name: milestone-management description: Use for time-based grouping of issues into delivery phases. Creates, updates, and tracks milestones, associates issues and epics, monitors progress toward milestone completion.

Milestone Management

Overview

Milestones group issues by delivery phase or time period. They answer "what will be done by when?"

Core principle: Milestones are delivery commitments. Track them closely.

Announce at start: "I'm using milestone-management to organize work into delivery phases."

What is a Milestone?

A milestone is:

• A GitHub milestone with a title, description, and optional due date
• A collection of issues and epics targeting that delivery phase
• A progress tracker showing completion percentage

Milestone vs Epic

An epic can be assigned to a milestone. Multiple epics can share a milestone.

Creating a Milestone

Via GitHub CLI

# Create milestone with due date
gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones \
  -X POST \
  -f title="[NAME]" \
  -f description="[DESCRIPTION]" \
  -f due_on="YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ"

# Create milestone without due date
gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones \
  -X POST \
  -f title="[NAME]" \
  -f description="[DESCRIPTION]"

Milestone Naming Conventions

Milestone Description Template

## [MILESTONE NAME]

### Goals
- [Primary goal 1]
- [Primary goal 2]

### Epics Included
- #[EPIC_1] - [Epic Title]
- #[EPIC_2] - [Epic Title]

### Key Deliverables
1. [Deliverable 1]
2. [Deliverable 2]
3. [Deliverable 3]

### Success Criteria
- [ ] [Criterion 1]
- [ ] [Criterion 2]

### Dependencies
- Requires: [Previous milestone or external dependency]
- Enables: [What this milestone unblocks]

---
**Target Date:** [DATE]
**Owner:** [Team/Person]

Assigning Issues to Milestones

Assign During Creation

gh issue create \
  --title "[Title]" \
  --milestone "[MILESTONE_NAME]" \
  --body "[Body]"

Assign Existing Issue

gh issue edit [ISSUE_NUMBER] --milestone "[MILESTONE_NAME]"

Assign Epic to Milestone

# Assign the epic tracking issue
gh issue edit [EPIC_NUMBER] --milestone "[MILESTONE_NAME]"

# Assign all issues in the epic
gh issue list --label "epic-[NAME]" --json number --jq '.[].number' | \
  while read num; do
    gh issue edit "$num" --milestone "[MILESTONE_NAME]"
  done

Tracking Milestone Progress

View Milestone Status

# List milestones with progress
gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones \
  --jq '.[] | "\(.title): \(.open_issues) open, \(.closed_issues) closed"'

# Get specific milestone details
gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones/[NUMBER] \
  --jq '{title, open_issues, closed_issues, due_on, description}'

List Issues in Milestone

# All issues in milestone
gh issue list --milestone "[MILESTONE_NAME]"

# Open issues in milestone
gh issue list --milestone "[MILESTONE_NAME]" --state open

# Closed issues in milestone
gh issue list --milestone "[MILESTONE_NAME]" --state closed

Progress Report

Generate a progress report:

# Get milestone data
MILESTONE_DATA=$(gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones/[NUMBER])

TITLE=$(echo "$MILESTONE_DATA" | jq -r '.title')
OPEN=$(echo "$MILESTONE_DATA" | jq -r '.open_issues')
CLOSED=$(echo "$MILESTONE_DATA" | jq -r '.closed_issues')
TOTAL=$((OPEN + CLOSED))
PERCENT=$((CLOSED * 100 / TOTAL))
DUE=$(echo "$MILESTONE_DATA" | jq -r '.due_on')

echo "## Milestone: $TITLE"
echo "**Progress:** $CLOSED / $TOTAL ($PERCENT%)"
echo "**Open:** $OPEN issues"
echo "**Due:** $DUE"

Milestone Lifecycle

┌────────────┐     ┌────────────┐     ┌────────────┐     ┌────────────┐
│  Planning  │────▶│   Active   │────▶│  Closing   │────▶│   Closed   │
└────────────┘     └────────────┘     └────────────┘     └────────────┘
     │                   │                   │                  │
     ▼                   ▼                   ▼                  ▼
  Adding              Work in            Finishing         All issues
  issues              progress           last items        resolved

