Github

GitHub CLI Skill

Quick Start

Authentication

# Interactive authentication (recommended)
gh auth login

# Check authentication status
gh auth status

# Login with token
gh auth login --with-token < token.txt

# Login to enterprise
gh auth login --hostname github.example.com

Configuration

# Set default editor
gh config set editor "code --wait"

# Set default browser
gh config set browser "firefox"

# Set default git protocol
gh config set git_protocol ssh

# View all settings
gh config list

Essential Commands (Most Common First)

1. Issues

# Create issue
gh issue create --title "Bug: something broken" --body "Description here"

# Create with labels
gh issue create --title "Feature request" --label "enhancement,priority:high"

# List issues
gh issue list                    # Open issues
gh issue list --state all        # All issues
gh issue list --assignee @me     # Assigned to me
gh issue list --label "bug"      # By label

# View issue
gh issue view 123                # By number
gh issue view 123 --comments     # With comments

# Edit issue
gh issue edit 123 --title "New title"
gh issue edit 123 --add-label "in-progress"
gh issue edit 123 --assignee username

# Close/reopen
gh issue close 123
gh issue close 123 --comment "Fixed in PR #456"
gh issue reopen 123

# Comment
gh issue comment 123 --body "This is a comment"

2. Pull Requests

# Create PR
gh pr create --title "Feature: new thing" --body "Description"
gh pr create --draft                       # Create as draft
gh pr create --fill                        # Auto-fill from commits

# List PRs
gh pr list                        # Open PRs
gh pr list --state merged         # Merged PRs
gh pr list --author @me           # My PRs
gh pr list --search "review:required"

# View PR
gh pr view 123                    # By number
gh pr view                        # Current branch PR
gh pr diff 123                    # View diff
gh pr checks 123                  # View CI status

# Review PRs
gh pr review 123 --approve
gh pr review 123 --request-changes --body "Please fix X"
gh pr review 123 --comment --body "Looks good overall"

# Merge
gh pr merge 123                   # Interactive
gh pr merge 123 --squash          # Squash merge
gh pr merge 123 --rebase          # Rebase merge
gh pr merge 123 --auto            # Auto-merge when checks pass

# Mark ready
gh pr ready 123                   # Convert draft to ready

# Comment
gh pr comment 123 --body "Comment text"

# Close
gh pr close 123

3. Repository

# Clone
gh repo clone owner/repo
gh repo clone owner/repo -- --depth 1   # Shallow clone

# Create
gh repo create my-repo --public
gh repo create my-repo --private --clone

# View
gh repo view                      # Current repo
gh repo view owner/repo           # Specific repo
gh repo view --web                # Open in browser

# Fork
gh repo fork owner/repo
gh repo fork owner/repo --clone   # Fork and clone

# Sync fork
gh repo sync                      # Sync fork with upstream

# List repos
gh repo list                      # Your repos
gh repo list owner                # Organization repos

4. Workflow (GitHub Actions)

# List workflows
gh workflow list

# View workflow runs
gh run list                       # Recent runs
gh run list --workflow ci.yml     # By workflow
gh run list --status failure      # Failed runs

# View run details
gh run view 123456                # By run ID
gh run view 123456 --log          # With logs
gh run view 123456 --log-failed   # Only failed logs

# Trigger workflow
gh workflow run ci.yml
gh workflow run ci.yml -f param=value

# Watch run
gh run watch                      # Watch current branch run
gh run watch 123456               # Watch specific run

# Cancel/rerun
gh run cancel 123456
gh run rerun 123456
gh run rerun 123456 --failed      # Rerun only failed jobs

5. Search

# Search issues/PRs
gh search issues "bug in:title"
gh search issues "label:bug state:open"
gh search prs "author:username is:merged"

# Search repos
gh search repos "language:python stars:>1000"

# Search code
gh search code "function handleError"
gh search code "filename:config.json org:myorg"

Advanced Commands

Releases

# Create release
gh release create v1.0.0 --title "Version 1.0" --notes "Release notes"
gh release create v1.0.0 --generate-notes   # Auto-generate notes
gh release create v1.0.0 ./dist/*           # Upload assets

