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

# 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

For parallel PRs, squash-merge verification, superseded PR closure, or remote branch convergence, read references/pr_operations.md § Converging parallel PRs and retiring remote branches before mutating the PR or branch.

PR Title Convention:

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

Issues

# 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

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

Workflows

# 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:

# 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

# 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:

# 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:

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.