issue-flow 0.2.0

Agents should behave. Let them follow the issue flow.

issue-flow

Agents should behave. Let them follow the issue flow.

issue-flow scaffolds a lightweight issue-tracking workflow into your project so that Cursor AI agents can pick up GitHub issues, plan work, and land PRs in a consistent way.

What it does

Running issue-flow init in your project root creates:

your-project/
  .issueflows/
    00-tools/               # Helper scripts for agents
    01-current-issues/      # Active issue markdown files
    02-partly-solved-issues/ # Parked / in-progress issues
    03-solved-issues/       # Completed issues archive
  .cursor/
    commands/
      issue-init.md         # /issue-init — fetch a GitHub issue locally
      issue-start.md        # /issue-start — plan and implement
      issue-close.md        # /issue-close — test, commit, push, PR
    skills/                 # Optional Agent Skills (explicit / @ invoke)
      issueflow-issue-init/SKILL.md
      issueflow-issue-start/SKILL.md
      issueflow-issue-close/SKILL.md
    rules/
      issueflow-rules.mdc   # Always-on Cursor rule for the workflow
  docs/
    cursor-issue-workflow.md # Human-readable overview of the workflow

The three Cursor slash commands give agents a repeatable flow:

1. /issue-init 42 — pulls GitHub issue #42 into .issueflows/01-current-issues/ and archives older issues.
2. /issue-start — reads the issue file, plans, and implements.
3. /issue-close — runs tests, updates status files, commits, pushes, and opens a PR.

The matching Agent Skills (under .cursor/skills/) carry the same workflows for on-demand use with /issueflow-issue-init, /issueflow-issue-start, or /issueflow-issue-close (see Cursor Agent Skills).

Installation

Requires Python 3.13+ and uv.

uv tool install issue-flow

Or add it as a dev dependency to your project:

uv add --dev issue-flow

Quick start

cd your-project
issue-flow init

That's it. Open the project in Cursor and use /issue-init, /issue-start, /issue-close.

Usage

issue-flow init [PROJECT_DIR] [--force]
issue-flow update [PROJECT_DIR]

issue-flow init

Argument / Option	Description
PROJECT_DIR	Project root directory. Defaults to . (current directory).
--force, -f	Overwrite generated Cursor commands, rules, and workflow doc instead of skipping them.

Running init again without --force is safe: generated scaffold files that already exist are skipped, and issue markdown under .issueflows/ is never touched by init or update. When the CLI detects an existing scaffold, it reminds you about update and --force.

issue-flow update

Argument / Option	Description
PROJECT_DIR	Project root directory. Defaults to . (current directory).

Use update after upgrading the issue-flow package to refresh the packaged slash commands, Cursor rule, and docs/cursor-issue-workflow.md from the version you have installed. This overwrites those generated files (unlike a plain second init). It still does not modify arbitrary files under .issueflows/ (for example your issue*_original.md / issue*_status.md files), and it creates any new .issueflows/ subdirectories required by the current package.

When to use which

Goal	Command
First-time setup, or add missing files only	issue-flow init
Pull newer templates after uv tool upgrade issue-flow (or similar)	issue-flow update
Replace generated scaffolds without upgrading logic	issue-flow init --force

Configuration

issue-flow reads a .env file from the project root (via python-dotenv). The following environment variables are supported:

Variable	Default	Description
ISSUEFLOW_DIR	.issueflows	Name of the issue-tracking directory.
ISSUEFLOW_CURSOR_DIR	.cursor	Name of the Cursor config directory.
ISSUEFLOW_DOCS_DIR	docs	Where to write the workflow documentation file.

Development

git clone https://github.com/jepegit/issue-flow.git
cd issue-flow
uv sync

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Lint
uv run ruff check src/ tests/

Future plans

• Multi-tool support — generate config for other AI coding tools (Claude Code, Windsurf, etc.) in addition to Cursor.
• issue-flow status — show a dashboard of current, partly-solved, and solved issues.
• Custom templates — let users supply their own Jinja2 templates to tailor slash commands and rules to their team's conventions.
• Git hook integration — optionally move issue files on commit based on status markers.
• GitHub Actions workflow — ship a reusable action that syncs issue state between .issueflows/ and GitHub issue labels/milestones.

License

See LICENSE.