Check that nobody is already working on a GitHub issue before you start a fix.

---

✨ Why

You find a bug, you fix it, you open a PR, and then you see that someone opened the same fix two days ago. Or the project wanted you to get assigned first. Or it doesn't take AI-written code at all.

Before I pick up an issue I want to know:

• 🔍 Is there already a PR for it?
• 🙋 Did someone say they'd take it?
• 👤 Is it assigned to someone?
• 📜 What does the project ask from contributors: a CLA, a DCO sign-off, an AI policy, an issue that has to be accepted first?

calldibs answers all of that with one GraphQL request.

$ calldibs acme/widget#412
acme/widget#412  Crash when the config file is empty
  STOP  open PR #418 by alice: fix(config): handle an empty file
  LOOK  bob said they would take it on 2026-10-20: "I'd like to work on this"
  LOOK  issue gate: CONTRIBUTING.md:38: The issue must carry the `accepted` label before you open a PR.
  NOTE  closed PR #405 by carol: guard empty config; it was not merged, read why before redoing it
  NOTE  CLA: CONTRIBUTING.md:31: You need to sign a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) before we can accept your PR.
stop: someone is already on this, or it is not open for work

📦 Install

With	Command
uv	uv tool install git+https://github.com/bercedev/calldibs
pipx	pipx install git+https://github.com/bercedev/calldibs
pip	pip install git+https://github.com/bercedev/calldibs
run once, no install	uvx --from git+https://github.com/bercedev/calldibs calldibs owner/repo#123

It needs Python 3.10 or newer and nothing else.

🔑 It reads a token from GH_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN. If neither is set, it asks gh auth token. Read access to public repositories is enough.

🧭 Usage

calldibs owner/repo#123                    # check an issue
calldibs https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/123   # links from notifications work too
calldibs owner/repo#123 -k crash           # also flag open PRs with "crash" in the title
calldibs owner/repo#123 --ignore 456       # skip PR #456 after you checked it by hand
calldibs owner/repo                        # only print the repository's contribution rules
calldibs owner/repo#123 --json             # JSON for scripts and agents
calldibs find --label "good first issue"   # look for something to work on

🔗 The exit status is 0 when the issue is clear, 1 when there is something to stop at or look at, and 2 on errors. So you can put it in front of a push:

calldibs owner/repo#123 -k crash && git push && gh pr create

An issue gate, a ban on AI-written code or a required AI disclosure in the project's rules counts as LOOK, so the chain stops there too. CLA and DCO lines are notes: read them, they don't stop the chain.

🔎 Find something to work on

calldibs find lists open issues that nobody seems to be working on: no assignee, no open PR, no blocking label, and nobody said they'd take it.

calldibs find --label "good first issue" --language python
calldibs find --label "help wanted" --min-stars 5000 --days 14
calldibs find crash --repo owner/repo --repo owner/other
calldibs find --min-stars 1000 --json

$ calldibs find --label "good first issue" --min-stars 1000 --days 90
2 open issues nobody seems to be working on
     2805★  acme/widget#4093  0c  2026-08-10  Tags cannot be edited after an import  [bug, good first issue]
     2805★  acme/widget#4077  0c  2026-08-02  Design of shared posts  [good first issue, UI]
next: run `calldibs acme/widget#4093` on the one you pick, before you start

Option	Default	What it does
words		Search words, like crash or memory leak
--repo		Only these repositories
--label		Only issues with this label
--language		Only repositories in this language
--min-stars	0	Picks active repositories above the bar first, since GitHub's issue search can't filter by stars
--days	30	Only issues opened in the last N days
--max-comments	3	Only quiet issues
--limit	10	At most 30

Good issues go fast. If the list is empty, try a larger --days or --max-comments. Then pick one you'll really fix and run calldibs owner/repo#123 on it before you start: find doesn't read the project's rules, the check does.

