| 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
