self-development: Add priority classification to triage agent

[axon-agent]

🤖 Axon Agent @gjkim42

Summary

Extends the triage agent (axon-triage.yaml) to also classify issue priority alongside the existing kind classification.

Problem

The triage agent currently applies kind/* labels and removes needs-kind, but leaves needs-priority untouched. As of today, 29 open issues carry the needs-priority label, requiring manual classification by the maintainer. Since the triage agent already reads the full issue content and assesses validity, it has enough context to also make a reasonable priority judgment.

Changes

• Added a "1b. Assess priority" step to the triage prompt with clear guidelines for each priority level
• Added Priority field to the triage report comment format
• Guidelines match existing label usage patterns observed across ~35 historically classified issues:
  • priority/critical-urgent — production broken, security, blocking issues (e.g., Installation manifest uses :latest tag instead of pinned version #225, E2E tests keep failing #107)
  • priority/imporant-soon — significant bugs or features needed soon (e.g., Support jira as external source #367, install axon cli without sudo #382)
  • priority/import-longterm — valuable but not time-sensitive (e.g., Orchestrator pattern #328, API: Add webhook and GitHub event sources to TaskSpawner for real-time task triggering #268)
  • priority/backlog — nice-to-have or speculative (e.g., having pollinterval and cron doesn't make sense #138, add sample yamls #25)

What this does NOT change

• No code changes — this is a prompt-only update
• No changes to the triage trigger, concurrency, or exclusion filters
• The maintainer still reviews every triage report (via axon/needs-input) and can override the priority
• Actor assignment (needs-actor → actor/axon or actor/human) is intentionally left to the maintainer since it requires understanding of capacity and ownership

Test plan

• Deploy updated axon-triage.yaml to the dev cluster
• Verify next triage run includes priority classification in its report
• Spot-check a few triage reports to validate priority accuracy

---

Summary by cubic

Adds priority classification to the triage agent so issues get a priority/* label during triage, reducing manual work and clearing the needs-priority backlog. The triage comment now includes a Priority field.

• New Features
  • Adds a priority step to axon-triage.yaml with clear guidelines (critical-urgent, imporant-soon, import-longterm, backlog).
  • Applies one priority/* label and removes needs-priority via gh.
  • Includes Priority in the triage report comment.

^{Written for commit 0da2942. Summary will update on new commits.}

[cubic-dev-ai]

5 issues found across 1 file

Prompt for AI agents (all issues)

Check if these issues are valid — if so, understand the root cause of each and fix them. If appropriate, use sub-agents to investigate and fix each issue separately.


<file name="self-development/axon-triage.yaml">

<violation number="1" location="self-development/axon-triage.yaml:56">
P1: Typo in label name: `priority/imporant-soon` → `priority/important-soon`. The agent will apply a misspelled label via `gh issue edit`, creating a bogus label instead of matching the existing one. The same typo also appears in the guidelines below (`imporant-soon`).</violation>

<violation number="2" location="self-development/axon-triage.yaml:57">
P1: Typo in label name: `priority/import-longterm` → `priority/important-longterm`. The agent will apply a misspelled label via `gh issue edit`, creating a bogus label instead of matching the existing one. The same typo also appears in the guidelines below (`import-longterm`).</violation>

<violation number="3" location="self-development/axon-triage.yaml:61">
P1: Typo: `imporant-soon` → `important-soon`.</violation>

<violation number="4" location="self-development/axon-triage.yaml:62">
P1: Typo: `import-longterm` → `important-longterm`.</violation>

<violation number="5" location="self-development/axon-triage.yaml:63">
P1: Same typos propagated into the guidelines: `imporant-soon` → `important-soon` and `import-longterm` → `important-longterm`.</violation>
</file>

_{Reply with feedback, questions, or to request a fix. Tag @cubic-dev-ai to re-run a review.}

[cubic-dev-ai]

P1: Typo: import-longterm → important-longterm.

Prompt for AI agents

Check if this issue is valid — if so, understand the root cause and fix it. At self-development/axon-triage.yaml, line 62:

<comment>Typo: `import-longterm` → `important-longterm`.</comment>

<file context>
@@ -50,6 +50,22 @@ spec:
+
+      Guidelines:
+        - Bugs that affect correctness → at least `imporant-soon`
+        - Documentation-only issues → usually `import-longterm` or `backlog`
+        - Feature requests for existing gaps → usually `imporant-soon` or `import-longterm`
+        - Broad proposals or speculative ideas → usually `backlog`
</file context>

Suggested change

	- Documentation-only issues → usually `import-longterm` or `backlog`
	- Documentation-only issues → usually `important-longterm` or `backlog`

[cubic-dev-ai]

P1: Typo: imporant-soon → important-soon.

