github-cli

name	github-cli
description	Read-only GitHub inspection via gh CLI (repos, issues, PRs, releases, actions, search).

GitHub CLI (Read-only)

When to use

Use this skill when you need to inspect GitHub data (list/view/search/fetch) without making changes:

• Browse repos, issues, pull requests, releases/tags, commits, actions/workflows, gists
• Summarize status (checks, CI failures) with links, not full logs
• Run GitHub REST/GraphQL read-only queries

Do not use when the user wants to create/edit/merge/close/delete anything.

Safety Rules

• Only run read-only commands (list, view, status, search, api -X GET).
• Never run write actions (create, edit, close, merge, delete, run, enable, disable, secret/variable set, repo fork/create/delete).
• For gh api, force -X GET. For GraphQL, use query only and never mutation.
• If the user requests a write action, ask for explicit confirmation and restate the impact before proceeding.

Authentication

• Require GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN in the environment. If missing, ask the user to set it.
• Check status with:
  • gh auth status -h github.com
• If not authenticated, log in without printing the token:
  • echo "$GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN" | gh auth login -h github.com --with-token
• Do not print the token or run commands with shell tracing enabled.

Usage Patterns

• Prefer fully qualified repos: --repo OWNER/REPO.
• Use --json + --jq for stable parsing.
• Use --limit for list commands and paginate with gh api --paginate when needed.
• Use gh help or gh <cmd> -h to confirm a command is read-only before running it.

References

• Use references/gh-readonly.md for a categorized command map and examples.