GHX Skill

Summary

Use this skill as shared guidance for raw gh and gh api usage in GitHub issue, pull request, and review workflows. It focuses on safe command patterns, payload handling, and common collection/publish recipes.

This skill is guidance-only. It does not provide scripts, wrappers, or executable entrypoints.

When To Use

• Collecting issue or PR context directly from GitHub with gh
• Publishing PR bodies, issue comments, or review replies safely
• Looking for reusable GitHub CLI patterns without depending on repo-local scripts
• Standardizing GitHub CLI safety rules across multiple skills

Do Not Use

• As a command or executable tool
• When a task needs Holon runtime internals rather than GitHub CLI guidance
• As a replacement for the task-specific logic in github-review, github-pr-fix, or github-issue-solve

Prerequisites

• gh CLI authentication is required.
• GITHUBTOKEN or GHTOKEN must have the scopes required by the target repository operations.
• jq is recommended when you need structured filtering or JSON post-processing.

Safety Rules

Payload handling

1. Never inline large markdown or JSON payloads on the command line.
2. Always pass long bodies through files:

- gh issue create --body-file <file> - gh issue comment --body-file <file> - gh pr create --body-file <file> - gh pr edit --body-file <file>

1. Use --body-file - only when stdin is clearly available and intentional.

Good:

cat > /tmp/comment.md <<'EOF'
## Summary
Detailed markdown with quotes, backticks, and newlines.
EOF
gh issue comment 123 --repo owner/repo --body-file /tmp/comment.md

Bad:

gh issue comment 123 --repo owner/repo --body "## Summary
Detailed markdown with quotes, backticks, and newlines."

Raw JSON payloads

• Prefer gh api --input <file> for complex request bodies.
• When passing many scalar fields, prefer repeated -f key=value flags over hand-built shell strings.

Common Recipes

Collect issue context

gh issue view 123 --repo owner/repo --json number,title,body,state,url,author,createdAt,updatedAt,labels
gh api repos/owner/repo/issues/123/comments --paginate

Collect PR context

gh pr view 123 --repo owner/repo --json number,title,body,state,url,baseRefName,headRefName,headRefOid,author,createdAt,updatedAt,mergeable,reviews,changedFiles,additions,deletions
gh pr view 123 --repo owner/repo --json files
gh pr diff 123 --repo owner/repo
gh api graphql -f query='
  query($owner:String!, $repo:String!, $number:Int!) {
    repository(owner:$owner, name:$repo) {
      pullRequest(number:$number) {
        reviewThreads(first:100) {
          nodes {
            isResolved
            comments(first:100) {
              nodes { id body path line author { login } }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }' -F owner=<owner> -F repo=<repo> -F number=<pr_number>

Create or update a PR

gh pr create --repo owner/repo --title "Title" --body-file /tmp/pr-body.md --head feature/x --base main
gh pr edit 123 --repo owner/repo --title "Updated title" --body-file /tmp/pr-body.md

Post a PR-level comment

gh api repos/owner/repo/issues/123/comments -X POST --input /tmp/comment.json

Example payload:

{
  "body": "Comment body"
}

Reply to a review comment

gh api repos/owner/repo/pulls/123/comments -X POST \
  -F in_reply_to=456789 \
  -f body='Thanks, fixed in the latest commit.'

Post a review with inline comments

Use gh api with a JSON payload file so body text and inline comments stay structured and reproducible.

Notes

• Prefer explicit repository targeting via --repo owner/repo in automation.
• Prefer machine-readable --json output when subsequent steps need structured data.
• When collecting many records, remember --paginate for REST endpoints.