GitHub CLI Context Gathering

This skill encourages proactive use of the GitHub CLI (gh) to gather rich context when working with GitHub-related tasks.

Core Philosophy

When the user mentions PRs, issues, branches, code reviews, comments, or anything GitHub-related, proactively use gh commands to gather context rather than relying solely on local git commands.

Local git tells you about commits and branches. GitHub CLI tells you about the conversation around those changes — PR descriptions, review comments, issue discussions, CI status, and more.

When to Use gh Proactively

Use gh commands when the user mentions or asks about:

• PRs / Pull Requests — view, diff, comments, reviews, checks
• Issues — view, comments, labels, assignees
• Code reviews — review comments, requested changes
• CI/CD status — check runs, workflow status
• Repository information — branches, releases, collaborators
• GitHub links — any github.com URL can be inspected via gh

Key Commands Reference

Pull Requests

# View PR details (description, status, checks)
gh pr view PR_NUMBER

# View PR diff
gh pr diff PR_NUMBER

# List PR comments
gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/PR_NUMBER/comments

# List review comments (inline code comments)
gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/PR_NUMBER/reviews

# Check PR status and CI checks
gh pr checks PR_NUMBER

# List open PRs
gh pr list

# List PRs by author
gh pr list --author USERNAME

Issues

# View issue details
gh issue view ISSUE_NUMBER

# List issue comments
gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/issues/ISSUE_NUMBER/comments

# List open issues
gh issue list

# Search issues
gh issue list --search "QUERY"

Repository Information

# View repo details
gh repo view

# List branches
gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/branches

# View recent releases
gh release list

# View workflow runs
gh run list

Working with GitHub URLs

When given a GitHub URL, extract the relevant information and use gh:

# From: https://github.com/monzo/analytics/pull/123
gh pr view 123 --repo monzo/analytics

# From: https://github.com/monzo/analytics/issues/456
gh issue view 456 --repo monzo/analytics

Context Gathering Patterns

Before Reviewing a PR

# Get the full picture
gh pr view PR_NUMBER           # Description and status
gh pr diff PR_NUMBER           # What changed
gh pr checks PR_NUMBER         # CI status
gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/PR_NUMBER/comments  # Discussion

Investigating an Issue

gh issue view ISSUE_NUMBER     # Issue details
gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/issues/ISSUE_NUMBER/comments  # Discussion

Understanding Branch Context

# What PRs exist for this branch?
gh pr list --head BRANCH_NAME

# What's the status of my PR?
gh pr status

Integration with Git Commands

Combine gh with local git for full context:

# Local: What commits are on this branch?
git log origin/master..HEAD --oneline

# GitHub: What's the PR discussion saying?
gh pr view --comments

Tips

1. Use --json for structured output when you need to parse data:

   gh pr view PR_NUMBER --json title,body,reviews,comments
   

2. Use gh api for anything not covered by high-level commands — it gives direct access to the GitHub API

3. Specify --repo OWNER/REPO when working outside the repo directory or when ambiguous

4. Default to gathering context first — read the PR description and comments before diving into code

When to Invoke This Skill

This skill should guide behaviour whenever GitHub-related context would be valuable. You don't need to explicitly invoke it — just remember to reach for gh when the user mentions:

• PRs, pull requests, merge requests
• Issues, tickets, bugs
• Code reviews, review comments
• CI checks, pipelines, workflows
• Branches in the context of collaboration
• Any GitHub URL