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close-epic

What it does

close-epic closes an SDD epic once every sub-issue is closed and its PR to main has merged. It posts one summary comment with the ticket-to-PR table, computes a retro from GitHub state alone (tickets by size, escalations, blocking edges added mid-build, fix rounds, Verify blocks that had to be corrected, panel findings), tags each learning as [repo], [reusable] or [skill], and closes the epic.

With your consent, and only then, a [skill] learning can become a skill-feedback issue on syn54x/skills-plus-plus so the skills themselves improve. Those issues are built from a fixed allowlist of counts and categories, previewed one by one, checked by a guard script, and never filed from a non-interactive run.

When to reach for it

Type /close-epic <epic#>, or the agent reaches for it when an epic is ready to wrap up. build-epic calls it once you have merged the PR to main; it works from GitHub state alone, so it can run in any later session too. --dry-run computes everything and posts nothing.

Prerequisites

Every sub-issue closed and the integration-branch PR merged to main, in every repo of a multi-repo epic. If either is not true it stops, and the default answer to "close anyway?" is no.

The epic itself may already be closed. The integration PR says Closes #<epic>, so your merge usually closes it first; what the skill keys on is whether the <!-- sdd-summary --> comment exists, not the epic's state. With no summary it runs every step and skips only the final close; with one it stops, because it has already run.

Upstream feedback is off unless the repo's routing block says Upstream feedback: on, which setup-syn54x-skills asks about.

Common questions

The epic was already closed when I ran it. Is the retro lost? No. A closed epic with no summary comment is the normal starting state, since the PR to main closes the epic on merge. The skill posts the retro and summary as usual and leaves the close alone.

What leaves my repo? Nothing, unless feedback is on and you approve each issue. The retro comment stays on your epic. A feedback issue carries the skill and step, a category from a closed list, the retro counts, the harness and gh versions, and one sentence you type; never a repo name, URL, title, path or code.

It's working if

  • The epic has one <!-- sdd-summary --> and one <!-- sdd-retro --> comment, and every [skill] learning has a number behind it.
  • It refused to run while a sub-issue or the PR to main was still open, and running it twice on the same epic posted nothing new.
  • No feedback issue appeared without you seeing its full body first.

Where it fits

close-epic is the last step of the SDD chain, after review-panel and your merge to main. ask-syn54x routes the whole set.