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

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.