dependabot-triage

Triage Dependabot security alerts for a GitHub repo with Jira integration

Triage Dependabot security alerts for the GitHub repo: $ARGUMENTS

Follow these steps carefully for each open alert. Do not batch — handle them one at a time.

Step 0: Verify acli authentication

Before any Jira operations, verify that acli is authenticated by running acli jira auth status. If not authenticated, tell the user to run acli jira auth login --web and stop.

Refer to the acli skill for command syntax reference.

Step 1: Fetch all open Dependabot alerts

Run this command to list every open alert:

gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/dependabot/alerts --jq '.[] | select(.state == "open") | {number, dependency: .dependency.package.name, severity: .security_advisory.severity, summary: .security_advisory.summary, ghsa_id: .security_advisory.ghsa_id, cve_id: (.security_advisory.identifiers[] | select(.type == "CVE") | .value) // "N/A", published: .security_advisory.published_at}'

If there are no open alerts, tell me and stop.

Step 2: For each open alert, one at a time

2a: Check for an associated Dependabot PR

Search for an open Dependabot pull request that addresses this alert:

gh pr list --repo <owner>/<repo> --state open --author app/dependabot --json number,title,url --jq '.[] | select(.title | test("<package-name>"; "i"))'

2b: Present the alert summary

Present a brief summary including:

  • Alert number
  • Package name
  • Severity (critical / high / medium / low)
  • CVE ID
  • One-line description of the vulnerability
  • Associated PR (if found in 2a): PR number, title, and URL

Then ask me what I want to do using AskUserQuestion. The options must be:

  1. Merge PR (only include this option if a Dependabot PR was found) — Merge the associated Dependabot PR to fix the alert
  2. Dismiss: fix_started — A fix has already been started
  3. Dismiss: inaccurate — This alert is inaccurate or incorrect
  4. Dismiss: no_bandwidth — No bandwidth to fix this
  5. Dismiss: not_used — This code is not actually used
  6. Dismiss: tolerable_risk — Risk is tolerable to this project
  7. Skip — Leave this alert open and move to the next one

Step 3: If I choose to merge the PR

First, approve the Dependabot PR (required by branch protection policies):

gh pr review <pr-number> --repo <owner>/<repo> --approve

Then merge using rebase:

gh pr merge <pr-number> --repo <owner>/<repo> --rebase

If the merge succeeds, the Dependabot alert should be automatically resolved by GitHub. Verify by checking the alert state:

gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/dependabot/alerts/<number> --jq '.state'

Then post a comment on the PR noting it was merged during triage:

gh pr comment <pr-number> --repo <owner>/<repo> --body "Merged via Claude Code dependabot-triage."

If the alert is still open after merging, mark it as fixed:

gh api --method PATCH repos/<owner>/<repo>/dependabot/alerts/<number> \
  -f state=fixed

Confirm success or report failure before moving on.

Step 4: If I choose to dismiss, run the dismiss command

gh api --method PATCH repos/<owner>/<repo>/dependabot/alerts/<number> \
  -f state=dismissed \
  -f dismissed_reason=<reason> \
  -f dismissed_comment="Dismissed via Claude Code triage"

Confirm success or report failure before moving on.

Step 5: Search Jira for an associated ticket

After handling each alert (merged, dismissed, or skipped), search Jira for a related ticket.

IMPORTANT: Use summary ~ instead of text ~ because Jira's text field tokenizes CVE IDs (hyphens + numbers) incorrectly and returns no results. The summary field works reliably.

First, search for the CVE and repo name together in the summary field. If no results, try a broader search with just the CVE.

Filter the results to find tickets that are not already Resolved/Done/Closed.

Step 6: If a Jira ticket is found

Show me the ticket key, summary, and current status. Then ask me if I want to transition it to Resolved.

If I confirm:

  1. Add a comment to the ticket describing the action taken (e.g., "Dependabot alert #N (package CVE-ID) was merged/dismissed in GitHub. Triaged via Claude Code.")
  2. Transition the issue to "Resolved"

Only transition if I confirm.

If a Dependabot PR was merged for this alert, also add a comment on the GitHub PR linking to the Jira ticket:

gh pr comment <pr-number> --repo <owner>/<repo> --body "Associated Jira ticket: <TICKET-KEY> (<ticket-summary>)"

Step 7: Repeat

Move to the next open alert and repeat from Step 2. After all alerts are processed, print a final summary table showing:

  • Each alert number and package
  • Action taken (PR merged, dismissed with reason, or skipped)
  • Associated Jira ticket (if any) and whether it was transitioned