ghreplica

name	ghreplica
description	Explain ghreplica and teach how to use the ghr CLI for mirrored GitHub reads, git-change inspection, overlap search, text search, and structural code search.

ghreplica Skill

Use this skill when you need to explain what ghreplica is, show how to use the ghr CLI, or guide someone through the mirrored read, change, and search surfaces in this repository.

ghreplica should be treated as a general GitHub mirror, not as a component shaped around one downstream tool or product.

What ghreplica is

ghreplica is a GitHub mirror with three separate read surfaces:

• /v1/github/...
  • GitHub-shaped mirrored resources such as repositories, issues, pull requests, reviews, and comments
• /v1/changes/...
  • normalized git-backed change truth such as PR snapshots, file lists, commit metadata, compare results, and indexing status
• /v1/search/...
  • ghreplica-specific search features such as related PRs, path overlap, range overlap, mirrored text search, and structural code search

The ghr CLI is a thin client over those APIs.

Performance measurement rule

When checking whether a ghreplica fetch is actually fast:

1. measure the direct HTTP endpoint first
2. measure the exact CLI command separately
3. if the CLI uses go run, do not confuse local Go toolchain cold-start cost with server latency
4. prefer repeated samples and report both cold and warmed behavior when they differ materially

CLI defaults

• ghr defaults to https://ghreplica.dutiful.dev
• use -R owner/repo for repository-scoped commands
• repo view is the only command that may also take a positional OWNER/REPO
• use --json when the output is meant for scripts

Quick decision guide

Use:

• repo, issue, or pr
  • when you want GitHub-shaped mirrored data
• changes
  • when you want git-backed truth, PR snapshots, files, commits, compare results, or indexing status
• search related-prs, search prs-by-paths, or search prs-by-ranges
  • when you want related PRs by changed files or overlapping line ranges
• search status
  • when you need to know whether mirrored text search is complete, current, or stale
• search mentions
  • when you want to find where a phrase or topic was mentioned in mirrored PRs, issues, comments, reviews, or review comments
• search ast-grep
  • when you want syntax-aware code search against an exact commit, ref, or PR head

Core GitHub-shaped reads

ghr repo view openclaw/openclaw
ghr repo status -R openclaw/openclaw
ghr issue list -R openclaw/openclaw --state all
ghr issue view -R openclaw/openclaw 66797 --comments
ghr issue comments -R openclaw/openclaw 66797
ghr pr list -R openclaw/openclaw --state all
ghr pr view -R openclaw/openclaw 66863 --comments
ghr pr reviews -R openclaw/openclaw 66863
ghr pr comments -R openclaw/openclaw 66863

Git change reads

Use these when the question is about git-backed truth instead of GitHub discussion text.

ghr changes repo status -R openclaw/openclaw
ghr changes pr status -R openclaw/openclaw 59883
ghr changes pr view -R openclaw/openclaw 59883
ghr changes pr files -R openclaw/openclaw 59883
ghr changes commit view -R openclaw/openclaw 5a3d3e54d93a03ee6f775d0010d1b1c433b34a23
ghr changes commit files -R openclaw/openclaw 5a3d3e54d93a03ee6f775d0010d1b1c433b34a23
ghr changes compare -R openclaw/openclaw main...5a3d3e54d93a03ee6f775d0010d1b1c433b34a23

changes ... status is the first place to look when someone asks whether overlap search is complete or stale.

Overlap and related-PR search

Use overlap search when the question is about changed code, not text discussion.

ghr search related-prs -R openclaw/openclaw 59883 --mode path_overlap --state all
ghr search related-prs -R openclaw/openclaw 59883 --mode range_overlap --state all
ghr search prs-by-paths -R openclaw/openclaw --path src/acp/control-plane/manager.core.ts --state all
ghr search prs-by-ranges -R openclaw/openclaw --path extensions/telegram/src/fetch.ts --start 24 --end 36 --state all

Use this surface for questions like:

• what other PRs touch this file
• what PRs overlap this line range
• which PRs are related by changed code

Structural code search with ghr search ast-grep

Use this when the question is about code shape, not just changed files or discussion text.

It searches the local Git mirror with ast-grep and always resolves the request to one exact commit SHA.

Use it for questions like:

• where in this repo does this syntax pattern exist
• does this PR contain this structural pattern
• which changed files in this PR match this pattern

Examples:

ghr search ast-grep -R openclaw/openclaw --pr 59883 --language typescript --pattern 'ctx.reply($MSG)' --changed-files-only
ghr search ast-grep -R dutifuldev/ghreplica --ref main --language go --pattern 'fmt.Errorf($MSG)'
ghr search ast-grep -R dutifuldev/ghreplica --commit 5a2a2aa2ed2db8ed3097697f10dc9a6ced9164a0 --language go --pattern 'errors.Is($ERR, $TARGET)'
ghr search ast-grep -R dutifuldev/ghreplica --ref main --language go --pattern 'exec.CommandContext($CTX, $BIN, $$$ARGS)' --path internal/gitindex/astgrep.go

