---
name: reckoning
description: Have the AI list every review finding that was consciously declined rather than fixed, across the whole repo's pull requests, grounded in live GitHub data. Use when the user says reckoning, asks what's been declined, wants a debt list, or wants to see deferred findings before a release.
---

# Reckoning Workflow

Use this skill when the user wants to see the repo's standing debt of
consciously declined review findings — not the current branch's status,
the whole repo's.

## Contents

- [At A Glance](#at-a-glance)
- [What This Is Not](#what-this-is-not)
- [Trigger Rules](#trigger-rules)
- [Requirements](#requirements)
- [Prerequisites](#prerequisites)
- [Default Path](#default-path)
- [Summary Format](#summary-format)
- [Guardrails](#guardrails)
- [Stop Conditions](#stop-conditions)
- [Handoff](#handoff)
- [Response Examples](#response-examples)

## At A Glance

1. Search the repo's pull requests for review-comment replies carrying the
   `<!-- orchraft:declined -->` marker `ship` posts (see
   `skills/ship/SKILL.md` Default Path step 12).
2. For each one, report the PR, the file/line, the original finding, and the
   stated decline reason, and whether that PR is still open or already
   merged/closed.
3. Stop. Never touch a PR/issue, and never resolve or reply to anything —
   this skill only reads.

## What This Is Not

- Not `runes`: `runes` reports one branch's live status; `reckoning` reports
  standing decline debt across the whole repo's PR history.
- Not `roast`: it produces no new findings and posts nothing — it reads
  findings `roast` (or a human reviewer) already raised and that were
  already declined via `ship`.
- Not a backfill tool. Only replies carrying the marker are found; a decline
  reply posted before the marker existed won't show up, and this skill
  never guesses which unmarked replies might have been declines.
- Not permission to resolve, reply to, or otherwise act on anything it
  finds — reporting a debt is not authorization to settle it.

## Trigger Rules

- Run when the user explicitly asks for a reckoning, what's been declined,
  a debt list, deferred findings, or wants a pre-release check of standing
  debt.
- Do not run automatically; every other status-reporting skill here
  (`runes`, `watchtower`) is invoke-on-purpose, and this one is no
  different.

## Requirements

- A GitHub MCP connector configured for this session with at least read
  access to pull requests and their review comments, or `gh` installed and
  authenticated as a fallback. Without either, stop and say the search
  can't run rather than reporting an empty or partial list as complete.

## Prerequisites

- Confirm which repo to search: the current one by default, or one the user
  names.
- Enumerate every pull request in that repo — `list_pull_requests` with
  `state: all`, paginating through every page rather than stopping at the
  first (a single page defaults to fewer than all of a repo's PRs).
  Falling back to `gh api --paginate "repos/$owner/$repo/pulls?state=all"
  --jq '.[] | {number, html_url, state, merged_at}'` when MCP is
  unavailable — GitHub reports both merged and unmerged pull requests as
  `state: "closed"`, so `merged_at` is what actually distinguishes
  "merged" from "closed without merging" in this fallback path. `gh
  api --paginate` follows GitHub's own pagination until exhausted, unlike
  `gh pr list`, whose `--limit` is always some fixed number and would
  under-cover a repo whose PR count happens to exceed it. This must cover
  open, merged, and closed without merging alike, since debt survives a
  merge.
- For each PR, fetch its review threads via `pull_request_read` method
  `get_review_comments`, which returns each thread's `is_resolved` status
  and its full comment list (original finding plus any replies, each with
  author/created_at/path/line) in one call, capped at 100 comments per
  thread — paginate past the first page if a PR has more threads than one
  page returns. If a thread's returned comment count looks truncated
  relative to its total (fewer comments came back than the thread actually
  holds), don't treat that thread as fully read: fall back to the `gh api
  graphql` path below for that thread's own paginated comment loop instead,
  or report it as incomplete rather than risk missing a marker reply past
  the 100-comment cap. That fallback is a `gh
  api graphql` query for the PR's `reviewThreads(first: 100, after:
  $cursor)`, requesting `pageInfo { hasNextPage endCursor }` plus each
  thread's `isResolved` and `comments(first: 100, after: $commentCursor) {
  pageInfo { hasNextPage endCursor } nodes { body author { login }
  createdAt path line originalLine } }` — loop both the thread page and
  each thread's own comment page until `hasNextPage` is false, when the
  MCP connector is unavailable. Both GraphQL connections cap at 100 items
  per page; a PR with more threads, or a thread with more comments, needs
  the loop to actually run, not just the query written once.
- Within each thread's comment list, find any reply containing the
  `<!-- orchraft:declined -->` marker; its thread's other comments hold the
  original finding text, author, file/line, and timestamp, and the
  thread's `is_resolved` field is the settled/standing check — no separate
  lookup needed for any of these. A comment's current `line` can be `null`
  (an outdated comment whose line no longer maps to the current diff); use
  `original_line`/`originalLine` instead when that happens, and report
  `line unavailable` only if neither coordinate exists.

