drupalorg-cli

name	drupalorg-cli
description	CLI for Drupal.org issue lifecycle management. Use when fetching issue details, generating patches/interdiffs, listing project or maintainer issues, looking up releases, or working with GitLab merge requests on issue forks. Also supports projects that have migrated to GitLab work items. Pass --format=llm to every read command for structured XML output optimised for agent consumption.

Overview

drupalorg-cli (invoked as drupalorg) wraps Drupal.org's REST and GitLab REST APIs. It covers the full contribution lifecycle: browsing issues, creating branches, generating patches and interdiffs, applying patches, working with GitLab issue forks and merge requests, and browsing releases.

Some Drupal.org projects have migrated their issue queues to GitLab work items at git.drupalcode.org. These projects are detected automatically — project:issues fetches from the GitLab API instead of Drupal.org for them.

Work item references

issue:show, issue:get-fork, and mr:list all accept a WorkItemRef in place of a plain Drupal.org NID:

Format	Example
D.o NID	3586157
Shorthand	ai_context#3586157
Explicit path	project/ai_context#3586157
Full URL	https://git.drupalcode.org/project/ai_context/-/work_items/3586157

drupalorg <command> [arguments]

Output Formats

Commands that fetch data accept --format / -f:

Format	Description	Commands
text	Human-readable plain text (default)	All commands
json	Machine-readable JSON	Most commands
md	Markdown suitable for display or copy-paste	issue:show, issue:get-fork, mr:list, mr:status, mr:files, mr:diff, project:issues, project:releases, project:release-notes, maintainer:issues
llm	Structured XML optimised for agent consumption	issue:show (add --with-comments to include comment thread), issue:get-fork, mr:list, mr:status, mr:files, mr:diff, project:issues, project:releases, project:release-notes, maintainer:issues

Agents should always pass --format=llm to get rich, structured output with clearly labelled fields, contributor lists, and change records.

Command Reference

Issue commands

<nid> accepts a D.o NID, shorthand (ai_context#3586157), or full GitLab work item URL.

# Fetch full details for an issue (D.o or GitLab work item)
drupalorg issue:show <nid> --format=llm

# Fetch issue details including all comments (skips system-generated messages)
# Note: --with-comments only applies to D.o issues
drupalorg issue:show <nid> --with-comments --format=llm

# Show the GitLab issue fork URLs and branches
# nid is optional; auto-detected from the branch name if omitted
drupalorg issue:get-fork [nid] --format=llm

# Add the GitLab issue fork as a git remote and fetch it
# nid is optional; auto-detected from the branch name if omitted
drupalorg issue:setup-remote [nid]

# Check out a branch from the GitLab issue fork
# branch is optional; prompts interactively when omitted
# Requires: issue:setup-remote must have been run first
drupalorg issue:checkout [nid] [branch]

# Create a local git branch named after the issue
drupalorg issue:branch <nid>

# Generate a patch from committed (but not yet pushed) changes
# nid is optional; auto-detected from the branch name if omitted
drupalorg issue:patch [nid]

# Generate an interdiff from committed local changes against the upstream branch
# nid is optional; auto-detected from the branch name if omitted
drupalorg issue:interdiff [nid]

# Download and apply the latest patch attached to an issue
drupalorg issue:apply <nid>

# Open the issue page in the default browser
drupalorg issue:link <nid>

Merge Request commands

The first argument can be a Drupal.org issue NID, a project-path!iid ref (e.g. project/drupal!708), or a full GitLab MR URL. When using a ref that includes the MR IID (!iid), the second <mr-iid> argument is not needed.

zsh users: Escape ! or quote the argument to prevent history expansion: project/drupal\!708 or 'project/drupal!708'

# List merge requests for a Drupal.org issue fork
# --state: opened (default), closed, merged, all
# nid is optional; auto-detected from the branch name if omitted
# Only MRs opened from the issue fork are returned; empty means no fork or no MRs
drupalorg mr:list [nid] [--state=opened] --format=llm
# List every MR on a project (not scoped to an issue)
drupalorg mr:list project/drupal --format=llm

# Show the unified diff for a merge request
# Supports --format=text (default), json, md, llm
drupalorg mr:diff <nid> <mr-iid> --format=llm
drupalorg mr:diff 'project/drupal!708' --format=llm

# List changed files in a merge request
# Supports --format=text (default), json, md, llm
drupalorg mr:files <nid> <mr-iid> --format=llm
drupalorg mr:files 'project/drupal!708' --format=llm

# Show the pipeline status for a merge request
drupalorg mr:status <nid> <mr-iid> --format=llm
drupalorg mr:status 'project/drupal!708' --format=llm

# Show failed job traces from the latest pipeline for a merge request
# Supports --format=text (default), json
drupalorg mr:logs <nid> <mr-iid>
drupalorg mr:logs 'project/drupal!708'

Slash commands (GitLab work items only)

These commands post Drupal.org bot quick-actions as comments on a GitLab work item. They only work for projects whose issue queue lives at git.drupalcode.org (the bot is not present on classic Drupal.org issue queues).

