Resolve PR Comments

Orchestrate replying to multiple GitHub PR review comments in parallel using the general-purpose subagent with focused prompts.

Note: This skill uses general-purpose subagents (not custom agents) because custom agent types defined in .claude/agents/ do not receive tool access. The general-purpose subagent has full tool access (Tools: *) and can execute the required gh api commands.

Critical Constraints - Session Statelessness

IMPORTANT: You are operating in a stateless session. Each Claude Code session is isolated.

You CANNOT:

• Track issues across sessions
• Remember to do something later
• Follow up on tasks in the future
• Promise to handle something "in a follow-up"

You MUST NOT say things like:

• "I'll track this in a follow-up issue"
• "I'll remember to fix this later"
• "I'll handle this in a subsequent PR"

PR Comment Response Decision Framework

When replying to comments, each response MUST use ONE of these options:

Option 1: Implement Now (Preferred)

When: The change is small-ish and worth doing. Action steps:

1. Implement the fix immediately
2. Commit the change
3. Reply to the comment with: "Fixed in commit {sha}: {brief description}"

Option 2: Defer with Issue (Expensive)

When: Change is large AND worth doing AND not critical to PR. Action BEFORE replying:

1. Create GitHub issue NOW: gh issue create --title "..." --body "..."
2. Add to same milestone as PR's issue
3. Add as sub-issue of parent ticket Reply format: "Created #XYZ to track this. Not addressing in this PR because {reason}."

Option 3: Disagree / Won't Fix

When: Suggestion is nitpicky, negligible, or you disagree. Reply format: Professional explanation of why not addressing. NEVER use for: Test failures, errors, security concerns.

Overview

This skill automates the process of replying to multiple PR review comments by:

1. Fetching all review comments from a PR
2. Filtering for unresolved or unanswered comments (optional)
3. Spawning parallel subagents to handle each reply
4. Collecting and reporting results

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• User wants to reply to multiple PR review comments at once
• User asks to "resolve all comments" on a PR
• User wants to batch-reply with similar messages (e.g., "Fixed")
• User needs to mark multiple comments as addressed

Example user requests:

• "Reply to all unresolved comments on PR #300"
• "Mark all review comments as fixed"
• "Reply to comments 123, 456, and 789 on this PR"
• "Resolve all pending review feedback"

Prerequisites

Before using this skill:

1. Ensure the gh CLI is authenticated with proper permissions
2. Verify the repository and PR exist
3. Have the reply text prepared (or a strategy for generating replies)

Permissions required:

• Read access to PR comments
• Write access to post comment replies

Workflow

Step 1: Identify the PR

Determine which PR to work with:

• If user provides PR number, use that
• If in a PR context (e.g., PR comment in GitHub Actions), extract from context
• Otherwise, ask the user for the PR number

Step 2: Fetch PR Review Comments

Use the GitHub API to fetch all review comments:

# IMPORTANT: Use --paginate to get ALL comments (default page size is 30)
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{pr_number}/comments --paginate \
  --jq '.[] | {id: .id, body: .body, user: .user.login, in_reply_to_id: .in_reply_to_id}'

What this returns:

• id: Comment ID (needed for replying)
• body: Comment text
• user: Who posted the comment
• in_reply_to_id: null if top-level comment, otherwise ID of parent comment

Step 3: Filter Comments (Optional)

Depending on user requirements, filter the comments:

Unresolved comments (no replies yet):

• First, filter for comments where in_reply_to_id is null (top-level comments)
• For each top-level comment, check if there are any other comments where in_reply_to_id equals this comment's id
• If no such child comments exist, then the top-level comment is unresolved

Specific comments:

• If user provides comment IDs, only process those

All comments:

• Process every comment in the PR

Step 4: Prepare Reply Content

Determine what to reply with:

• User-provided text: If user specifies reply text, use it for all comments
• Per-comment text: If user provides mapping of comment → reply text
• Generated text: Generate appropriate replies based on comment content
• Interactive: Ask user for reply text for each comment (not recommended for many comments)

Step 5: Spawn Parallel Subagents

For each comment to reply to, spawn a general-purpose subagent with a focused prompt:

Important: Use a SINGLE message with MULTIPLE Task tool calls to spawn agents in parallel:

Note: The following is conceptual pseudo-code showing the general pattern. The actual Task tool invocation syntax may differ based on the specific implementation.

