GitHub CLI Skill

Overview

Master the GitHub CLI (gh) for comprehensive project management. This skill covers issue creation, PR workflows, Projects v2 integration, and automation patterns using modern best practices (December 2025).

When to use:

• Creating/managing GitHub issues and PRs
• Working with GitHub Projects v2 custom fields
• Automating bulk operations with gh
• Following modern branch and PR conventions
• Running GraphQL queries for complex operations

Quick Reference

Essential Commands (2025)

# Issue operations
gh issue create --title "feat: Add payment processing" --body "..." --label "enhancement" --milestone "v2.0"
gh issue list --state open --label "backend" --assignee @me --limit 20
gh issue edit 123 --add-label "priority:high" --milestone "v2.1"
gh issue close 123 --comment "Fixed in #456"

# PR operations
gh pr create --title "feat: Add Stripe integration" --body "..." --base main --reviewer @teammate
gh pr checks 456 --watch              # Watch CI status live
gh pr merge 456 --squash --delete-branch
gh pr merge 456 --auto --squash       # Auto-merge when CI passes + approved
gh pr review 456 --approve --body "LGTM!"

# Project operations (Projects v2)
gh project list --owner @me
gh project item-add 1 --owner @me --url https://github.com/org/repo/issues/123
gh project field-list 1 --owner @me

# API operations
gh api repos/:owner/:repo/issues --jq '.[].title'
gh api graphql -f query='query { viewer { login }}'
gh api --method POST repos/:owner/:repo/dispatches -f event_type=deploy

JSON Output + jq Patterns (2025)

# Get issue numbers matching criteria
gh issue list --json number,labels --jq '[.[] | select(.labels[].name == "bug")] | .[].number'

# PR summary with checks
gh pr list --json number,title,author,statusCheckRollup --jq '.[] | "\(.number): \(.title) - \(.statusCheckRollup)"'

# Count open PRs by author
gh pr list --json author --jq 'group_by(.author.login) | map({author: .[0].author.login, count: length})'

# List stale issues (no activity in 30 days)
gh issue list --json number,title,updatedAt --jq 'map(select(.updatedAt < (now - 2592000 | strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")))) | .[] | .number'

Modern Workflow (2025)

Branch Naming Convention

# For GitHub issues
issue/<number>-<brief-description>
# Examples:
issue/372-stripe-integration
issue/385-user-authentication

# For features without issues
feature/<description>
# Example:
feature/dark-mode

# For bug fixes
fix/<issue-number>-<description>
# Example:
fix/401-payment-timeout

# For hotfixes
hotfix/<description>
# Example:
hotfix/critical-security-patch

Complete Feature Workflow

# 1. Create issue (if not exists)
ISSUE_URL=$(gh issue create \
  --title "feat: Add Stripe payment processing" \
  --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Description
Implement Stripe payment processing for subscription billing.

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Stripe SDK integration
- [ ] Payment intent creation endpoint
- [ ] Webhook handling for payment events
- [ ] Database schema for transactions

## Technical Notes
- Use Stripe API v2025-01-01
- Implement idempotency keys
- Add retry logic for webhook failures
EOF
)" \
  --label "enhancement,backend,payment" \
  --milestone "Q1 2026 - Payment System" \
  --json url --jq '.url')

ISSUE_NUM=$(echo "$ISSUE_URL" | grep -o '[0-9]*$')

# 2. Create feature branch
git checkout main && git pull origin main
git checkout -b "issue/${ISSUE_NUM}-stripe-integration"

# 3. Do work, commit with conventional commits
git add . && git commit -m "feat(#${ISSUE_NUM}): Add Stripe payment processing with webhook support"

# 4. Push and create PR
git push -u origin "issue/${ISSUE_NUM}-stripe-integration"

gh pr create \
  --title "feat(#${ISSUE_NUM}): Add Stripe payment processing" \
  --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
- Integrated Stripe SDK v14.x
- Added payment intent creation endpoint
- Implemented webhook handling for payment.succeeded
- Added transaction schema and models

## Test Plan
- [x] Unit tests for payment service (95% coverage)
- [x] Integration tests with Stripe test mode
- [x] Webhook event replay testing
- [ ] Manual testing in staging environment

## Security Considerations
- Webhook signature verification enabled
- API keys stored in environment variables
- PCI DSS compliance checklist followed

Closes #${ISSUE_NUM}

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
EOF
)" \
  --base main \
  --label "enhancement,backend,payment" \
  --reviewer @tech-lead

PR Commit Message Format (Conventional Commits)

# Format: type(#issue): description
feat(#372): Implement Stripe payment integration
fix(#345): Resolve checkout page rendering bug
docs(#336): Update API documentation for v2.0
refactor(#391): Extract payment service into separate module
test(#342): Add 95% coverage for payment webhooks
chore(#376): Upgrade dependencies to December 2025 versions
perf(#401): Optimize database queries for user dashboard

Project Board Integration (Projects v2)

Modern development teams use GitHub Projects v2 with custom fields. After creating an issue:

# Add issue to project
ITEM_ID=$(gh project item-add 1 --owner your-org \
  --url "https://github.com/your-org/your-repo/issues/${ISSUE_NUM}" \
  --format json | jq -r '.id')

# Set Status to "In Development" (requires GraphQL)
# See templates/project-config-example.json for field IDs
gh api graphql -f query='
mutation {
  updateProjectV2ItemFieldValue(input: {
    projectId: "PROJECT_ID"
    itemId: "'$ITEM_ID'"
    fieldId: "STATUS_FIELD_ID"
    value: {singleSelectOptionId: "IN_PROGRESS_OPTION_ID"}
  }) {
    projectV2Item {
      id
    }
  }
}'

Note: Setting custom fields requires GraphQL. See references/projects-v2.md.

Labels Reference (Example SaaS App)

Priority Labels

Domain Labels

Type Labels

Milestones Reference (Example SaaS App)

Example milestone structure for a SaaS application:

Detailed Guides

For specific capabilities, see:

• Issue Management: references/issue-management.md

  • Bulk operations, templates, parent/sub-issues

• PR Workflows: references/pr-workflows.md

  • Review workflow, merge strategies, auto-merge

• Projects v2: references/projects-v2.md

  • Custom fields, GraphQL mutations, this project field IDs

• GraphQL API: references/graphql-api.md

  • Complex queries, pagination, bulk operations

• Automation Patterns: references/automation-patterns.md

  • Aliases, error handling, rate limits, scripts

Best Practices

1. Always use --json for scripting - Parse with --jq for reliability
2. Non-interactive mode for automation - Use --title, --body flags
3. Check rate limits before bulk operations - gh api rate_limit
4. Use heredocs for multi-line content - --body "$(cat <<'EOF'...EOF)"
5. Link issues in PRs - Closes #123, Fixes #456
6. Add verification checklists - Track test plan completion
7. Never commit to dev/main directly - Always use feature branches + PRs