[Question]: How does cleo issue interact with GitHub issue templates

[kryptobaseddev]

What do you need help with?

Trying to understand the relationship between cleo issue subcommands and the .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE yml files. Does the CLI bypass the template form or does it map to the same fields?

Are you using an AI agent?

Yes - AI agent filed this question

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Environment

Component	Version
CLEO	0.93.4
Bash	5.3.0(1)-release
jq	jq-1.8.1
OS	Linux 6.18.8-200.fc43.x86_64 x86_64
Shell	bash
gh CLI	gh version 2.86.0 (2026-01-21)
Install	/home/keatonhoskins/.local/bin/cleo

[kryptobaseddev]

Answer

cleo issue bypasses GitHub issue template forms entirely. Here's the precise relationship:

How it works

The CLI uses gh issue create --title --body --label directly — it does not use gh issue create --template. This means:

1. No template form validation — GitHub's YAML form fields (dropdowns, required checks, etc.) are completely skipped
2. Manual section mirroring — The CLI hardcodes section headers (### What happened?, ### Problem or use case, ### What do you need help with?) that visually match what the GitHub web UI renders, but this is cosmetic alignment only
3. Partial field coverage — Many template fields are omitted. For example, bug_report.yml has 8 form fields but the CLI only populates 2 (description via --body, and agent-usage as hardcoded "Yes"). Steps to reproduce, error output, expected behavior, install method, and severity dropdown are all collapsed into the single --body blob
4. Extra content — The CLI auto-appends an ## Environment diagnostics table that the templates don't generate

The two systems serve different audiences

System	Audience	How it works
.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/*.yml	Humans using the GitHub web UI	Form-based, validates required fields
cleo issue CLI	Programmatic/agent filing	Constructs body string, applies labels directly via API

Known coupling issues

The CLI currently duplicates information from the templates (title prefixes, section headers, label sets) in 9+ hardcoded locations. There is no code that reads or parses the YAML template files. This is being addressed in GH #18.

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Closing this as answered. The template interaction improvements are tracked in #17 and #18.

[kryptobaseddev]

Answered above. Template interaction improvements tracked in #17 and #18.