gh-cli

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name: gh-cli description: GitHub CLI for remote repository analysis, file fetching, codebase comparison, and discovering trending code/repos. Use when analyzing repos without cloning, comparing codebases, or searching for popular GitHub projects. metadata: version: "1.1.2" openclaw: homepage: https://github.com/tenequm/skills/tree/main/skills/gh-cli emoji: "🐙" primaryEnv: GH_TOKEN requires: bins: - gh envVars: - name: GH_TOKEN required: false description: GitHub auth token used by gh CLI. - name: GITHUB_TOKEN required: false description: Alias for GH_TOKEN. - name: GH_HOST required: false description: GitHub Enterprise host override.

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GitHub CLI - Remote Analysis & Discovery

Remote repository operations, codebase comparison, and code discovery without cloning.

When to Use

Analyze repositories without cloning

Compare codebases side-by-side

Fetch specific files from any repo

Find trending repositories and code patterns

Search code across GitHub

Quick Operations

Fetch a file remotely

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/path/file.ts --template '{{.content | base64decode}}'

Get directory listing

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/PATH

Search code

gh search code "pattern" --language=typescript

Find trending repos

gh search repos --language=rust --sort stars --order desc

Compare Two Codebases

Systematic workflow for comparing repositories to identify similarities and differences.

Example use: "Compare solana-fm/explorer-kit and tenequm/solana-idls"

Step 1: Fetch directory structures

gh api repos/OWNER-A/REPO-A/contents/PATH
gh api repos/OWNER-B/REPO-B/contents/PATH

If comparing a monorepo package, specify the path (e.g., packages/explorerkit-idls).

Step 2: Compare file lists

gh api repos/OWNER-A/REPO-A/contents/PATH -q '.[].name'
gh api repos/OWNER-B/REPO-B/contents/PATH -q '.[].name'

Compare the output of each command to identify files unique to each repo and common files.

Step 3: Fetch key files for comparison

Compare package dependencies:

gh api repos/OWNER-A/REPO-A/contents/package.json --template '{{.content | base64decode}}'
gh api repos/OWNER-B/REPO-B/contents/package.json --template '{{.content | base64decode}}'

Compare main entry points:

gh api repos/OWNER-A/REPO-A/contents/src/index.ts --template '{{.content | base64decode}}'
gh api repos/OWNER-B/REPO-B/contents/src/index.ts --template '{{.content | base64decode}}'

Step 4: Analyze differences

Compare the fetched files to identify:

API Surface

What functions/classes are exported?

Are the APIs similar or completely different?

Dependencies

Shared dependencies (same approach)

Different dependencies (different implementation)

Unique Features

Features only in repo1

Features only in repo2

For detailed comparison strategies, see references/comparison.md.

Discover Trending Content

Find trending repositories

# Most starred repos
gh search repos --sort stars --order desc --limit 20
Trending in specific language
gh search repos --language=rust --sort stars --order desc
Recently popular (created in last month)
gh search repos "created:>2024-10-01" --sort stars --order desc
Trending in specific topic
gh search repos "topic:machine-learning" --sort stars --order desc

Discover popular code patterns

# Find popular implementations
gh search code "function useWallet" --language=typescript --sort indexed
Find code in popular repos only
gh search code "implementation" "stars:>1000"
Search specific organization
gh search code "authentication" --owner=anthropics

For complete discovery queries and patterns, see references/discovery.md.

Search Basics

Code search

# Search across all repositories
gh search code "API endpoint" --language=python
Search in specific organization
gh search code "auth" --owner=anthropics
Exclude results with negative qualifiers
gh search issues -- "bug report -label:wontfix"

Issue & PR search

# Find open bugs
gh search issues --label=bug --state=open
Search assigned issues
gh search issues --assignee=@me --state=open

For advanced search syntax, see references/search.md.

Special Syntax

Field name inconsistencies

IMPORTANT: GitHub CLI uses inconsistent field names across commands:

| Field | gh repo view | gh search repos | |-------|----------------|-------------------| | Stars | stargazerCount | stargazersCount | | Forks | forkCount | forksCount |

Examples:

# ✅ Correct for gh repo view
gh repo view owner/repo --json stargazerCount,forkCount
✅ Correct for gh search repos
gh search repos "query" --json stargazersCount,forksCount

Excluding search results

When using negative qualifiers (like -label:bug), use -- to prevent the hyphen from being interpreted as a flag:

gh search issues -- "query -label:bug"

For more syntax gotchas, see references/syntax.md.

Advanced Workflows

For detailed documentation on specific workflows:

Core Workflows:

remote-analysis.md - Advanced file fetching patterns

comparison.md - Complete codebase comparison guide

discovery.md - All trending and discovery queries

search.md - Advanced search syntax

syntax.md - Special syntax and command quirks

GitHub Operations:

repositories.md - Repository operations

pull_requests.md - PR workflows

issues.md - Issue management

actions.md - GitHub Actions

releases.md - Release management

Setup & Configuration:

getting_started.md - Installation and auth

other.md - Environment variables, aliases, config

extensions.md - CLI extensions

Resources

Official docs: https://cli.github.com/manual/

GitHub CLI: https://github.com/cli/cli

Search syntax: https://docs.github.com/en/search-github