Useful flags:

• one target:
  • --commit
  • --ref
  • --pr
• --language
• --pattern
• --path
• --changed-files-only
• --limit
• --json

Recommended usage:

• use --pr for review workflows
• add --changed-files-only when you only want the PR’s touched files
• use --ref for branch-level exploration
• use --commit when the result must be fully reproducible
• add --path when you already know the files you care about
• use --json resolved_commit_sha,matches for scripts

How to explain results:

• every response is tied to one exact resolved commit SHA
• human output shows PATH, LOCATION, CAPTURES, and TEXT
• CAPTURES comes from ast-grep meta variables, for example MSG=payload
• an empty result means no structural matches for that exact tree, not “search failed”

Common failure cases:

• no target was provided
  • exactly one of --commit, --ref, or --pr is required
• more than one target was provided
  • the command fails for the same reason
• --changed-files-only was used without --pr
  • the command fails because only PR-head searches know what the changed files are
• the requested commit or ref is not present in the local mirror yet
  • the API returns 404
• the service has the code but cannot reach the mirror or GitHub auth material
  • check that ast-grep is installed, the GitHub App private key is readable by the runtime user, and the mirror root is owned by the runtime user

Text search with ghr search mentions

Check status first when search completeness matters:

ghr search status -R openclaw/openclaw

Use this when the question is:

• is the text index present
• is it current or stale
• is an empty mentions result trustworthy
• should we rebuild text search for this repo

Use ghr search mentions when the question is about what people wrote.

It searches mirrored text from:

• issue titles and bodies
• pull request titles and bodies
• issue comments
• pull request reviews
• pull request review comments

Modes

• fts
  • standard full-text search for keywords and phrases
• fuzzy
  • approximate wording and split-word matches
• regex
  • exact pattern hunting

Useful flags

• --mode
• --scope
  • pull_requests
  • issues
  • issue_comments
  • pull_request_reviews
  • pull_request_review_comments
• --state
  • open
  • closed
  • all
• --author
• --limit
• --page
• --json

Recommended usage

• start with fts for normal topic search
• use fuzzy when the wording may be approximate or misspelled
• use regex when you need an explicit pattern
• narrow with one or more --scope flags whenever possible
• use --state all when closed PRs or issues matter
• use --author when you want only one person's PR text or comments

Examples

ghr search mentions -R openclaw/openclaw --query "heartbeat watchdog" --mode fts --scope pull_requests --scope issues
ghr search mentions -R openclaw/openclaw --query "watch dog" --mode fuzzy --scope pull_requests
ghr search mentions -R openclaw/openclaw --query "auth.*state" --mode regex --scope pull_requests --state all
ghr search mentions -R openclaw/openclaw --query "greptile" --mode fts --scope issue_comments
ghr search mentions -R openclaw/openclaw --query "acp" --mode fts --scope pull_requests --state all

How to interpret results

Each result preserves:

• resource
  • type
  • id
  • number
  • api_url
  • html_url
• matched_field
• excerpt
• score

So the answer is not just “this matched,” but also:

• what object matched
• whether the hit came from title or body
• a short excerpt showing why it matched

Structured output

Most commands support --json.

Examples:

ghr changes pr view -R openclaw/openclaw 59883 --json pull_request_number,head_sha,indexed_as,index_freshness
ghr search prs-by-paths -R openclaw/openclaw --path src/acp/control-plane/manager.core.ts --state all --json pull_request_number,score,shared_paths
ghr search mentions -R openclaw/openclaw --query "heartbeat watchdog" --mode fts --scope pull_requests --json resource,matched_field,excerpt,score
ghr search ast-grep -R dutifuldev/ghreplica --ref main --language go --pattern 'fmt.Errorf($MSG)' --json resolved_commit_sha,matches

For text and structural search, --json is the preferred output mode for scripts.

Caveats

There are two different indexing dependencies:

• search mentions
  • depends on text-index coverage in search_documents
• overlap search and changes
  • depend on git-change index coverage under /v1/changes/...
• search ast-grep
  • depends on the local Git mirror and the requested commit or ref being available there

That means:

• text search and overlap search can be complete at different times
• structural search can work even when text indexing is incomplete, because it reads from the Git mirror instead
• a repo may have mirrored PRs but incomplete change-index coverage
• a structural search may fail if the requested commit or ref is not available in the mirror yet
• a repo may need a text-index rebuild even when GitHub-shaped reads already work

If results look incomplete:

• check ghr search status -R <owner>/<repo>
• check ghr changes repo status -R <owner>/<repo>
• check ghr changes pr status -R <owner>/<repo> <number>
• materialize a specific PR with ghreplica sync pr <owner>/<repo> <number>
• rebuild text search with ghreplica search-index repo <owner>/<repo> when needed

Good explanation style

When using this skill:

• explain which surface is being used
  • github, changes, or search
• give direct ghr examples instead of abstract descriptions
• distinguish text search from code-overlap search clearly
• mention indexing coverage when a “no result” answer may just mean incomplete indexing