What do I need to use First Issue Designer?

The repo; The roadmap or backlog; Things the maintainer does not want touched; Review capacity; Existing labels.

Is First Issue Designer free to use?

Yes — run it free in the browser playground (no API key needed for the sponsored trial, or bring any provider key), or install it into Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT and more via npx pm-claude-skills. MIT-licensed and open source.

First Issue Designer

Q: How do I know the First Issue Designer output is good?

The skill verifies itself against its own quality checks: Between 8 and 12 issues, each in the exact format above; Every issue names the files to touch and at least one test or doc to update; Every acceptance criterion is observable (a command, output or page someone can check); No issue requires a decision the maintainer has not made.

🔵 Stable🕐 updated 2026-10-04 ✅ 3.5/5 🔷 SkillSpec L3 pm-oss-launch

Use when asked to create good first issues, prepare a repo for new contributors, turn a roadmap into starter tasks, or write issues that newcomers can actually finish. Produces 8 to 12 good first issues from a codebase and roadmap, each with context, acceptance criteria, files to touch and an effort estimate, plus the labels and a short pinned welcome note. For the CONTRIBUTING guide itself, use contributor-guide.

▶ Run it free — no key needed 📝 Grade your existing draft 📱 Use as an app View SKILL.md ↗ What changed

🗣 Say this to your agent

“Create good first issues for my repo from this roadmap.”“I want contributors. Write 10 starter issues newcomers can finish.”“Turn these TODO comments into good first issues with acceptance criteria.”“Prepare my project for Hacktoberfest-style contributors.”

What to give it

▸The repo — structure, main language, how to run tests

▸The roadmap or backlog — what the maintainer wants done next

▸Things the maintainer does not want touched — core modules, areas mid-refactor

▸Review capacity — how many PRs a week the maintainer can review

▸Existing labels — and any CONTRIBUTING guide

✅ The bar it holds itself to

Every skill in this library self-verifies — these are this skill's own quality checks, straight from its definition.

✓Between 8 and 12 issues, each in the exact format above

✓Every issue names the files to touch and at least one test or doc to update

✓Every acceptance criterion is observable (a command, output or page someone can check)

✓No issue requires a decision the maintainer has not made

✓No issue touches more than three files or depends on another open issue

✓At least three issues are estimated at two hours or less

✓The welcome note's review promise matches the stated review capacity

⚠️ What it refuses to do

**"Improve the docs".** Too vague to finish. Name the page and the missing section.

**Hidden epics.** A "small" refactor that ripples through ten files discourages first-timers.

**Issues only the maintainer could do.** If it needs context from a private conversation, it is not a first issue.

**Promising fast reviews you cannot give.** A PR left for a month loses the contributor.

Install

npx pm-claude-skills add --agent claude   # or codex · cursor · gemini · hermes
# or one-line MCP (every skill, any client):
claude mcp add pm-skills -- npx -y -p pm-claude-skills pm-claude-skills-mcp

Related skills

🔌 Embed this skill

Drop this on your blog, docs, or site — it renders a "Run this skill" card:

<div data-pm-skill="first-issue-designer"></div>
<script src="https://mohitagw15856.github.io/pm-claude-skills/embed.js" async></script>

💬 Discussion

First Issue Designer is one of 1307 open-source professional AI agent skills — all SkillSpec L3. Try them all in the browser · ⭐ Star on GitHub · Browse the full catalog