GitHub API Orchestration Skill

Comprehensive skill for working with the GitHub API across all services and operations. This skill provides intelligent routing to focused resource files covering both REST API v3 and GraphQL API v4.

Quick Reference: When to Load Which Resource Use Case Load Resource Key Concepts Setting up authentication, checking rate limits, handling errors, pagination resources/rest-api-basics.md Auth methods, rate limits, error codes, ETags, conditional requests Creating/managing repos, branches, commits, releases, tags, Git objects resources/repositories.md Repo CRUD, branch protection, file operations, releases, Git data Working with issues, PRs, reviews, comments, labels, milestones resources/issues-pull-requests.md Issue tracking, code review, approvals, merging, reactions Managing users, organizations, teams, permissions, membership resources/users-organizations-teams.md User profiles, org operations, team management, collaborators Automating workflows, CI/CD runs, artifacts, secrets, runners resources/workflows-actions.md Workflow triggers, run management, artifacts, env secrets, runners Searching repositories, code, issues, commits, users resources/search-content.md Repository discovery, code search, issue search, user lookup Security scanning, packages, webhooks, notifications, gists, projects, apps resources/security-webhooks.md Dependabot, code scanning, packages, webhooks, notifications, apps Orchestration Protocol Phase 1: Identify Your Task

Before loading a resource, classify your GitHub API needs:

Task Type Indicators:

Setting up: Authentication, testing credentials → Load rest-api-basics.md Repository work: Creating, configuring, managing repos and branches → Load repositories.md Collaboration: Issues, PRs, code reviews → Load issues-pull-requests.md Automation: Workflows, CI/CD, runners → Load workflows-actions.md Organization: Users, teams, permissions → Load users-organizations-teams.md Discovery: Finding repositories or code → Load search-content.md Advanced: Security features, webhooks, packages → Load security-webhooks.md

Complexity Patterns:

Single operation: Load one resource file Multi-step workflow: May need 2-3 related resources (e.g., search + repository + workflows) Complex integration: Combine foundational + specialized resources Phase 2: Load and Execute Load the appropriate resource file(s) Find the specific API operation or pattern you need Adapt the example to your use case Execute with appropriate authentication Phase 3: Validate & Monitor Verify API responses are successful Check rate limit headers if making multiple calls Handle errors according to error handling patterns in rest-api-basics.md API Endpoints Overview REST API v3 Base URL: https://api.github.com Authentication: Token, PAT, GitHub Apps Rate Limit: 5,000 requests/hour (authenticated) Use for: Straightforward CRUD operations on resources GraphQL API v4 Endpoint: https://api.github.com/graphql Authentication: Bearer token Rate Limit: 5,000 points/hour (query-dependent) Use for: Complex queries combining multiple data types, mutations Most Common Operations Quick Command Reference

Repository operations

gh repo create NAME gh repo view owner/repo gh repo clone owner/repo

Issues

gh issue list gh issue create gh issue close NUMBER

Pull requests

gh pr list gh pr create gh pr merge NUMBER

Actions

gh workflow run WORKFLOW gh run list gh run view RUN_ID

Search

gh api search/repositories -f q="QUERY" gh api search/code -f q="QUERY" gh api search/issues -f q="QUERY"

Authentication

gh auth login gh auth status gh auth token

Authentication Guide (Quick Start) GitHub CLI (Recommended) gh auth login gh api /user # Test authentication

Personal Access Token curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" https://api.github.com/user

→ See resources/rest-api-basics.md for complete auth details

Common Patterns Bulk Repository Operations

Add label to multiple issues

for issue in 1 2 3; do gh api repos/owner/repo/issues/$issue/labels -X POST -f labels[]=bug sleep 1 # Rate limiting done

Workflow Integration

Trigger workflow with inputs

gh workflow run build.yml -f environment=production

Monitor run status

gh api repos/owner/repo/actions/runs -f per_page=1 \ --jq '.workflow_runs[0].conclusion'

Error Handling

Check response status

response=$(gh api repos/owner/repo -i 2>&1) if echo "$response" | grep -q "HTTP/2 404"; then echo "Not found" fi

→ See resources/rest-api-basics.md for comprehensive error handling

Resource File Summaries rest-api-basics.md (369 lines): Authentication, rate limiting, pagination, error handling, best practices repositories.md (231 lines): Repo CRUD, branches, protection, commits, releases, Git data issues-pull-requests.md (272 lines): Issue tracking, PR management, reviews, approvals, code comments users-organizations-teams.md (162 lines): User operations, org management, teams, membership workflows-actions.md (211 lines): Workflow management, runs, artifacts, secrets, runners search-content.md (150 lines): Repository search, code search, issue/PR search, user/commit search security-webhooks.md (386 lines): Dependabot, code scanning, packages, webhooks, notifications, gists, apps, projects Best Practices Summary 1. Rate Limiting Use conditional requests with ETags to avoid counting against limits Implement exponential backoff when hitting limits Use GraphQL for complex multi-resource queries Check rate_limit endpoint before batch operations 2. Authentication Use fine-grained PATs with minimal scopes Prefer GitHub Apps for integrations Use gh CLI when available Never commit tokens to version control 3. Error Handling Implement retry logic with exponential backoff Validate input before sending requests Check rate limits before making requests Log errors with context 4. Performance Use GraphQL for complex data requirements combining multiple resources Implement pagination properly Cache responses when appropriate Use webhooks instead of polling

→ See resources/rest-api-basics.md for detailed patterns

GraphQL vs REST Decision Tree

Use GraphQL API v4 when:

Querying multiple related resources (e.g., repo + issues + PRs in one call) Complex filtering or sorting requirements Need precise field selection (bandwidth optimization) Working with Projects V2

Use REST API v3 when:

Simple, straightforward resource operations Comfort with REST patterns Legacy integrations Bulk operations (GitHub CLI integration) Troubleshooting Quick Links Problem Resource Section "403 rate limited" rest-api-basics.md Rate Limiting "401 unauthorized" rest-api-basics.md Authentication Methods "422 validation failed" rest-api-basics.md Error Response Format Cannot push to branch repositories.md Branch Protection Merge conflicts in PR issues-pull-requests.md Merging Workflow not triggering workflows-actions.md Workflow Management Results not searchable yet search-content.md Search Code/Repositories External Resources GitHub REST API Documentation GitHub GraphQL API Documentation GitHub CLI Documentation GitHub Webhooks Documentation GitHub Apps Documentation

Remember: This is a modular reference organized by service area. Load only the resource files relevant to your current task. All major GitHub API operations are covered; use the quick reference table to find the right starting point.