GitHub Duplicate Issue Detection
Find duplicate GitHub issues using multi-strategy search. Can be run manually or automated via GitHub Actions.
Workflow
1. Gather Issue Context
Extract key information from the target issue:
- Issue number and title
- Full body content
- Error messages or stack traces
- Keywords and technical terms
- Symptoms or behavior descriptions
2. Search Strategy
Use gh to search for related issues using multiple strategies:
- Keyword search from title and body
- Search for similar error messages
- Look for similar symptoms
3. Candidate Inspection
For each potential duplicate:
- View full issue with
gh issue view <number> - Compare:
- Root cause (same underlying problem?) - Symptoms (identical behavior?) - Error messages (exact match or very similar?) - Affected components (same area of code?)
High confidence indicators:
- Identical error messages
- Same reproduction steps
- Same root cause with different descriptions
- One issue references the other
Low confidence (not duplicates):
- Similar symptoms but different causes
- Related but independent bugs
- Same component but different behaviors
4. Report Findings
If duplicates found:
Post comment on target issue:
gh issue comment <number> --body "This is potentially a duplicate of #123 and #456."Format rules:
- Single duplicate: "This is potentially a duplicate of #123."
- Two duplicates: "This is potentially a duplicate of #123 and #456."
- Three+ duplicates: "This is potentially a duplicate of #123, #456, and #789."
Only comment if high confidence (90%+ certain). When uncertain, do nothing.
Examples
Example 1: Clear Duplicate
Target Issue #150:
Title: "Dropdown menu stays open on mobile Safari"
Body: Clicking menu items doesn't close dropdown on iOSSearch process:
gh issue list --search "dropdown mobile safari"
gh issue list --search "menu doesn't close"
gh issue view 87 # Found similar issueIssue #87:
Title: "Mobile menu not closing after selection"
Body: On iOS Safari, menu stays open after clicking itemsDetermination: Duplicate
- Same symptom (menu stays open)
- Same platform (iOS Safari)
- Same root cause
Example 2: Similar But Not Duplicate
Target Issue #200:
Title: "Form validation error on submit"
Error: "Cannot read property 'value' of null"Search process:
gh issue list --search "form validation"
gh issue list --search "Cannot read property value null"
gh issue view 175Issue #175:
Title: "Form submission fails"
Error: "Cannot read property 'email' of undefined"Determination: Not duplicate
- Different error messages
- Different null references (value vs email)
- Related area but different bugs
Example 3: Multiple Duplicates
Target Issue #300:
Title: "Build fails with 'module not found' error"
Error: Error: Cannot find module './config'Search results:
- Issue #250: Same error, same module
- Issue #280: Same error, same module
- Issue #290: Different module error (not duplicate)
Action:
gh issue comment 300 --body "This is potentially a duplicate of #250 and #280."