Using the GitHub CLI (gh)

Using the GitHub CLI (gh)

When to Use

• Browsing or reading code from a GitHub repository — clone it and use Read/​Glob/​Grep
• Viewing or creating pull requests, issues, releases, or gists
• Fetching repo metadata or any GitHub API data
• Interacting with GitHub Actions (runs, workflows)
• Any task involving GitHub that you might otherwise use curl, wget, or WebFetch for

When NOT to Use

• Non-GitHub URLs (use WebFetch or curl for those)
• Public web content that happens to be hosted on GitHub Pages (*.github.io) — those are regular websites
• Local git operations (git commit, git push) — use git directly

Key Principle

Always use gh instead of curl, wget, or WebFetch for GitHub URLs. The gh CLI uses the user's authenticated token automatically, so it:

• Works with private repositories
• Avoids GitHub API rate limits (unauthenticated: 60 req/​hr; authenticated: 5,000 req/​hr)
• Handles pagination correctly
• Provides structured output and filtering

Browsing Repository Code

To read or browse files from a GitHub repo, clone it locally and use normal file tools (Read, Glob, Grep). This is much faster and more natural than fetching files one-by-one via the API.

# Clone to a session-scoped temp directory (cleaned up automatically on session end)
clonedir="$TMPDIR/​gh-clones-${CLAUDE_SESSION_ID}"
mkdir -p "$clonedir"
gh repo clone owner/​repo "$clonedir/​repo" -- --depth 1

After cloning, use the Explore agent (via the Task tool with subagent_type=Explore) to investigate the cloned repo. The Explore agent can use Read, Glob, and Grep across the clone efficiently — much better than calling them one at a time:

Task(subagent_type="Explore", prompt="In $clonedir/​repo/, find how authentication is implemented")

For targeted lookups on a clone you already understand, use Read/​Glob/​Grep directly.

• gh repo clone uses the user's authenticated token — works with private repos
• --depth 1 keeps the clone fast (only latest commit)
• No cleanup needed — a SessionEnd hook removes the clone directory automatically
• Use gh api only when you need a quick single-file lookup without cloning

Quick Start

# View a repo
gh repo view owner/​repo

# List and view PRs
gh pr list --repo owner/​repo
gh pr view 123 --repo owner/​repo

# List and view issues
gh issue list --repo owner/​repo
gh issue view 456 --repo owner/​repo

# Call any REST API endpoint
gh api repos/​owner/​repo/​contents/​README.md

# Call with pagination and jq filtering
gh api repos/​owner/​repo/​pulls --paginate --jq '.[].title'

Common Patterns

References

• Pull Requests — list, view, create, merge, review PRs
• Issues — list, view, create, close, comment on issues
• Repos and Files — view repos, browse files, clone
• API — raw REST/​GraphQL access, pagination, jq filtering
• Releases — list, create, download releases
• Actions — view runs, trigger workflows, check logs