CSV Input for Feature Triage and Tracking
CIFTT turns your soul-crushing spreadsheets into structured GitHub issues and project entries—because if you’re going to suffer, at least automate it.
It’s Friday afternoon.
You’re almost free. Your brain is halfway out the door, already thinking about nachos or silence or both.
Then it happens. A spreadsheet lands in your inbox with 200 feature requests. Two. Hundred.
Your manager wants them in GitHub. Tracked. Tagged. Assigned. Beautifully sorted into your GitHub Project like some kind of agile wizard.
But GitHub doesn’t let you bulk upload to Projects. You have three options:
- Spend the rest of your day (and soul) copying and pasting until your mouse becomes an extension of your sadness.
- Resign yourself to “just using the spreadsheet” and pretending that's fine (it’s not).
- Or—you know—use CIFTT, feed it that cursed CSV, and go live your life.
CIFTT automates the pain away. It parses your spreadsheet and creates GitHub issues, fills in Projects fields, and gives you back your weekend.
You deserve better. Let the robot do the boring part.
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Create issues in a GitHub repository with basic fields | ✅ Done |
| Update basic fields of existing issues in a GitHub repository | ✅ Done |
| Validate labels and assignees in the CSV before creating/updating | 🛠️ In Progress |
| Set GitHub Project fields when creating or updating issues | 📝 To Do |
| Validate GitHub Project field values in the CSV | 📝 To Do |
| Provide tips and examples to help prepare the CSV | 📝 To Do |
# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/hillairet/ciftt.git
cd ciftt
# Check your GitHub token and permissions
python ciftt.py check-token
# Import issues from CSV
python ciftt.py import-issues input.csv myorg/myrepo
# Export issues to CSV
python ciftt.py export-issues myorg/myrepo output.csv
# Export specific issues
python ciftt.py export-issues myorg/myrepo output.csv --issues "1,3-5,8"
# Export all issues (including closed ones)
python ciftt.py export-issues myorg/myrepo output.csv --all
# Export issues with GitHub Project fields
python ciftt.py export-issues myorg/myrepo output.csv --fields "Priority,Status,Sprint"
# Export specific issues with project fields
python ciftt.py export-issues myorg/myrepo output.csv --issues "1-10" --fields "Priority,Assignee,Due Date"Your CSV should include headers like:
title,description,labels,assignee,url
Only the title is necessary to create an issue and therefore only the title column is mandatory.
When exporting issues, the CSV will contain these fields, with the description field preserving newlines as "\n" characters to maintain CSV format integrity.
When using the --fields option during export, CIFTT will fetch GitHub Project v2 field values and include them as additional columns in your CSV:
title,description,labels,assignee,url,Priority,Status,Sprint
"Fix login bug","User cannot login with special characters","bug,high-priority","john","https://github.com/myorg/myrepo/issues/42","High","In Progress","Sprint 23"
This allows you to export issues with their current project field values, modify them in your spreadsheet, and then re-import to update the project fields.
Before importing or exporting issues, you can validate your GitHub token:
python ciftt.py check-tokenThis command will:
- ✅ Verify your token is valid and show the authenticated user
- 🔑 Display your token's scopes (permissions)
- 🏢 List authorized organizations (helpful for SSO troubleshooting)
- 📊 Show current API rate limit status
Unlike simple CSV import scripts, CIFTT automatically validates that your token has the required scopes (repo and project) and can access the target repository at the beginning of both import and export operations. This prevents frustrating 403 errors and provides clear guidance when permissions are missing or SSO needs to be enabled for an organization.
CIFTT is experimental. Like your last relationship. Use with caution. We’re not responsible for any emotional damage caused by accidental issue spam.