OpenClaw PR Maintainer

Use this skill for maintainer-facing GitHub workflow, not for ordinary code changes.

Start issue and PR triage with gitcrawl

• Use $gitcrawl first anytime you inspect OpenClaw issues or PRs.
• Check local gitcrawl data first for related threads, duplicate attempts, and already-landed fixes.
• Use gitcrawl for candidate discovery and clustering; use gh, gh api, and the current checkout to verify live state before commenting, labeling, closing, or landing.
• If gitcrawl is missing, stale, lacks the target thread, or has no embeddings for neighbor/search commands, fall back to the GitHub search workflow below.
• Do not run expensive/update commands such as gitcrawl sync --include-comments, future enrichment commands, or broad reclustering unless the user asked to update the local store or stale data is blocking the decision.

Common read-only path:

gitcrawl threads openclaw/openclaw --numbers <issue-or-pr-number> --include-closed --json
gitcrawl neighbors openclaw/openclaw --number <issue-or-pr-number> --limit 12 --json
gitcrawl search openclaw/openclaw --query "<scope or title keywords>" --mode hybrid --json
gitcrawl cluster-detail openclaw/openclaw --id <cluster-id> --member-limit 20 --body-chars 280 --json

Apply close and triage labels correctly

• If an issue or PR matches an auto-close reason, apply the label and let .github/workflows/auto-response.yml handle the comment/close/lock flow.
• Do not manually close plus manually comment for these reasons.
• If an issue/PR is already fixed on current main or solved by a new release, comment with proof plus the canonical commit/PR/release, then close it.
• r:* labels can be used on both issues and PRs.
• Current reasons:
• r: skill
• r: support
• r: no-ci-pr
• r: too-many-prs
• r: testflight
• r: third-party-extension
• r: moltbook
• r: spam
• invalid
• dirty for PRs only

Select small high-confidence triage candidates

When asked for X issues or PRs to triage, X means qualified candidates, not sampled threads.

Triage is read/prove/patch-local by default. Do not commit unless Peter writes commit in the current instruction for the exact diff being handled. Do not treat earlier messages, inferred intent, "next", sweep momentum, or bundled publish language as commit permission. If Peter asks for follow-up work without saying commit, keep the files dirty after local fixes and proof.

Only list candidates that pass all gates:

• small owner/surface, with a likely narrow fix and focused regression test
• symptom is reproducible or provable with logs, failing test, live command, dependency contract, or current-main behavior
• root cause is traceable to code with file/line and the proposed fix touches that path
• no strong smell that a broader refactor, ownership rethink, migration, or product decision is the better fix
• dependency-backed behavior checked against upstream docs/source/types; live or web proof used when local proof is insufficient

Loop:

1. Use gitcrawl / gh to gather candidate clusters.
2. Read issue/PR body, comments, current code, adjacent tests, and dependency contracts.
3. Try focused repro or proof.
4. Reject unclear, stale, speculative, broad-refactor, or owner-ambiguous items.
5. Continue until X qualified candidates or the bounded search is exhausted.

Output only qualifying candidates, with: ref, surface, proof, cause, fix sketch, why small, expected test/gate. If none qualify, say so; do not pad.

Enforce the bug-fix evidence bar

• Never merge a bug-fix PR based only on issue text, PR text, or AI rationale.
• Before landing, require:

1. symptom evidence such as a repro, logs, or a failing test
2. a verified root cause in code with file/line
3. a fix that touches the implicated code path
4. a regression test when feasible, or explicit manual verification plus a reason no test was added

• If the claim is unsubstantiated or likely wrong, request evidence or changes instead of merging.
• If the linked issue appears outdated or incorrect, correct triage first. Do not merge a speculative fix.

Close low-signal manual PRs carefully

• Do not close for red CI alone. Require a clear low-signal category plus stale or failed validation.
• Good manual-close categories:
• blank or mostly untouched PR template with no concrete OpenClaw problem/fix
• random docs-only churn such as root README translations, generic wording tweaks, or community-plugin discoverability docs that should go through ClawHub
• test-only coverage without a linked bug, owner request, or behavior change
• refactor-only cleanup, variable renames, formatting, or generated/baseline churn without maintainer request
• third-party channel/provider/tool/skill/plugin work that belongs on ClawHub instead of core
• risky ops/infra drive-bys such as new external CI services, release workflows, host upgrade scripts, Docker base migrations, or apt retry/fix-missing tweaks without owner request and green validation
• dirty branches where a narrow stated change includes unrelated docs/generated/runtime/extension files
• repeated bot-review spam or copied bot output without author-owned fixes
• Keep or escalate plausible focused bug fixes, green PRs, active maintainer discussions, assigned work, recent author follow-up, and unique reproduction details.
• For third-party capabilities, prefer the r: third-party-extension auto-response label when it applies; it points contributors to publish on ClawHub.

Handle GitHub text safely

• For issue comments and PR comments, use literal multiline strings or -F - <<'EOF' for real newlines. Never embed \n.
• Do not use gh issue/pr comment -b "..." when the body contains backticks or shell characters. Prefer a single-quoted heredoc.
• Do not wrap issue or PR refs like #24643 in backticks when you want auto-linking.
• PR landing comments should include clickable full commit links for landed and source SHAs when present.

Search broadly before deciding

• Prefer gitcrawl first. Then use targeted GitHub keyword search to verify gaps, live status, comments, and candidates not present in the local store.
• Use --repo openclaw/openclaw with --match title,body first when using gh search.
• Add --match comments when triaging follow-up discussion or closed-as-duplicate chains.
• Do not stop at the first 500 results when the task requires a full search.

Examples:

gh search prs --repo openclaw/openclaw --match title,body --limit 50 -- "auto-update"
gh search issues --repo openclaw/openclaw --match title,body --limit 50 -- "auto-update"
gh search issues --repo openclaw/openclaw --match title,body --limit 50 \
  --json number,title,state,url,updatedAt -- "auto update" \
  --jq '.[] | "\(.number) | \(.state) | \(.title) | \(.url)"'

Follow PR review and landing hygiene

• If bot review conversations exist on your PR, address them and resolve them yourself once fixed.
• Leave a review conversation unresolved only when reviewer or maintainer judgment is still needed.
• When landing or merging any PR, follow the global /landpr process.
• Use scripts/committer "<msg>" <file...> for scoped commits instead of manual git add and git commit.
• Keep commit messages concise and action-oriented.
• Group related changes; avoid bundling unrelated refactors.
• Use .github/pull_request_template.md for PR submissions and .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ for issues.
• Do not commit PR-only artifacts such as screenshots under .github/pr-assets; attach them to the PR/comment or use an external artifact store instead.

Extra safety

• If a close or reopen action would affect more than 5 PRs, ask for explicit confirmation with the exact count and target query first.
• sync means: if the tree is dirty, commit all changes with a sensible Conventional Commit message, then git pull --rebase, then git push. Stop if rebase conflicts cannot be resolved safely.