🚦 What it checks

	Level	When
🛑	STOP	The issue is closed, or the repository is archived
🛑	STOP	The issue is assigned to someone else
🛑	STOP	An open PR would close the issue (Fixes #123, or linked in the sidebar)
👀	LOOK	An open PR mentions the issue without closing it
👀	LOOK	A merged PR closes the issue, but the issue is still open
👀	LOOK	Someone said they'd take it, in a comment or in the issue form ([x] I'm willing to submit a PR)
👀	LOOK	A comment says it's already fixed on main
👀	LOOK	A label like wontfix, duplicate, invalid or blocked
👀	LOOK	An open PR has one of your -k words in its title
👀	LOOK	A rule that can get your PR closed: an issue gate (an accepted label, or getting assigned first), a ban on AI-written code, a line asking you to disclose AI use, or a project that takes no outside PRs
📝	NOTE	Your own PRs for the issue
📝	NOTE	Closed PRs that were not merged, so you can read why before you redo them
📝	NOTE	PRs in other repositories (forks) that mention the issue
📝	NOTE	Other lines about AI tools, a CLA or a DCO sign-off, and links to a contribution guide on another page (like a wiki)

The rules come from CONTRIBUTING.md (or .rst), the PR template, AGENTS.md and AI_POLICY.md.

🤖 For AI agents

Coding agents open a lot of duplicate PRs, and they rarely read CONTRIBUTING.md first. calldibs gives them both answers in one command.

Install the skill

The repo ships an agent skill that tells an agent when to run calldibs and what to do with each result. Install it with the skills CLI:

npx skills add bercedev/calldibs            # this project
npx skills add bercedev/calldibs -g         # all your projects
npx skills add bercedev/calldibs -a claude-code   # one agent only

It works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode and the other agents the skills CLI supports. You can also copy skills/calldibs into your agent's skills folder by hand, for example ~/.claude/skills/.

JSON output

{
  "target": "acme/widget#412",
  "title": "Crash when the config file is empty",
  "verdict": "stop",
  "summary": "someone is already on this, or it is not open for work",
  "findings": [
    {"level": "STOP", "message": "open PR #418 by alice: fix(config): handle an empty file"},
    {"level": "NOTE", "message": "CLA: CONTRIBUTING.md:31: You need to sign a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) before we can accept your PR."}
  ]
}

On an error it prints {"error": "..."} and exits with 2.

🤝 Use it kindly

calldibs is here to save maintainers from duplicate work, not to make more of it.

• 🙅 Don't farm contributions. Opening PRs in bulk, or to grow a contribution graph, wastes maintainers' time even when no two PRs are the same.
• 🎯 Pick issues you'll see through. Reply to reviews, change what they ask, and close the PR yourself if you can't finish it.
• 📜 clear is not an invitation. It means nobody else is on the issue, not that the project wants your PR. Read the rules, and if a project bans AI-written code, don't send any.
• 🙋 Claim first when the project asks. Comment on the issue and wait for a maintainer before you start.
• 🤖 Keep a human in the loop. If an agent runs calldibs, it works on one issue at a time, and a person reviews every PR before it's opened.

calldibs find lists at most 30 issues on purpose. It's for picking one, not for feeding a pipeline.

⚠️ Limits

• 📜 The rule lines come from keyword matching. They point you to the right part of the file; read the file itself before you decide.
• 🗣️ Claim detection only knows English phrases like "I'd like to work on this", "can I take this" and /assign.
• 📄 It reads the newest 100 comments and the newest 100 linked PRs. That covers nearly every issue.
• 🤖 It does not look at CLA bots or required checks on recent PRs.

🛠️ Development

uv sync
uv run ruff format src tests
uv run ruff check src tests
uv run python -m unittest discover -s tests

The code is one module, src/calldibs/cli.py, with no runtime dependencies. AGENTS.md has the notes for coding agents working on this repo.

📄 License

MIT