Analyze open-source repository culture and maintainer sentiment before submitting PRs or issues.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install upstream-recon
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install upstream-recon using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is Upstream Recon?
Upstream Recon is a strategic intelligence tool designed for developers interacting with open-source projects they do not maintain. By leveraging the GitHub CLI, it performs a deep dive into a repository's governance, merge velocity, and maintainer behavior. This ensures that users of Openclaw Skills avoid duplicate effort and align their contributions with the project's current direction.
The skill provides a comprehensive report on repo health, identifying whether a maintainer is receptive to external features or prefers bug fixes only. By evaluating past rejections and communication patterns, it empowers developers to make informed decisions about where to invest their coding time, making it an essential part of the Openclaw Skills ecosystem.
Upstream Recon Use Cases
- Evaluating if a pull request has a high probability of being merged based on historical data.
- Searching for existing issues or discussions to avoid filing duplicate threads.
- Understanding a project's governance model and identifying the primary decision-makers.
- Investigating maintainer sentiment regarding specific feature requests or architectural changes.
- Strategic planning for Openclaw Skills users before engaging with unfamiliar upstream repositories.
How Upstream Recon Works
- Fetch repository metadata including stars, license, and last activity to gauge project health and activity levels.
- Identify the top 10 contributors to determine if the project is community-led or dominated by a single individual.
- Execute keyword-based searches across both open and closed issues to find prior art or existing workarounds.
- Analyze the last 30 pull requests and the 20 most recently merged PRs to calculate merge velocity and acceptance criteria.
- Deep-dive into the last 50 closed-without-merge PRs to identify common rejection patterns and maintainer reasoning.
- Summarize findings into a categorized recommendation such as MERGE-LIKELY or FILE-ISSUE-FIRST with concrete next steps.
Upstream Recon Setup
To utilize this skill, ensure the GitHub CLI (gh) is installed and authenticated on your system. Within your Openclaw Skills environment, you can trigger the reconnaissance by providing the repository path and optional keywords.
gh auth login
# Trigger the skill via the agent
upstream-recon owner/repo [topic-keyword]
Upstream Recon Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill organizes data retrieved through API responses from the GitHub CLI, structured into a multi-dimensional analysis report for Openclaw Skills users.
| Data Point | Description |
|---|---|
| Repo Metadata | Stars, forks, license type, and archival status. |
| Governance Model | Distribution of commits among top contributors to show team structure. |
| PR Velocity | Calculation of average days from submission to merge for external contributors. |
| Rejection Logic | Summary of common maintainer feedback from unmerged pull requests. |
| Topic Sentiment | Qualitative analysis of maintainer responses to specific technical keywords. |
Upstream Recon Advanced Features
- Parallel query execution using gh CLI to retrieve metadata and PR history simultaneously.
- Detailed rejection pattern analysis to identify "ghosted" PRs or "internal-only" feature development.
- Automated recommendation engine that categorizes the best path forward (e.g., DUPLICATE-EXISTS or COMMENT-ON-EXISTING).
- Targeted topic deep-dives to understand community workarounds for specific technical hurdles within the Openclaw Skills workflow.
SKILL.md
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