# Example pseudo-code structure
# Send ONE message with multiple tool uses:

Task(
  subagent_type="general-purpose",
  description="Reply to comment 2565891355",
  prompt="""
    Execute this EXACT command to reply to a GitHub PR comment:

    gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/300/comments \
      -f body="Fixed in commit abc123" \
      -F in_reply_to=2565891355

    Report success or failure. Do NOT ask questions or do anything else.
  """,
  model="haiku"
)

Task(
  subagent_type="general-purpose",
  description="Reply to comment 2565891356",
  prompt="""
    Execute this EXACT command to reply to a GitHub PR comment:

    gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/300/comments \
      -f body="Fixed in commit abc123" \
      -F in_reply_to=2565891356

    Report success or failure. Do NOT ask questions or do anything else.
  """,
  model="haiku"
)

# ... more Task calls in the same message

Key points:

• All Task calls must be in a SINGLE message for parallel execution
• Each subagent handles one comment reply independently
• Use Haiku model for cost efficiency and speed
• Use general-purpose subagent type (has full tool access)
• Provide the EXACT gh api command to execute - be explicit to avoid ambiguity

Step 6: Collect Results

After all subagents complete:

• Parse each subagent's response
• Count successes and failures
• Identify which comments failed (if any)
• Provide summary to user

Step 7: Report to User

Provide a comprehensive report:

Replied to 8/10 comments on PR #300:

✅ Succeeded (8):
  - Comment 2565891355: "Fixed in commit abc123"
  - Comment 2565891356: "Fixed in commit abc123"
  - ... (list all successful replies)

❌ Failed (2):
  - Comment 2565891999: Error 404 - Comment not found
  - Comment 2565892000: Error 403 - Permission denied

Summary: Successfully replied to 8 out of 10 comments.

Example Usage Scenarios

Scenario 1: Resolve All Unresolved Comments

User request: "Reply to all unresolved comments on PR #300 with 'Fixed'"

Workflow:

1. Fetch all comments from PR #300
2. Build a map of parent → children relationships by iterating over all comments and recording which comments have their in_reply_to_id set to another comment's id
3. Filter for comments where in_reply_to_id is null (top-level) and the comment's id does not appear as a parent in the map (i.e., no other comment references it as a parent)
4. For each unresolved comment, spawn subagent to reply with "Fixed"
5. Report results

Scenario 2: Reply to Specific Comments

User request: "Reply to comments 123, 456, and 789 on PR #300 with 'Addressed'"

Workflow:

1. No need to fetch all comments (user provided specific IDs)
2. For each comment ID (123, 456, 789), spawn subagent to reply with "Addressed"
3. Report results

Scenario 3: Custom Replies Per Comment

User request: "Reply to PR #300 comments with these responses:

• Comment 123: 'Fixed in v2.0'
• Comment 456: 'This is working as intended'
• Comment 789: 'Good catch, resolved'"

Workflow:

1. Parse user's comment → reply mapping
2. For each comment, spawn subagent with the specific reply text
3. Report results

Scenario 4: Context-Aware Replies

User request: "Read all unresolved comments on PR #300 and reply with appropriate responses"

Workflow:

1. Fetch all unresolved comments
2. For each comment, analyze the content
3. Generate appropriate reply based on comment context
4. Spawn subagents with generated replies
5. Report results

Best Practices

Batching

Optimal batch sizes:

• Small PRs (< 10 comments): Process all at once
• Medium PRs (10-50 comments): Process all, but use Haiku model for speed
• Large PRs (> 50 comments): Consider asking user which comments to prioritize

Error Handling

Graceful degradation:

• If some replies fail, still report successes
• Provide actionable error messages for failures
• Offer to retry failed comments

Common errors:

• 404: Comment or PR doesn't exist → Verify comment ID
• 403: Permission denied → Check repository access
• 422: Invalid parameters → Verify comment ID format

Rate Limiting

GitHub API rate limits:

• GitHub API has rate limits (typically 5000 requests/hour for authenticated users)
• Each reply is one API request
• For very large batches (> 100 comments), consider warning user about rate limits

User Confirmation

Before mass-replying:

• Show user which comments will be replied to
• Show the reply text that will be used
• Ask for confirmation before proceeding

Example confirmation:

Display rule: Show the first 5 comments in detail. If more than 5 total, show "and X more" for the remainder.

