GitHub Skill

Interact with GitHub using two approaches:

•gh CLI — for authenticated operations (create, edit, delete, push, PRs, etc.)
•REST API via curl — for reading public repos/data without auth (faster, no login needed)

Authentication

For gh CLI operations, authenticate first:

bash

gh auth login

Public Data (REST API — no auth required)

Use curl to read public repositories, users, and content without authentication.

View public repo info

bash

curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/<owner/repo> | python3 -m json.tool

List public repos for a user

bash

curl -s "https://api.github.com/users/<user>/repos?per_page=30&sort=updated"

Get public file contents

bash

curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/<owner/repo>/contents/<path> | python3 -c "import sys,json,base64; print(base64.b64decode(json.load(sys.stdin)['content']).decode())"

List public releases

bash

curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/<owner/repo>/releases

List public issues

bash

curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/<owner/repo>/issues?state=open&per_page=30"

List branches (public repo)

bash

curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/<owner/repo>/branches

Get public user profile

bash

curl -s https://api.github.com/users/<username>

Search (public)

bash

# Search repos
curl -s "https://api.github.com/search/repositories?q=<query>&per_page=10"

# Search code
curl -s "https://api.github.com/search/code?q=<query>+repo:<owner/repo>"

# Search issues
curl -s "https://api.github.com/search/issues?q=<query>"

Rate limits

•Unauthenticated: 60 requests/hour (by IP)
•Add --jq or pipe through python3 -m json.tool for readability

Authenticated Operations (gh CLI)

Use gh for anything that requires write access or private data.

Repositories

•gh repo list [owner] --limit 20 — List repos
•gh repo create <name> --public|--private [--description "desc"] — Create repo
•gh repo view <owner/repo> — View repo details
•gh repo clone <owner/repo> — Clone a repo
•gh repo delete <owner/repo> --yes — Delete repo
•gh repo fork <owner/repo> — Fork a repo
•gh repo edit <owner/repo> --description "new desc" — Edit repo metadata

Issues

•gh issue list -R <owner/repo> [--state open|closed|all] — List issues
•gh issue create -R <owner/repo> --title "title" [--body "body"] [--label "l1,l2"] — Create issue
•gh issue view <number> -R <owner/repo> — View issue
•gh issue close <number> -R <owner/repo> — Close issue
•gh issue reopen <number> -R <owner/repo> — Reopen issue
•gh issue comment <number> -R <owner/repo> --body "comment" — Add comment
•gh issue edit <number> -R <owner/repo> --title "new title" — Edit issue

Pull Requests

•gh pr list -R <owner/repo> [--state open|closed|merged|all] — List PRs
•gh pr create -R <owner/repo> --title "title" --head <branch> [--base main] [--body "desc"] — Create PR
•gh pr view <number> -R <owner/repo> — View PR details
•gh pr merge <number> -R <owner/repo> [--merge|--squash|--rebase] — Merge PR
•gh pr checkout <number> -R <owner/repo> — Checkout PR locally
•gh pr diff <number> -R <owner/repo> — View PR diff
•gh pr review <number> -R <owner/repo> --approve|--comment|--request-changes — Review PR

Releases

•gh release list -R <owner/repo> — List releases
•gh release create <tag> -R <owner/repo> [--title "name"] [--notes "notes"] [--draft] [--prerelease] — Create release
•gh release view <tag> -R <owner/repo> — View release
•gh release download <tag> -R <owner/repo> — Download release assets
•gh release delete <tag> -R <owner/repo> --yes — Delete release

Search (authenticated, higher rate limit)

•gh search repos <query> --limit 10 — Search repos
•gh search code <query> [--repo owner/repo] — Search code
•gh search issues <query> — Search issues/PRs
•gh search prs <query> — Search PRs specifically

User & Auth

•gh auth status — Check auth status
•gh api /user --jq '.login' — Show authenticated user

Gists

•gh gist list — List gists
•gh gist create <file> [--desc "description"] [--public] — Create gist from file
•gh gist view <id> — View gist

Workflows (CI/CD)

•gh run list -R <owner/repo> — List workflow runs
•gh run view <id> -R <owner/repo> — View run details
•gh run watch <id> -R <owner/repo> — Watch run in progress
•gh workflow list -R <owner/repo> — List workflows
•gh workflow run <workflow> -R <owner/repo> — Trigger workflow

API (for anything not covered)

•gh api <endpoint> — GET request
•gh api <endpoint> -X POST -f key=value — POST request
•gh api <endpoint> --jq '<filter>' — Filter JSON output

Tips

•Public reads → use curl (no auth, fast, 60 req/hr)
•Writes / private data → use gh (authenticated, 5,000 req/hr)
•Use -R owner/repo to target a repo without being in its directory
•Use --json field1,field2 --jq '.[]' for structured output
•Docs: https://cli.github.com/manual/ | https://docs.github.com/en/rest