Ralph — Two-Pass Issue Scanning

To reduce GitHub API calls for issue scanning, use a two-pass approach that separates a lightweight initial scan from selective hydration. This method cuts N+1 calls down to roughly 7 per round by hydrating only a subset of issues that meet your triage rules.

Two-pass issue scanning is a triage technique where Pass 1 fetches issues with essential fields to identify candidates, and Pass 2 hydrates only that subset with full details. This rule-of-thumb approach typically hydrates less than 30% of scanned items to optimize API usage.

Yes, you need gh CLI access to run this two-pass issue scanning workflow. The skill relies on the GitHub CLI to execute the lightweight scan and subsequent selective hydration passes against your repository.

You should use selective hydration for GitHub issue triage when managing large repositories with many open issues and labels. It prevents API overload by applying triage logic to hydrate only a targeted subset, tightening filters if needed for efficiency.

The best way to scale GitHub issue triage without hitting API rate limits is splitting scanning and hydration into two passes. This workflow reduces API usage by hydrating only the fraction of issues that survive an initial lightweight scan.