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GitHub Commands & CLI Reference (gh) ⚡

A complete guide to using the official GitHub CLI (gh), Git remote integration commands, and GitHub API features directly from your terminal.

🎯 Quick Navigation

1. GitHub CLI Authentication & Config

Command Description Example
gh auth login Start interactive login process. gh auth login
gh auth status Check authentication state. gh auth status
gh auth logout Log out from GitHub account. gh auth logout
gh config set Set GitHub CLI configuration defaults. gh config set editor "code --wait"

2. Managing Repositories

# Create a new repository on GitHub and local machine simultaneously
gh repo create my-new-app --public --clone

# Clone a GitHub repository
gh repo clone owner/repository

# Fork a repository to your account and clone locally
gh repo fork owner/repository --clone

# View repository details in browser or terminal
gh repo view
gh repo view --web

# List repositories belonging to user or organization
gh repo list owner

3. Managing Pull Requests (PRs)

# Create a Pull Request interactively
gh pr create --title "feat: user authentication" --body "Adds JWT login endpoint"

# List open Pull Requests for the current repository
gh pr list

# Checkout a Pull Request locally for testing
gh pr checkout 42

# View details and status of a Pull Request
gh pr view 42

# Review a Pull Request (Approve, Comment, or Request Changes)
gh pr review 42 --approve
gh pr review 42 --comment -b "Looks good!"

# Merge a Pull Request automatically
gh pr merge 42 --squash --delete-branch

4. Managing Issues

# Create a new issue
gh issue create --title "Bug: Login fails on Safari" --body "Detailed steps..."

# List issues in repository
gh issue list

# View issue details
gh issue view 12

# Assign an issue to a teammate
gh issue edit 12 --add-assignee "octocat"

# Close an issue
gh issue close 12

5. GitHub Actions Workflow Execution

# List all workflows in repository
gh run list

# View live log output of a specific run
gh run view <run_id> --log

# Trigger a manual workflow run (workflow_dispatch event)
gh workflow run deploy.yml

# Enable or disable a workflow
gh workflow enable deploy.yml

6. Managing Gists, Releases & API

Gists

# Create a public or secret Gist from a file
gh gist create script.sh --public
gh gist create secret_config.json --secret

Releases

# Create a release with tagged binaries
gh release create v1.0.0 ./dist/app.zip --title "v1.0.0 Release" --notes "First production release"

Direct GitHub API Requests

# Send an authenticated GET request to GitHub REST API
gh api user

# Send a POST request to update repository topics
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/topics -X PUT -F "names[]=react" -F "names[]=typescript"