Github Bot

Name: Github Bot
Author: joelhooks

joelhooks/joelclaw

35 installs
61 repo stars
Updated August 4, 2026
joelhooks/joelclaw

Interact with the GitHub API as the joelclawgithub[bot] app to create PRs, push commits, manage issues, and check CI across all repos.

About

Authenticates as a GitHub App installation to perform GitHub API operations under a bot identity. A developer uses it for programmatic PRs, commits, issues, and CI checks that should appear as the bot, not a user.

Generate a 1-hour installation token via the bundled github-token.sh
Secrets stay in agent-secrets; log all write operations with slog

Github Bot by the numbers

35 all-time installs (skills.sh)
Ranked #340 of 733 Git & Pull Requests skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
Data as of Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)

npx skills add https://github.com/joelhooks/joelclaw --skill github-bot

Add your badge

Show developers this skill is listed on Skillselion. Paste this into your README.

[![Listed on Skillselion](https://skillselion.com/badge/skills/joelhooks/joelclaw/github-bot.svg)](https://skillselion.com/skills/joelhooks/joelclaw/github-bot)

Installs	35
repo stars	★ 61
Last updated	August 4, 2026
Repository	joelhooks/joelclaw ↗

What it does

Interact with the GitHub API as the joelclawgithub[bot] app to create PRs, push commits, manage issues, and check CI across all repos.

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

GitHub Bot

Interact with GitHub API via the joelclawgithub[bot] GitHub App. Acts as a bot identity with access to all 280+ repos across @joelhooks personal and org accounts.

Authentication

Generate a 1-hour installation token:

TOKEN=$(SKILL_DIR/scripts/github-token.sh)

Use in API calls:

curl -H "Authorization: token $TOKEN" -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/...

Token expires in 1 hour. Generate a new one if a request returns 401.

Secrets

Stored in agent-secrets (do not hardcode):

Secret	Content
`github_app_id`	App ID (2867136)
`github_app_client_id`	Client ID
`github_app_installation_id`	Installation ID
`github_app_pem`	RSA private key

Bot Identity

Commits: joelclawgithub[bot] <2867136+joelclawgithub[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
All API actions (comments, reviews, PRs) show as joelclawgithub[bot]
Has read/write access to: contents, issues, PRs, actions, deployments, environments, secrets, packages, workflows, checks, statuses, hooks, projects

Logging

Log all GitHub write operations with slog:

slog write --action "ACTION" --tool "github-bot" --detail "what was done" --reason "why"

Actions: create-pr, push-commit, create-issue, merge-pr, create-release, update-workflow, etc.

Pagination

GitHub API paginates at 100 items. For full listing:

PAGE=1
while true; do
  RESULT=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: token $TOKEN" \
    "https://api.github.com/endpoint?per_page=100&page=$PAGE")
  # process $RESULT
  [ "$(echo "$RESULT" | python3 -c 'import json,sys; print(len(json.load(sys.stdin)))')" -lt 100 ] && break
  PAGE=$((PAGE+1))
done

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Generate a GitHub App installation access token.
# Outputs the token to stdout. Expires in 1 hour.
#
# Usage: ./github-token.sh
#
# Requires: openssl, curl, /Users/joel/.local/bin/secrets

set -euo pipefail

SECRETS=/Users/joel/.local/bin/secrets

lease_value() {
  "$SECRETS" lease "$1" --ttl 2m 2>/dev/null
}

APP_ID=$(lease_value github_app_id)
INSTALL_ID=$(lease_value github_app_installation_id)
PEM=$(lease_value github_app_pem)

# Write PEM to temp file for openssl
TMPKEY=$(mktemp)
trap 'rm -f "$TMPKEY"' EXIT
echo "$PEM" > "$TMPKEY"

# Build JWT (10 min expiry)
NOW=$(date +%s)
HEADER=$(echo -n '{"alg":"RS256","typ":"JWT"}' | openssl base64 -e | tr -d '=\n' | tr '/+' '_-')
PAYLOAD=$(echo -n "{\"iat\":$((NOW-60)),\"exp\":$((NOW+300)),\"iss\":\"${APP_ID}\"}" | openssl base64 -e | tr -d '=\n' | tr '/+' '_-')
SIGNATURE=$(echo -n "${HEADER}.${PAYLOAD}" | openssl dgst -sha256 -sign "$TMPKEY" | openssl base64 -e | tr -d '=\n' | tr '/+' '_-')
JWT="${HEADER}.${PAYLOAD}.${SIGNATURE}"

# Exchange JWT for installation token
RESPONSE=$(curl -sf -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $JWT" \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  "https://api.github.com/app/installations/${INSTALL_ID}/access_tokens")

echo "$RESPONSE" | python3 -c "import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['token'])"