The <ref> argument is a WorkItemRef — bare NID, project_name#nid, or full URL.

Each command also accepts --format=text|json|md|llm. Posting is asynchronous: the bot processes the comment after it lands, so re-fetch with --no-cache to confirm.

# Create a fork (and a default-branch issue branch) for an issue without a fork
drupalorg issue:fork <ref>

# Grant the current user push access to the existing fork
drupalorg issue:get-access <ref>

# Assign one or more users (default: me)
drupalorg issue:assign <ref> [user...]
drupalorg issue:unassign <ref> [user...]
drupalorg issue:reassign <ref> <user> [user...]

# Manage labels (e.g. state::needsReview, state::rtbc, state::needsWork)
drupalorg issue:label <ref> <label> [label...]
drupalorg issue:unlabel <ref> <label> [label...]
drupalorg issue:relabel <ref> <label> [label...]

Authentication requires a GitLab token. The CLI reads DRUPALORG_GITLAB_TOKEN and falls back to glab config get token --host git.drupalcode.org when that env var is unset.

Project commands

# List open issues for a project
# For projects using GitLab work items, fetches from GitLab API automatically
# type: all (default), rtbc, or review; --core defaults to 8.x; --limit defaults to 10
# --category filters by issue type: bug, task, feature, support, plan (omit for all categories)
# Note: type/core/category filters only apply to D.o issue queue projects
drupalorg project:issues [project] [type] [--category=bug|task|feature|support|plan] --format=llm

# Search issues for a project by title keyword
# project is optional; auto-detected from git remote if omitted
# --status: all (default), open, closed, rtbc, review; --limit defaults to 20
drupalorg project:search [project] <query> [--status=all] [--limit=20] --format=llm

# List available releases for a project
drupalorg project:releases <project> --format=llm

# Display release notes for a specific release
drupalorg project:release-notes <project> <release> --format=llm

# Open the project page in the default browser
drupalorg project:link <project>

# Open the project kanban board in the default browser
drupalorg project:kanban <project>

Maintainer commands

# List issues assigned to or filed by a maintainer
# type: all (default) or rtbc
drupalorg maintainer:issues <user> [type] --format=llm

# Generate release notes from git log for a maintainer's project
# ref1 = from-tag/SHA; ref2 defaults to HEAD
# --format accepts json|md|html (default: html); llm is not supported
drupalorg maintainer:release-notes <ref1> [ref2] [--format=json|md|html]

Utility commands

# Install the drupalorg-cli agent skill into .claude/skills/drupalorg-cli/
drupalorg skill:install

Cache Bypass

Drupal.org uses HTTP caching (CDN/Varnish). If you need fresh data — e.g. after a new comment was posted — pass --no-cache to any command:

drupalorg issue:show <nid> --with-comments --format=llm --no-cache
drupalorg mr:list [nid] --format=llm --no-cache

--no-cache sends Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate and Pragma: no-cache headers so the upstream CDN returns a fresh response.

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Recovery
Node not found	Invalid or private issue NID, or a GitLab work item NID passed to a D.o-only command	Use a WorkItemRef instead: ai_context#3586157
404 Project Not Found (GitLab)	D.o issue NID used with a GitLab work item project — D.o node has no field_project	Pass the full work item URL or shorthand ref
No patch found on issue	Issue has no file attachments	Check issue:show to confirm files exist
No branch configured	issue:patch run outside a git repo or without a tracking branch	Run issue:branch <nid> first
Remote … does not exist	issue:checkout run before issue:setup-remote	Run issue:setup-remote <nid> first
429 / 503	Drupal.org rate limit or maintenance	The client retries automatically; wait and retry if it persists

References

Detailed workflow guides are in the references/ directory alongside this file:

• references/work-on-issue.md — End-to-end GitLab MR workflow ("Work on this issue")
• references/patch-contribution.md — Classic patch-based contribution workflow
• references/gitlab-mr-contribution.md — GitLab MR contribution workflow reference