Start Issue — Skill

Name: start-issue Purpose: Create a feature branch and a draft PR for one or more AL-### issues. Use this skill when beginning implementation work tied to GitHub issues.

Applies when: Starting work on one or more AL-### issues. Do not use when: The user only wants to write issues (use skills/write-issue/SKILL.md).

Rules

• •Base branch: develop.
• •PR base: develop.
• •Branch format: al-123-short-kebab-title (first issue key is primary).
• •PR title format: AL-123: <issue title>.
• •PR body must include fixes AL-### for each issue.
• •If using Nia (MCP) for repo context, scope queries to Asymmetric-al/core (see AGENTS.md#nia-mcp-usage-always-repo-scoped).

Workflow

1. •Pre-flight: Ensure clean working tree and up-to-date develop.
   • •Run: git status, git checkout develop, git pull origin develop.
   • •If working tree is dirty, stop and ask to commit/stash first.
2. •Validate issue keys: Each key must match ^AL-\d+$.
3. •Fetch issue details: Use GitHub MCP to find each issue and capture title/body.
   • •If multiple matches, list candidates and ask the user to choose.
4. •Create branch: Derive from the primary issue title.
   • •If branch exists locally/remotely, stop and ask whether to use it.
5. •Push branch: git push -u origin <branch>.
6. •Create draft PR: Prefer GitHub MCP; fall back to gh only if confirmed.
7. •Report next steps: Share branch name and PR URL.

Checklists

Pre-flight checklist

• • On develop
• • Working tree is clean
• • develop is up to date

PR checklist

• • Draft PR created
• • PR body includes fixes AL-### lines

Minimal examples

Branch name

al-123-add-profile-cta

PR body snippet

## Related Issues

fixes AL-123
fixes AL-124

Draft PR (gh)

gh pr create --draft --base develop --title "AL-123: ISSUE_TITLE" --body "PASTE_PR_BODY_HERE"

Common mistakes / pitfalls

• •Creating a branch from the wrong base
• •Invalid issue keys
• •Missing fixes AL-### lines in the PR body
• •Assuming gh exists without checking