Skill: GitHub & Git Operations

Use gh CLI and git commands through this skill. No GitHub MCP required.

Prerequisites

•gh CLI installed (brew install gh)
•Authenticated: gh auth login

Quick Reference

Issues

bash

# Create issue
gh issue create --title "Title" --body "Description" --label "bug"

# List issues
gh issue list
gh issue list --assignee @me
gh issue list --label "enhancement"

# View issue
gh issue view 123

# Close issue
gh issue close 123

Pull Requests

bash

# Create PR (from current branch)
gh pr create --title "Title" --body "Description"

# Create PR with template
gh pr create --title "feat: add feature" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
- Change 1
- Change 2

## Test plan
- [ ] Test A
- [ ] Test B
EOF
)"

# List PRs
gh pr list
gh pr list --author @me

# View PR
gh pr view 123

# Checkout PR locally
gh pr checkout 123

# Merge PR
gh pr merge 123 --squash

Commits (Git)

bash

# Stage specific files (preferred over git add -A)
git add file1.ts file2.ts

# Commit with co-author
git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
feat: description of change

More details here.

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
EOF
)"

# Check status
git status

# View diff
git diff
git diff --staged

Branches

bash

# Create and switch
git checkout -b feat/new-feature

# Push with upstream
git push -u origin feat/new-feature

# Delete branch (after merge)
git branch -d feat/old-feature

Worktrees (Isolated Development)

bash

# Create worktree for a feature
git worktree add ../project-feature feat/feature-name

# List worktrees
git worktree list

# Remove worktree
git worktree remove ../project-feature

Common Workflows

Start New Feature

bash

git checkout -b feat/feature-name
# ... make changes ...
git add changed-files.ts
git commit -m "feat: add feature"
git push -u origin feat/feature-name
gh pr create --title "feat: add feature" --body "Description"

Fix a Bug from Issue

bash

# View the issue first
gh issue view 42

# Create branch
git checkout -b fix/issue-42

# ... fix the bug ...
git add .
git commit -m "fix: resolve issue #42"
git push -u origin fix/issue-42
gh pr create --title "fix: resolve issue #42" --body "Closes #42"

Create Issue for Future Work

bash

gh issue create \
  --title "feat: future enhancement" \
  --body "## Description
What needs to be done.

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Criterion 1
- [ ] Criterion 2" \
  --label "enhancement"

Safety Rules

•Never force push to main/master - Always create feature branches
•Stage specific files - Avoid git add -A which can include secrets
•Check before commit - Run git status and git diff --staged
•Don't commit secrets - Check for .env, credentials, API keys
•Ask before destructive operations - reset --hard, branch -D, etc.

Troubleshooting

Auth Issues - GITHUB_TOKEN Conflict (Common!)

Symptom: gh commands fail with "Bad credentials" even though gh auth status shows you're logged in.

Cause: An old/expired GITHUB_TOKEN in your shell config (.zshrc, .bashrc) overrides the valid keyring auth.

Diagnosis:

bash

gh auth status
# Look for: "The token in GITHUB_TOKEN is invalid"
# And: "Active account: false" even though logged in

Fix:

bash

# 1. Find where GITHUB_TOKEN is set
grep -r "GITHUB_TOKEN" ~/.zshrc ~/.bashrc ~/.zprofile 2>/dev/null

# 2. Remove that line from your shell config (or comment it out)
# The gh CLI uses keyring auth now which is better (auto-refreshes)

# 3. Unset in current session
unset GITHUB_TOKEN

# 4. Verify it works
gh auth status  # Should show "Active account: true"

Why this happens: Old GitHub workflows used personal access tokens exported as GITHUB_TOKEN. The gh CLI now uses OAuth via keyring, which is more secure and auto-refreshes. The old env var takes precedence and breaks things.

Re-authenticate

bash

gh auth login

Push Rejected

bash

# Fetch and rebase
git fetch origin
git rebase origin/main

# Then push
git push