add-github

name	add-github
description	Add GitHub channel integration via Chat SDK. PR and issue comment threads as conversations.

Add GitHub Channel

Adds GitHub support via the Chat SDK bridge. The agent participates in PR and issue comment threads.

Prerequisites

You need a dedicated GitHub bot account (not your personal account). The adapter uses this account to post replies and filters out its own messages to avoid loops. Create a free GitHub account for your bot (e.g. my-org-bot), then invite it as a collaborator with write access to the repos you want monitored.

Install

NanoClaw doesn't ship channels in trunk. This skill copies the GitHub adapter in from the channels branch.

Pre-flight (idempotent)

Skip to Credentials if all of these are already in place:

• src/channels/github.ts exists
• src/channels/index.ts contains import './github.js';
• @chat-adapter/github is listed in package.json dependencies

Otherwise continue. Every step below is safe to re-run.

1. Fetch the channels branch

git fetch origin channels

2. Copy the adapter

git show origin/channels:src/channels/github.ts > src/channels/github.ts

3. Append the self-registration import

Append to src/channels/index.ts (skip if the line is already present):

import './github.js';

4. Install the adapter package (pinned)

pnpm install @chat-adapter/github@4.26.0

5. Build

pnpm run build

Credentials

1. Create a Personal Access Token for the bot account

Log in as your bot account, then:

1. Go to Settings > Developer Settings > Personal Access Tokens
2. Create a Fine-grained token with:
   • Repository access: select the repos you want the bot to monitor
   • Permissions: Pull requests (Read & Write), Issues (Read & Write)
3. Copy the token

2. Set up a webhook on each repo

On each repo (logged in as the repo owner/admin):

1. Go to Settings > Webhooks > Add webhook
2. Payload URL: https://your-domain/webhook/github (the shared webhook server, default port 3000)
3. Content type: application/json
4. Secret: generate a random string (e.g. openssl rand -hex 20)
5. Events: select Issue comments and Pull request review comments

3. Configure environment

Add to .env:

GITHUB_TOKEN=github_pat_...
GITHUB_WEBHOOK_SECRET=your-webhook-secret
GITHUB_BOT_USERNAME=your-bot-username

GITHUB_BOT_USERNAME must match the bot account's GitHub username exactly. This is used for @-mention detection — the agent responds when someone writes @your-bot-username in a PR or issue comment.

Sync to container: mkdir -p data/env && cp .env data/env/env

Wiring

Ask the user: Is this a private or public repo?

• Private repo — use unknown_sender_policy: 'public'. Only collaborators can comment anyway, so it's safe to let all comments through.
• Public repo — use unknown_sender_policy: 'strict'. Only registered members can trigger the agent, preventing strangers from consuming agent resources. Add trusted collaborators as members (see below).

Run /manage-channels to wire the GitHub channel to an agent group, or insert manually:

-- Create messaging group (one per repo)
INSERT INTO messaging_groups (id, channel_type, platform_id, name, is_group, unknown_sender_policy, created_at)
VALUES ('mg-github-myrepo', 'github', 'github:owner/repo', 'owner/repo', 1, '<policy>', datetime('now'));

-- Wire to agent group
INSERT INTO messaging_group_agents (id, messaging_group_id, agent_group_id, trigger_rules, response_scope, session_mode, priority, created_at)
VALUES ('mga-github-myrepo', 'mg-github-myrepo', '<your-agent-group-id>', '', 'all', 'per-thread', 10, datetime('now'));

Replace <policy> with public or strict based on the user's choice above.

Adding members (for strict mode)

When using strict, add each GitHub user who should be able to trigger the agent:

-- Add user (kind = 'github', id = 'github:<numeric-user-id>')
INSERT OR IGNORE INTO users (id, kind, display_name, created_at)
VALUES ('github:<user-id>', 'github', '<username>', datetime('now'));

-- Grant membership to the agent group
INSERT OR IGNORE INTO agent_group_members (user_id, agent_group_id)
VALUES ('github:<user-id>', '<agent-group-id>');

To find a GitHub user's numeric ID: gh api users/<username> --jq .id

Use per-thread session mode so each PR/issue gets its own agent session.

Next Steps

If you're in the middle of /setup, return to the setup flow now.

Otherwise, restart the service (systemctl --user restart nanoclaw or launchctl kickstart -k gui/$(id -u)/com.nanoclaw) to pick up the new channel.

Channel Info

• type: github
• terminology: GitHub has "repositories" containing "pull requests" and "issues." Each PR or issue comment thread is a separate conversation.
• how-to-find-id: The platform ID is github:owner/repo (e.g. github:acme/backend). Each PR/issue becomes its own thread automatically.
• supports-threads: yes (PR and issue comment threads are native conversations)
• typical-use: Webhook-driven — the agent receives PR and issue comment events and responds in comment threads when @-mentioned. After the first mention, the thread is subscribed and the agent responds to all follow-up comments.
• default-isolation: Use per-thread session mode. Each PR or issue gets its own isolated agent session. Typically wire to a dedicated agent group if the repo contains sensitive code.