## Default Path

1. Resolve the target repo (see Prerequisites).
2. Search for marked decline replies across all PR states.
3. For each one still on an unresolved thread, record: PR number/URL and
   state (open, merged, or closed without merging), file and line, the
   original finding (severity if stated), the decline reason, and who
   declined it.
4. Drop any match whose thread was later resolved — the marker means it was
   declined at the time, not that it must stay open forever; a human
   resolving it later is a legitimate settling of that debt.
5. Group by PR, most recently declined first.
6. Report the list, or that none exist.

## Summary Format

Keep it to what was actually found — don't pad an empty result with filler.

- **Repo** — name, and how many PRs were searched (open, merged, and
  closed-without-merging counts, mutually exclusive).
- **Standing debt** — one entry per unresolved declined finding: PR
  number/URL and state, file:line, the original finding, the decline
  reason, and who declined it.
- **None found** — say so plainly if the search turned up nothing, and
  distinguish that from "couldn't search" (see Requirements).

## Guardrails

- Never touch a PR or issue, resolve a thread, or post a reply as part of
  this skill — it only reads.
- Never report a resolved thread as standing debt just because it once
  carried the marker.
- Never invent a decline reason that isn't in the actual reply text.
- Never treat an unmarked reply as a declined finding, even if its prose
  reads like one — the marker is the only signal this skill trusts.

## Stop Conditions

- Stop and say so if neither the GitHub MCP connector nor `gh` is
  available — don't report a partial or guessed list as complete.
- Stop and say so if any individual repository search, paginated
  pull-request request, or thread request fails partway through — a
  search that started with GitHub access available can still fail
  mid-run (a single page erroring, rate limiting, a transient network
  fault). Report which part failed and that the result is incomplete;
  never present a partial list gathered before the failure as the full
  standing debt.
- Stop after presenting the summary; do not proceed into `ship`, `roast`,
  or any mutation without the user separately asking for it.

## Handoff

- Unless the user asked for plain output, open with a fresh one-line phrase
  in the orc voice, speaking as the Reckoner from `context/personality.md`
  (the target repo's copy when it exists, otherwise
  `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/context/personality.md`). If they did, open with
  the plain summary instead.
- Present the summary per [Summary Format](#summary-format).
- If blocked, drop the orc voice and state the blocker plainly.

## Response Examples

Opening lines are samples of the orc voice; write a fresh one each time.

Standing debt found (illustrative — actual output names real PRs/files):

```text
🗂️ Hrrm. Two debts still stand on the books. ✨

Repo: <owner>/<repo> (N PRs searched: X open, Y merged, Z closed without
merging)
- PR #<n> (<state>): `<path>:<line>` — <one-line finding summary>;
  declined by <decliner> because <the stated reason from the reply itself>.
- PR #<n> (<state>): `<path>:<line>` — <one-line finding summary>;
  declined by <decliner> because <the stated reason from the reply itself>.
```

Clean books:

```text
🗂️ Hah! The books read clean — nothing declined stands open.

Repo: <owner>/<repo> (N PRs searched: X open, Y merged, Z closed without
merging)
```

Blocked, no GitHub access:

```text
⚠️ Reckoning is blocked: neither the GitHub MCP connector nor `gh` is
available. No search was performed.
```