About to reply to 15 unresolved comments on PR #300 with: "Fixed in commit abc123"

Comments to reply to:
  1. Comment 2565891355: "This function doesn't handle null values"
  2. Comment 2565891356: "Missing error handling here"
  3. Comment 2565891357: "Consider using a const here"
  4. Comment 2565891358: "Typo in variable name"
  5. Comment 2565891359: "This could be simplified"
  ... and 10 more

Proceed? (yes/no)

Integration with Other Tools

With GitHub CLI (gh)

This skill heavily uses gh CLI:

• gh api: For fetching and posting comments
• gh pr view: For PR context
• gh repo view: For repository information

With SlashCommands

The /gh-pr-comment-reply slash command is available for single comment replies when not using parallel subagents.

With Other Skills

Combine with:

• github-issue-breakdown: For managing PR-related issues
• gh-sub-issue: For tracking comment resolution as sub-tasks
• update-github-issue-project-status: For updating project boards after resolving comments

Troubleshooting

Subagents Not Spawning in Parallel

Cause: Multiple messages sent instead of one message with multiple Task calls

Solution: Ensure all Task tool calls are in a SINGLE response message

Subagent Has No Tool Access

Cause: Using a custom subagent_type that doesn't have tools configured

Solution: Use subagent_type="general-purpose" which has full tool access (Tools: *)

GitHub API Authentication Errors

Cause: gh CLI not authenticated or lacks permissions

Solution:

# Check authentication
gh auth status

# Re-authenticate with required scopes
gh auth refresh -s repo

Comment IDs Not Found

Cause: Using wrong endpoint or stale comment IDs

Solution:

• Fetch fresh comment list from GitHub API
• Verify PR number is correct
• Check that comments haven't been deleted

Permission Denied Errors

Cause: No write access to repository

Solution:

• Verify repository access: gh repo view
• Check if PR is from a fork (forks have different permissions)
• Ensure authenticated user has write access

Environment Requirements

Prerequisites:

• gh CLI installed and authenticated
• Write access to repository
• PR must exist and be accessible

Verification:

# Check gh CLI
gh --version

# Check authentication
gh auth status

# Test API access
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{pr_number}/comments --paginate --jq 'length'

Command Reference

Fetch All PR Comments

# IMPORTANT: Use --paginate to get ALL comments (default page size is 30)
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{pr_number}/comments --paginate

Returns array of comment objects.

Fetch Specific Comment

gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/comments/{comment_id}

Returns single comment object.

Post Reply to Comment

gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{pr_number}/comments \
  -f body="Reply text" \
  -F in_reply_to={comment_id}

Returns the created comment object.

Get Comment Thread

To find all replies to a comment:

gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{pr_number}/comments --paginate \
  --jq '.[] | select(.in_reply_to_id == COMMENT_ID)'

Note: Replace COMMENT_ID with the actual numeric comment ID.

See Also

• gh-pr-comment-reply - Slash command for single comment replies (.claude/commands/gh-pr-comment-reply.md)
• GitHub API Documentation - https://docs.github.com/rest/pulls/comments
• gh CLI Documentation - https://cli.github.com/manual/

Implementation Notes

Why general-purpose Instead of Custom Subagent?

Custom agent types defined in .claude/agents/ do not receive tool access from YAML frontmatter. The tools: field in agent markdown files is documentation only, not actual configuration.

When spawning a custom subagent via the Task tool, it appears with (Tools: ) - empty tool access. Without tools, the subagent cannot execute gh api commands.

The general-purpose subagent type has (Tools: *) - full tool access - making it suitable for executing GitHub API commands. By using focused prompts that specify exact commands, we get the same behavior as a custom subagent but with working tool access.