Using the GitHub CLI ( gh ) When to Use Browsing or reading code from a GitHub repository — clone it and use Read/Glob/Grep Viewing or creating pull requests, issues, releases, or gists Fetching repo metadata or any GitHub API data Interacting with GitHub Actions (runs, workflows) Any task involving GitHub that you might otherwise use curl , wget , or WebFetch for When NOT to Use Non-GitHub URLs (use WebFetch or curl for those) Public web content that happens to be hosted on GitHub Pages ( *.github.io ) — those are regular websites Local git operations ( git commit , git push ) — use git directly Key Principle Always use gh instead of curl , wget , or WebFetch for GitHub URLs. The gh CLI uses the user's authenticated token automatically, so it: Works with private repositories Avoids GitHub API rate limits (unauthenticated: 60 req/hr; authenticated: 5,000 req/hr) Handles pagination correctly Provides structured output and filtering Browsing Repository Code To read or browse files from a GitHub repo, clone it locally and use normal file tools (Read, Glob, Grep). This is much faster and more natural than fetching files one-by-one via the API.
Clone to a session-scoped temp directory (cleaned up automatically on session end)
clonedir
" $TMPDIR /gh-clones- ${CLAUDE_SESSION_ID} " mkdir -p " $clonedir " gh repo clone owner/repo " $clonedir /repo" -- --depth 1 After cloning, use the Explore agent (via the Task tool with subagent_type=Explore ) to investigate the cloned repo. The Explore agent can use Read, Glob, and Grep across the clone efficiently — much better than calling them one at a time: Task(subagent_type="Explore", prompt="In $clonedir/repo/, find how authentication is implemented") For targeted lookups on a clone you already understand, use Read/Glob/Grep directly. gh repo clone uses the user's authenticated token — works with private repos --depth 1 keeps the clone fast (only latest commit) No cleanup needed — a SessionEnd hook removes the clone directory automatically Use gh api only when you need a quick single-file lookup without cloning Quick Start
View a repo
gh repo view owner/repo
List and view PRs
gh pr list --repo owner/repo gh pr view 123 --repo owner/repo
List and view issues
gh issue list --repo owner/repo gh issue view 456 --repo owner/repo
Call any REST API endpoint
gh api repos/owner/repo/contents/README.md
Call with pagination and jq filtering
gh api repos/owner/repo/pulls
--paginate
--jq
'.[].title'
Common Patterns
Instead of
Use
WebFetch
on
github.com/owner/repo
gh repo view owner/repo
WebFetch
on a blob/tree URL
Clone with
gh repo clone
and use Read/Glob/Grep
WebFetch
on
raw.githubusercontent.com/...
Clone with
gh repo clone
and use Read
WebFetch
on
api.github.com/...
gh api