related PR, use the reviewing-pull-requests skill.