Use backlog-triage

Triage a whole backlog export from Jira, Linear or GitHub Projects (CSV, JSON or an MCP tool)

Triage a whole backlog export from Jira, Linear or GitHub Projects (CSV, JSON or an MCP tool) — duplicate and near-duplicate pairs with the reason, items missing acceptance criteria or an owner, stale items, oversized items to split, priority conflicts, and a proposed ordering with a reason per item — ending in a change list the user can apply. A stdlib script computes the mechanical checks.

Reach for it when the user wants to clean up, groom or refine a backlog, find duplicate tickets, or says "triage our backlog", "what should we pull next?".

Install it

npx skilldrop-cli install backlog-triage                 # Claude Code, your user folder
npx skilldrop-cli install backlog-triage --project       # Claude Code, this repo
npx skilldrop-cli install backlog-triage --ide cursor    # or kiro, codex, antigravity, copilot

It is part of the Trackers pack: --pack trackers installs it with its neighbours.

It ships scripts, so it needs Python 3 (standard library only, nothing to install). What they may touch is declared in its manifest.

Ask for it

Say it the way you would to a colleague. Requests like these route to it:

• "Triage our Jira backlog export and find the duplicates"
• "We have 200 tickets in Linear, half of them stale. Which should we close and what should we pull next?"
• "Groom this backlog CSV before sprint planning: missing owners, missing acceptance criteria, things too big to schedule"
• "Find near-duplicate issues in our GitHub project and propose a priority order"

Requests like these belong to a different skill, so it shouldn't answer them:

• "A customer says checkout is broken on mobile sometimes. Turn this into a proper bug ticket"
• "Break this guest-checkout epic into user stories with acceptance criteria"
• "Write the weekly status report for the checkout team from this Jira export"

If another skill answers instead, ask for this one by name: "use backlog-triage".

Check what you get

A good result:

• Numbers come from the data. Counts, ages and estimates are the script's output or a stated count from the export, never an estimate.
• Every duplicate names the pair and why. Which two keys, what makes them the same work, and which one survives.
• Readiness is explicit. Each item in the ordering says whether it can be pulled today, and if not, what's missing.
• Each position in the ordering has a reason tied to the ordering method, not "feels important".
• Priority changes are proposals, each with the facts behind it, addressed to whoever owns priority.
• The change list can be applied as written: key, change, reason, one row per action.
• Nothing is invented. No owner, date, estimate or customer count that isn't in the export or the user's message.

See a worked example

• northwind checkout triage

Use something else when

• One bug report to turn into a ticket; use bug-triage
• Splitting one epic or large item into stories; use user-story-splitter (this skill hands oversized items to it)
• A weekly status update for stakeholders; use team-status-report
• Creating issues from a PRD, or checking the tracker against the doc; use tracker-brief-sync

Next

• SKILL.md, the instructions the agent reads
• Its page on the site
• Related: bug-triage, team-status-report, tracker-brief-sync, user-story-splitter

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