Milestone States

Updating Milestones

Update Description/Due Date

# Update due date
gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones/[NUMBER] \
  -X PATCH \
  -f due_on="YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ"

# Update description
gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones/[NUMBER] \
  -X PATCH \
  -f description="[NEW_DESCRIPTION]"

Close a Milestone

gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones/[NUMBER] \
  -X PATCH \
  -f state="closed"

Milestone Planning Patterns

Initiative Phases

For large initiatives, create phase milestones:

# Phase 1: Foundation
gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones -X POST \
  -f title="[Initiative] Phase 1: Foundation" \
  -f description="Infrastructure and setup for [Initiative Name]"

# Phase 2: Core Features
gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones -X POST \
  -f title="[Initiative] Phase 2: Core Features" \
  -f description="Primary feature implementation"

# Phase 3: Polish & Launch
gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones -X POST \
  -f title="[Initiative] Phase 3: Polish & Launch" \
  -f description="Final testing, polish, and release"

Release Milestones

For version-based releases:

gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones -X POST \
  -f title="v2.0.0" \
  -f description="Major release with [features]" \
  -f due_on="2026-03-01T00:00:00Z"

Quarterly Milestones

For quarterly planning:

gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones -X POST \
  -f title="Q1 2026" \
  -f description="Q1 2026 deliverables" \
  -f due_on="2026-03-31T23:59:59Z"

Handling Slippage

When issues won't make a milestone:

Option 1: Move to Next Milestone

gh issue edit [ISSUE_NUMBER] --milestone "[NEXT_MILESTONE]"

Option 2: Extend Milestone

gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones/[NUMBER] \
  -X PATCH \
  -f due_on="[NEW_DATE]"

Option 3: Reduce Scope

Move non-critical issues out:

# Remove from milestone (set to no milestone)
gh issue edit [ISSUE_NUMBER] --milestone ""

Document Slippage

gh issue comment [EPIC_OR_INITIATIVE] --body "## Milestone Update

**Milestone:** [NAME]
**Original Due:** [DATE]
**Status:** At risk

**Issues slipping:**
- #[N] - [Reason]
- #[N] - [Reason]

**Action taken:**
- [Moved X issues to next milestone]
- [Extended deadline by Y days]
- [Descoped Z items]"

Milestone Reports

Weekly Status Report

## Milestone Status Report - [DATE]

### [MILESTONE 1]
- **Progress:** 12/20 (60%)
- **Due:** [DATE]
- **Status:** 🟢 On Track
- **Blockers:** None

### [MILESTONE 2]
- **Progress:** 3/15 (20%)
- **Due:** [DATE]
- **Status:** 🟡 At Risk
- **Blockers:** Waiting on #123

### [MILESTONE 3]
- **Progress:** 0/10 (0%)
- **Due:** [DATE]
- **Status:** ⚪ Not Started
- **Blockers:** Depends on Milestone 2

Generate Report Script

echo "# Milestone Status Report - $(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
echo ""

gh api repos/$GITHUB_OWNER/$GITHUB_REPO/milestones --jq '.[] |
  "## \(.title)\n- **Progress:** \(.closed_issues)/\(.open_issues + .closed_issues)\n- **Due:** \(.due_on // "No due date")\n"'

Memory Integration

mcp__memory__create_entities([{
  "name": "Milestone-[NAME]",
  "entityType": "Milestone",
  "observations": [
    "Created: [DATE]",
    "Due: [DATE]",
    "Repository: $GITHUB_REPO",
    "Epics: [LIST]",
    "Issues: [COUNT]",
    "Status: [Planning/Active/Closed]"
  ]
}])

Checklist

• Created milestone with clear name
• Added description with goals
• Set due date (if applicable)
• Assigned epics to milestone
• Assigned issues to milestone
• Documented in initiative (if applicable)
• Set up progress tracking
• Stored in knowledge graph