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:

• Edit ~/.copilot/github-copilot/mcp.json

• Remove or set "disabled": false for github-mcp-server:

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

• Restart the Copilot CLI session

When to use MCP vs gh CLI:

Use gh CLI Use GitHub MCP

Standard issue/PR operations Complex multi-step GitHub operations

CI/CD workflow management Bulk operations across many repos

Quick lookups and status checks Advanced GraphQL queries

Script automation Operations requiring persistent state

Most daily GitHub interactions Rare, specialized GitHub integrations

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