gh-cli

GitHub CLI Operations

This skill provides quick access to common GitHub CLI operations for managing repositories, pull requests, issues, and GitHub Actions.

Requirements

gh (GitHub CLI) - must be authenticated with your GitHub account
Run gh auth login if not already authenticated

Common operations

Pull requests

Create a new PR:

gh pr create --title "Your PR title" --body "Description of changes"

Create a PR with auto-fill (from commit messages):

gh pr create --fill

Create a draft PR:

gh pr create --draft --title "WIP: Feature X"

Create a PR with a rich markdown body (shell-escaping workaround): PR bodies with backticks, parentheses (), dollar signs, or other shell-special characters fail when passed inline via --body "..." because zsh/bash interprets them. This is the most common failure when creating PRs with code blocks, markdown links like [text](url), or any non-trivial formatting.

Use --body-file instead — write the body to a temp file first:

cat > /tmp/pr-body.md <<'EOF'
## Summary
Rich markdown with `backticks` and [links](https://example.com) here.
EOF
gh pr create --title "Title" --body-file /tmp/pr-body.md

The --body-file flag is supported by gh pr create, gh pr edit, gh issue create, gh issue comment, and gh pr review. Use it as the DEFAULT whenever the body is more than a simple one-liner — it avoids all shell-escaping surprises.

List PRs:

# List open PRs
gh pr list

# List all PRs (including closed)
gh pr list --state all

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

View a PR:

# View PR in terminal
gh pr view 123

# Open PR in browser
gh pr view 123 --web

Check out a PR locally:

gh pr checkout 123

Review a PR:

# Approve
gh pr review 123 --approve

# Request changes
gh pr review 123 --request-changes --body "Please fix the typo"

# Comment
gh pr review 123 --comment --body "Looks good overall"

Merge a PR:

# Merge with merge commit
gh pr merge 123

# Squash and merge
gh pr merge 123 --squash

# Rebase and merge
gh pr merge 123 --rebase

# Auto-merge when checks pass
gh pr merge 123 --auto --squash

GitHub Actions

List workflow runs:

# List recent runs
gh run list

# List runs for a specific workflow
gh run list --workflow "CI"

# List failed runs
gh run list --status failure

View run details:

gh run view 1234567890

View run logs:

# View all logs for a run
gh run view 1234567890 --log

# View logs for a specific job
gh run view 1234567890 --log --job "build"

Download run logs:

gh run download 1234567890

Re-run a workflow:

# Re-run failed jobs
gh run rerun 1234567890 --failed

# Re-run all jobs
gh run rerun 1234567890

Watch a running workflow:

gh run watch 1234567890

Trigger a workflow manually:

gh workflow run workflow-name.yml

Issues

Create an issue:

gh issue create --title "Bug: Something broken" --body "Description here"

List issues:

# List open issues
gh issue list

# List your issues
gh issue list --assignee @me

# List issues with a label
gh issue list --label bug

View an issue:

gh issue view 456

Comment on an issue:

gh issue comment 456 --body "Thanks for reporting this!"

Close/reopen an issue:

gh issue close 456
gh issue reopen 456

Repository operations

Clone a repository:

gh repo clone owner/repo

Create a repository:

# Create public repo
gh repo create my-repo --public

# Create private repo with README
gh repo create my-repo --private --add-readme

View repository info:

gh repo view owner/repo

Fork a repository:

gh repo fork owner/repo --clone

Set default branch:

gh repo set-default owner/repo

Status and monitoring

Check CI status:

# View checks for current branch
gh pr checks

# View checks for a specific PR
gh pr checks 123

View your notifications:

gh notify

Advanced usage

Use with specific repository:

gh pr list --repo owner/repo

Output as JSON for scripting:

gh pr list --json number,title,author,state

Use custom queries:

# Search for PRs with label
gh pr list --label "needs-review"

# Search for issues assigned to you
gh issue list --assignee @me --state open

Tips

Check command help: Add --help to any command to see all options:

gh pr create --help

Interactive mode: Many commands support interactive prompts when you don't provide required flags:

gh pr create  # Will prompt for title, body, etc.

Aliases: Create custom aliases for frequently used commands:

gh alias set prc 'pr create --fill'

Default repository: Run gh repo set-default in a repo to avoid specifying --repo flag.

Common workflows

Creating a PR from current branch:

git push -u origin feature-branch
gh pr create --fill

Checking why a PR failed:

gh pr checks 123
gh run view <run-id> --log

Quick PR review workflow:

gh pr list
gh pr view 123
gh pr checkout 123
# Make local tests/review
gh pr review 123 --approve

Monitoring a deployment:

gh run list --workflow "Deploy"
gh run watch <latest-run-id>