GitHub Operations

Overview

This skill provides comprehensive guidance for GitHub operations using the gh CLI tool and GitHub REST/GraphQL APIs. Use this skill when performing any GitHub-related tasks including pull request management, issue tracking, repository operations, workflow automation, and API interactions.

When to Use This Skill

This skill activates for tasks involving:

•Creating, viewing, editing, or merging pull requests
•Managing GitHub issues or repository settings
•Querying GitHub API endpoints (REST or GraphQL)
•Working with GitHub Actions workflows
•Performing bulk operations on repositories
•Integrating with GitHub Enterprise
•Automating GitHub operations via CLI or API

Core Operations

Pull Requests

bash

# Create PR with NOJIRA prefix (bypasses JIRA enforcement checks)
gh pr create --title "NOJIRA: Your PR title" --body "PR description"

# List and view PRs
gh pr list --state open
gh pr view 123

# Manage PRs
gh pr merge 123 --squash
gh pr review 123 --approve
gh pr comment 123 --body "LGTM"

📚 See references/pr_operations.md for comprehensive PR workflows

PR Title Convention:

•With JIRA ticket: GR-1234: Descriptive title
•Without JIRA ticket: NOJIRA: Descriptive title

Issues

bash

# Create and manage issues
gh issue create --title "Bug: Issue title" --body "Issue description"
gh issue list --state open --label bug
gh issue edit 456 --add-label "priority-high"
gh issue close 456

📚 See references/issue_operations.md for detailed issue management

Repositories

bash

# View and manage repos
gh repo view --web
gh repo clone owner/repo
gh repo create my-new-repo --public

Workflows

bash

# Manage GitHub Actions
gh workflow list
gh workflow run workflow-name
gh run watch run-id
gh run download run-id

📚 See references/workflow_operations.md for advanced workflow operations

GitHub API

The gh api command provides direct access to GitHub REST API endpoints. Refer to references/api_reference.md for comprehensive API endpoint documentation.

Basic API operations:

bash

# Get PR details via API
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{pr_number}

# Add PR comment
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{pr_number}/comments \
  -f body="Comment text"

# List workflow runs
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/runs

For complex queries requiring multiple related resources, use GraphQL. See references/api_reference.md for GraphQL examples.

Authentication and Configuration

bash

# Login to GitHub
gh auth login

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

# Check authentication status
gh auth status

# Set default repository
gh repo set-default owner/repo

# Configure gh settings
gh config set editor vim
gh config set git_protocol ssh
gh config list

Output Formats

Control output format for programmatic processing:

bash

# JSON output
gh pr list --json number,title,state,author

# JSON with jq processing
gh pr list --json number,title | jq '.[] | select(.title | contains("bug"))'

# Template output
gh pr list --template '{{range .}}{{.number}}: {{.title}}{{"\n"}}{{end}}'

📚 See references/best_practices.md for shell patterns and automation strategies

Quick Reference

Most Common Operations:

bash

gh pr create --title "NOJIRA: Title" --body "Description"  # Create PR
gh pr list                                                  # List PRs
gh pr view 123                                              # View PR details
gh pr checks 123                                            # Check PR status
gh pr merge 123 --squash                                    # Merge PR
gh pr comment 123 --body "LGTM"                            # Comment on PR
gh issue create --title "Title" --body "Description"       # Create issue
gh workflow run workflow-name                               # Run workflow
gh repo view --web                                          # Open repo in browser
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{pr_number}              # Direct API call

Resources

references/pr_operations.md

Comprehensive pull request operations including:

•Detailed PR creation patterns (JIRA integration, body from file, targeting branches)
•Viewing and filtering strategies
•Review workflows and approval patterns
•PR lifecycle management
•Bulk operations and automation examples

Load this reference when working with complex PR workflows or bulk operations.

references/issue_operations.md

Detailed issue management examples including:

•Issue creation with labels and assignees
•Advanced filtering and search
•Issue lifecycle and state management
•Bulk operations on multiple issues
•Integration with PRs and projects

Load this reference when managing issues at scale or setting up issue workflows.

references/workflow_operations.md

Advanced GitHub Actions workflow operations including:

•Workflow triggers and manual runs
•Run monitoring and debugging
•Artifact management
•Secrets and variables
•Performance optimization strategies

Load this reference when working with CI/CD workflows or debugging failed runs.

references/best_practices.md

Shell scripting patterns and automation strategies including:

•Output formatting (JSON, templates, jq)
•Pagination and large result sets
•Error handling and retry logic
•Bulk operations and parallel execution
•Enterprise GitHub patterns
•Performance optimization

Load this reference when building automation scripts or handling enterprise deployments.

references/api_reference.md

Contains comprehensive GitHub REST API endpoint documentation including:

•Complete API endpoint reference with examples
•Request/response formats
•Authentication patterns
•Rate limiting guidance
•Webhook configurations
•Advanced GraphQL query patterns

Load this reference when performing complex API operations or when needing detailed endpoint specifications.