Git Explorer Skill

Use this skill when the user needs to search or explore GitHub content, including repositories, code, issues, pull requests, or commits. This skill leverages the github-explorer agent for advanced GitHub search using the GitHub CLI (gh) with sophisticated query construction.

When to Use This Skill

• •User explicitly mentions "search GitHub", "GitHub search", or similar phrases
• •Need to find github repositories matching specific criteria (language, stars, topics, etc.)
• •Need to search for code snippets across GitHub
• •Need to explore issues, pull requests, or commits
• •Need to perform advanced searches using GitHub's query language

Key Capabilities

1. •Repository Search: Find repositories by name, description, topics, language, stars, forks
2. •Code Search: Search for code snippets across all public repositories
3. •Issue/PR Search: Find issues and pull requests by state, labels, assignees, authors
4. •Commit Search: Search commits by author, date, message content
5. •Advanced Filtering: Use qualifiers, boolean operators, comparison operators, and ranges

Recommended Approach

1. Invoke the GitHub Explorer Agent

For complex GitHub searches, delegate to the specialized github-explorer agent:

# Use the Task tool to launch the github-explorer agent
Task(description="Search GitHub", prompt="Search GitHub for repositories about machine learning with Python and >1000 stars", subagent_type="github-explorer")

The github-explorer agent has expertise in:

• •GitHub CLI (gh search) with all subcommands
• •Advanced query construction with qualifiers and operators
• •Rate limit management and authentication
• •JSON output processing and analysis

2. Direct GitHub CLI Commands

For simple searches, you can use gh commands directly:

# Search repositories
gh search repos "machine learning" --language=python --stars=">1000" --limit=10 --json

# Search code
gh search code "def train_model" --language=python --repo=org/repo --json

# Search issues
gh search issues "bug" --state=open --label=bug --json

# Search commits
gh search commits "fix memory leak" --author=username --json

3. Query Construction Examples

Basic repository search:

gh search repos "neural network" --language=python --stars=">500" --json | jq -r '.[] | "\(.nameWithOwner): \(.description)"'

Advanced search with multiple qualifiers:

gh search repos "topic:deep-learning language:python stars:>1000 forks:>100" --json

Code search with path filtering:

gh search code "import torch" --language=python --path="src/" --json

Qualifiers Reference

Common GitHub search qualifiers:

• •repo:owner/name - Specific repository
• •language:python - Programming language
• •stars:>1000 - Star count
• •forks:>100 - Fork count
• •topic:machine-learning - Repository topics
• •path:src/ - File path
• •filename:*.py - File name pattern
• •is:public / is:private - Repository visibility
• •created:>2023-01-01 - Creation date
• •pushed:>2024-01-01 - Last push date

Best Practices

1. •Use JSON output: Always add --json flag for machine-readable results
2. •Limit results: Use --limit to control output size (default 30, max 100)
3. •Authenticate for higher limits: Run gh auth login for higher rate limits (30 vs 10 requests/minute)
4. •Combine flag-based and raw qualifiers: Some qualifiers work better as flags, others in raw query
5. •Test with small limits first: Use --limit=2 to verify query syntax before full execution
6. •Process results with jq: Filter and format JSON output for readability

Common Use Cases

Finding Popular Repositories

gh search repos "machine learning" --language=python --stars=">10000" --json | jq -r '.[] | "\(.nameWithOwner) (\(.stargazerCount) stars): \(.description)"'

Searching for Code Patterns

gh search code "from transformers import" --language=python --json | jq -r '.[] | "\(.repository.nameWithOwner): \(.path)"'

Exploring Issues by Label

gh search issues "good first issue" --state=open --label="good first issue" --json | jq -r '.[] | "\(.repository.nameWithOwner)#\(.number): \(.title)"'

References

• •GitHub Explorer agent: /Users/cristianoliveira/.dotfiles/ai/shared/agents/github-explorer.md
• •GitHub advanced search research: .tmp/docs/github-advanced-search.md
• •GitHub CLI documentation: gh help search
• •GitHub search syntax: https://docs.github.com/en/search-github

Notes

• •For complex boolean logic (parentheses), use the github-explorer agent which has workarounds using the API endpoint
• •The github-explorer agent is specifically designed to handle GitHub's advanced search capabilities and query limitations
• •Always consider rate limits when performing multiple searches