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issue_write body parameter overwrites issue content on update — easily confused with adding a comment #2410

@Small-tailqwq

Description

@Small-tailqwq

Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve

When using issue_write with method: "update", passing a �ody parameter replaces the entire issue body. This matches the REST API semantics, but LLM agents frequently misinterpret �ody as "write a comment about this issue" rather than "replace the issue's entire description". The result is silent data loss — the original issue body gets wiped and replaced with a closing note.

Proposed solution

Two possible approaches:

  1. Add a prominent warning in the �ody parameter description, e.g.: "WARNING: This replaces the entire issue body on update, not append. Use add_issue_comment to add a comment."
  2. Add a comment parameter to issue_write as a convenience — when provided on method: "update", it posts a comment instead of modifying the body.

Option 2 reduces unnecessary round-trips (close issue + add comment = 2 calls becomes 1).

Example prompts or workflows

  1. "Close issue #42and explain why it was fixed" — agent should NOT touch the original body, but currently tends to overwrite it
  2. "Mark issue #17 as duplicate and leave a note" — agent replaces body with "duplicate of #X" instead of commenting
  3. "Update issue #8 status to closed with resolution" — body gets silently destroyed

Additional context

This was encountered using OpenCode (CLI-based AI coding tool) with DeepSeek V4 Flash model, connecting via the GitHub MCP Server (local binary). The �ody field name is especially misleading for LLMs because in natural language, "body of a message" typically means the message content itself, not the metadata/description of the thing being acted upon.

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