GitHub Skill
Use the gh CLI to interact with GitHub repositories, issues, PRs, and CI.
When to Use
✅ USE this skill when:
- Checking PR status, reviews, or merge readiness
- Viewing CI/workflow run status and logs
- Creating, closing, or commenting on issues
- Creating or merging pull requests
- Querying GitHub API for repository data
- Listing repos, releases, or collaborators
When NOT to Use
❌ DON'T use this skill when:
- Local git operations (commit, push, pull, branch) → use
gitdirectly - Non-GitHub repos (GitLab, Bitbucket, self-hosted) → different CLIs
- Cloning repositories → use
git clone - Reviewing actual code changes → use
coding-agentskill - Complex multi-file diffs → use
coding-agentor read files directly
Setup
# Authenticate (one-time)
gh auth login
# Verify
gh auth status
Common Commands
Pull Requests
# List PRs
gh pr list --repo owner/repo
# Check CI status
gh pr checks 55 --repo owner/repo
# View PR details
gh pr view 55 --repo owner/repo
# Create PR
gh pr create --title "feat: add feature" --body "Description"
# Merge PR
gh pr merge 55 --squash --repo owner/repo
Issues
# List issues
gh issue list --repo owner/repo --state open
# Create issue
gh issue create --title "Bug: something broken" --body "Details..."
# Close issue
gh issue close 42 --repo owner/repo
CI/Workflow Runs
# List recent runs
gh run list --repo owner/repo --limit 10
# View specific run
gh run view <run-id> --repo owner/repo
# View failed step logs only
gh run view <run-id> --repo owner/repo --log-failed
# Re-run failed jobs
gh run rerun <run-id> --failed --repo owner/repo
API Queries
# Get PR with specific fields
gh api repos/owner/repo/pulls/55 --jq '.title, .state, .user.login'
# List all labels
gh api repos/owner/repo/labels --jq '.[].name'
# Get repo stats
gh api repos/owner/repo --jq '{stars: .stargazers_count, forks: .forks_count}'
JSON Output
Most commands support --json for structured output with --jq filtering:
gh issue list --repo owner/repo --json number,title --jq '.[] | "\(.number): \(.title)"'
gh pr list --json number,title,state,mergeable --jq '.[] | select(.mergeable == "MERGEABLE")'
Templates
PR Review Summary
# Get PR overview for review
PR=55 REPO=owner/repo
echo "## PR #$PR Summary"
gh pr view $PR --repo $REPO --json title,body,author,additions,deletions,changedFiles \
--jq '"**\(.title)** by @\(.author.login)\n\n\(.body)\n\n📊 +\(.additions) -\(.deletions) across \(.changedFiles) files"'
gh pr checks $PR --repo $REPO
Issue Triage
# Quick issue triage view
gh issue list --repo owner/repo --state open --json number,title,labels,createdAt \
--jq '.[] | "[\(.number)] \(.title) - \([.labels[].name] | join(", ")) (\(.createdAt[:10]))"'
Notes
- Always specify
--repo owner/repowhen not in a git directory - Use URLs directly:
gh pr view https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/55 - Rate limits apply; use
gh api --cache 1hfor repeated queries