# List/view
gh release list
gh release view v1.0.0

# Download assets
gh release download v1.0.0
gh release download v1.0.0 --pattern "*.zip"

Gists

# Create gist
gh gist create file.txt
gh gist create --public file.txt
gh gist create -d "Description" file1.txt file2.txt

# List/view
gh gist list
gh gist view gist_id

# Edit
gh gist edit gist_id

API Access

# GraphQL query
gh api graphql -f query='{ viewer { login } }'

# REST API
gh api repos/owner/repo/issues
gh api repos/owner/repo/issues --method POST -f title="Issue title"

# Paginate
gh api repos/owner/repo/issues --paginate

SSH Keys & GPG

# SSH keys
gh ssh-key add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub --title "My laptop"
gh ssh-key list

# GPG keys
gh gpg-key add key.asc
gh gpg-key list

Common Patterns

Issue-to-PR Workflow

# 1. Create issue
gh issue create --title "Feature: X" --label "enhancement"
# Returns issue #123

# 2. Create branch and work
git checkout -b feat/issue-123-x

# 3. Create PR linking to issue
gh pr create --title "Feature: X" --body "Closes #123"

Code Review Flow

# Check out PR locally
gh pr checkout 456

# Run tests, review code...

# Approve or request changes
gh pr review 456 --approve --body "LGTM!"

CI Failure Investigation

# List failed runs
gh run list --status failure

# Get logs
gh run view RUN_ID --log-failed

# Rerun after fix
gh run rerun RUN_ID

Re-enabling GitHub MCP Server

If you need the full GitHub MCP server for advanced operations (e.g., complex GraphQL queries, bulk operations), you can ask:

"Please use the GitHub MCP server" or "Re-enable GitHub MCP"

To re-enable manually:

1. Edit ~/.copilot/github-copilot/mcp.json 2. Remove or set "disabled": false for github-mcp-server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github-mcp-server": {
      "disabled": false
    }
  }
}

3. Restart the Copilot CLI session

When to use MCP vs gh CLI:

Troubleshooting

# Check auth
gh auth status

# Refresh token
gh auth refresh

# Clear cache
gh cache delete --all

# Debug mode
GH_DEBUG=api gh issue list

Environment Variables

GH_TOKEN           # Auth token (alternative to gh auth)
GH_HOST            # Default host (for enterprise)
GH_REPO            # Default repo (owner/repo format)
GH_EDITOR          # Editor for interactive commands
GH_BROWSER         # Browser for --web commands
GH_DEBUG           # Enable debug output (api, oauth)
NO_COLOR           # Disable colored output

GitHub CLI Skill

This skill provides expert guidance for using the GitHub CLI (gh) as a lightweight alternative to the GitHub MCP server.

Why This Skill Exists

The GitHub MCP server consumes significant context tokens. For most GitHub operations, the gh CLI is more efficient and provides the same functionality with less overhead.

Features

• Progressive Disclosure: Common commands first, advanced features on demand
• Pattern-Based Guidance: Real workflow examples (issue→PR, code review, CI debugging)
• MCP Re-enable Option: Instructions to restore GitHub MCP if needed

Prerequisites

# Install gh CLI
brew install gh          # macOS
sudo apt install gh      # Ubuntu/Debian
winget install GitHub.cli  # Windows

# Authenticate
gh auth login

Usage

The skill auto-activates when you mention:

• GitHub issues, PRs, repos
• gh CLI commands
• GitHub Actions/workflows
• GitHub API operations

When to Use GitHub MCP Instead

The GitHub MCP server may be better for:

• Complex multi-step GitHub operations
• Bulk operations across many repositories
• Advanced GraphQL queries requiring state
• Operations the gh CLI doesn't support

To re-enable, ask: "Please use the GitHub MCP server"