Prompt for AI agents

Check if this issue is valid — if so, understand the root cause and fix it. At self-development/axon-triage.yaml, line 61:

<comment>Typo: `imporant-soon` → `important-soon`.</comment>

<file context>
@@ -50,6 +50,22 @@ spec:
+        - `priority/backlog` — nice-to-have, minor cosmetic issues, or speculative ideas
+
+      Guidelines:
+        - Bugs that affect correctness → at least `imporant-soon`
+        - Documentation-only issues → usually `import-longterm` or `backlog`
+        - Feature requests for existing gaps → usually `imporant-soon` or `import-longterm`
</file context>

Suggested change

	- Bugs that affect correctness → at least `imporant-soon`
	- Bugs that affect correctness → at least `important-soon`

[cubic-dev-ai]

P1: Same typos propagated into the guidelines: imporant-soon → important-soon and import-longterm → important-longterm.

Prompt for AI agents

Check if this issue is valid — if so, understand the root cause and fix it. At self-development/axon-triage.yaml, line 63:

<comment>Same typos propagated into the guidelines: `imporant-soon` → `important-soon` and `import-longterm` → `important-longterm`.</comment>

<file context>
@@ -50,6 +50,22 @@ spec:
+      Guidelines:
+        - Bugs that affect correctness → at least `imporant-soon`
+        - Documentation-only issues → usually `import-longterm` or `backlog`
+        - Feature requests for existing gaps → usually `imporant-soon` or `import-longterm`
+        - Broad proposals or speculative ideas → usually `backlog`
+
</file context>

Suggested change

	- Feature requests for existing gaps → usually `imporant-soon` or `import-longterm`
	- Feature requests for existing gaps → usually `important-soon` or `important-longterm`

[cubic-dev-ai]

P1: Typo in label name: priority/import-longterm → priority/important-longterm. The agent will apply a misspelled label via gh issue edit, creating a bogus label instead of matching the existing one. The same typo also appears in the guidelines below (import-longterm).

Prompt for AI agents

Check if this issue is valid — if so, understand the root cause and fix it. At self-development/axon-triage.yaml, line 57:

<comment>Typo in label name: `priority/import-longterm` → `priority/important-longterm`. The agent will apply a misspelled label via `gh issue edit`, creating a bogus label instead of matching the existing one. The same typo also appears in the guidelines below (`import-longterm`).</comment>

<file context>
@@ -50,6 +50,22 @@ spec:
+      Based on the issue content and its impact, apply exactly one `priority/*` label:
+        - `priority/critical-urgent` — production broken, data loss, security vulnerability, or blocking all development
+        - `priority/imporant-soon` — significant bug or feature needed for upcoming work; should be addressed soon
+        - `priority/import-longterm` — valuable improvement but not time-sensitive; can be planned for a future milestone
+        - `priority/backlog` — nice-to-have, minor cosmetic issues, or speculative ideas
+
</file context>

Suggested change

	- `priority/import-longterm` — valuable improvement but not time-sensitive; can be planned for a future milestone
	- `priority/important-longterm` — valuable improvement but not time-sensitive; can be planned for a future milestone

[cubic-dev-ai]

P1: Typo in label name: priority/imporant-soon → priority/important-soon. The agent will apply a misspelled label via gh issue edit, creating a bogus label instead of matching the existing one. The same typo also appears in the guidelines below (imporant-soon).

Prompt for AI agents

Check if this issue is valid — if so, understand the root cause and fix it. At self-development/axon-triage.yaml, line 56:

<comment>Typo in label name: `priority/imporant-soon` → `priority/important-soon`. The agent will apply a misspelled label via `gh issue edit`, creating a bogus label instead of matching the existing one. The same typo also appears in the guidelines below (`imporant-soon`).</comment>

<file context>
@@ -50,6 +50,22 @@ spec:
+      ### 1b. Assess priority
+      Based on the issue content and its impact, apply exactly one `priority/*` label:
+        - `priority/critical-urgent` — production broken, data loss, security vulnerability, or blocking all development
+        - `priority/imporant-soon` — significant bug or feature needed for upcoming work; should be addressed soon
+        - `priority/import-longterm` — valuable improvement but not time-sensitive; can be planned for a future milestone
+        - `priority/backlog` — nice-to-have, minor cosmetic issues, or speculative ideas
</file context>

Suggested change

	- `priority/imporant-soon` — significant bug or feature needed for upcoming work; should be addressed soon
	- `priority/important-soon` — significant bug or feature needed for upcoming work; should be addressed soon