GitHub CLI Skill
Use the official GitHub CLI (gh) in Claude.ai for repository operations.
Setup
1. Install (once per session)
bash
apt-get update && apt-get install -y gh
2. Claude.ai Network Allowlist
Add api.github.com to your project's allowed domains:
- •Go to your Claude Project settings
- •Find Network/Egress settings
- •Add
api.github.com - •Start a new chat (network settings load at conversation start)
3. Authentication
Set your GitHub PAT as an environment variable:
bash
export GH_TOKEN="github_pat_xxxx"
Create a fine-grained PAT at: https://github.com/settings/tokens?type=beta
Verify auth:
bash
gh auth status
Common Operations
Repository
bash
# View repo info gh repo view owner/repo # Create new repo gh repo create owner/repo --private --description "My project" # Clone repo gh repo clone owner/repo # List your repos gh repo list
Files & Commits
bash
# Push a single file (create or update)
CONTENT=$(base64 -w 0 myfile.txt)
gh api -X PUT repos/owner/repo/contents/path/to/file.txt \
-f message="Add file" \
-f content="$CONTENT" \
-f branch="main"
# Update existing file (need SHA)
SHA=$(gh api repos/owner/repo/contents/path/to/file.txt --jq '.sha')
gh api -X PUT repos/owner/repo/contents/path/to/file.txt \
-f message="Update file" \
-f content="$CONTENT" \
-f sha="$SHA" \
-f branch="main"
# Delete a file
SHA=$(gh api repos/owner/repo/contents/path/to/file.txt --jq '.sha')
gh api -X DELETE repos/owner/repo/contents/path/to/file.txt \
-f message="Delete file" \
-f sha="$SHA" \
-f branch="main"
# List files in a directory
gh api repos/owner/repo/contents/path/to/dir
Branches
bash
# List branches
gh api repos/owner/repo/branches --jq '.[].name'
# Create branch from main
SHA=$(gh api repos/owner/repo/git/refs/heads/main --jq '.object.sha')
gh api -X POST repos/owner/repo/git/refs \
-f ref="refs/heads/feature/new-branch" \
-f sha="$SHA"
# Delete branch
gh api -X DELETE repos/owner/repo/git/refs/heads/feature/old-branch
Pull Requests
bash
# Create PR (from cloned repo)
gh pr create --title "My PR" --body "Description" --base main --head feature-branch
# Create PR via API (without clone)
gh api -X POST repos/owner/repo/pulls \
-f title="My PR" \
-f body="Description" \
-f head="feature-branch" \
-f base="main"
# List PRs
gh pr list --repo owner/repo
# View PR
gh pr view 123 --repo owner/repo
# Merge PR
gh pr merge 123 --repo owner/repo --squash
Issues
bash
# Create issue gh issue create --repo owner/repo --title "Bug" --body "Description" # List issues gh issue list --repo owner/repo # Close issue gh issue close 123 --repo owner/repo
Releases
bash
# Create release gh release create v1.0.0 --repo owner/repo --title "v1.0.0" --notes "Release notes" # Create release with files gh release create v1.0.0 ./dist/*.zip --repo owner/repo # List releases gh release list --repo owner/repo
Actions / Workflows
bash
# List workflow runs gh run list --repo owner/repo # View run details gh run view 12345 --repo owner/repo # Trigger workflow gh workflow run build.yml --repo owner/repo
Required Permissions
Fine-grained PAT
| Permission | Level | For |
|---|---|---|
| Contents | Read and write | Files, branches |
| Pull requests | Read and write | PRs |
| Issues | Read and write | Issues |
| Actions | Read and write | Workflows |
| Metadata | Read | Auto-granted |
| Workflows | Read and write | Push to .github/workflows/ |
Classic PAT
Use repo scope for full access, or specific scopes as needed.
Tips
Use --jq for JSON parsing
bash
gh api repos/owner/repo --jq '.default_branch' gh api repos/owner/repo/branches --jq '.[].name'
Batch operations with xargs
bash
# Delete multiple branches
echo -e "old-branch-1\nold-branch-2" | xargs -I {} gh api -X DELETE repos/owner/repo/git/refs/heads/{}
Check rate limits
bash
gh api rate_limit --jq '.resources.core'