gh-aw-environment-setup

name	gh-aw-environment-setup
description	Installs the GitHub Agentic Workflows CLI (`gh aw`) so the book's agents can explore, author, and compile real workflows. Use before any capability exploration or workflow verification.

gh-aw Environment Setup

Provides a reproducible environment in which the book's agents can install, explore, and compile real GitHub Agentic Workflows with the gh aw CLI. Used by gh-aw-explorer and code-verifier.

Requirements

• GitHub CLI (gh) installed and authenticated (gh auth status).
• The gh aw extension (GitHub Agentic Workflows). No language runtime is required to author or compile workflows — they are markdown compiled to GitHub Actions.

Setup (Windows / PowerShell)

# Verify GitHub CLI first
gh --version
gh auth status

# Install the gh aw extension
gh extension install github/gh-aw
# (alternative) curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gh-aw/main/install-gh-aw.sh | bash

# Verify
gh aw version

Each PowerShell tool call runs in a fresh process — re-run gh auth status / gh aw version when you need to confirm state in a new command.

Record the version you study

gh aw version

Always note the inspected gh aw version in research/verification artifacts — gh-aw is in public preview and moves fast.

Exploration starting points

gh aw --help
gh aw compile --help
gh aw new --help
gh aw mcp inspect --help

Read the frontmatter / safe-outputs / trigger schema in the official docs and the repo's .github/aw/*.md reference files to document real fields and flags, and study the sample workflows for usage patterns.

Credentials

Running a workflow for real needs an engine secret (e.g. a Copilot / Anthropic / OpenAI / Google key) configured as a GitHub Actions secret — never in code or committed files. For the book, prefer compile-time validation (gh aw compile --strict / --validate), which needs no secrets and stays deterministic, over live runs.

Reproducibility

Pin what you used so others can reproduce:

gh aw version   # record in research/verification notes

References

• Docs: https://github.github.com/gh-aw/
• Repo & samples: https://github.com/github/gh-aw
• CLI reference: https://github.com/github/gh-aw/blob/main/.github/aw/cli-commands.md