Gitea (REST API)

Operate Gitea by sending HTTP requests to $GITEAURL/api/v1/... authenticated by $GITEATOKEN. This skill does NOT depend on any MCP server — every operation is a direct curl call.

Keep this entry file small. Load only the reference pack the current turn needs.

Always-On Rules

1. Forced forge routing. Before any forge work, run git remote get-url origin and parse the host. If the host is github.com, this skill does not apply — use gh, including for internal GitHub organizations. For any other host, treat it as a Gitea candidate: derive https://<host> as the probe base URL, run curl -fsS --max-time 5 "https://<host>/api/v1/version";, and use this skill only if HTTP 200 returns JSON with a version field. If the probe fails or times out, ask the user; do not guess another forge.
2. Resolve $GITEAURL + $GITEATOKEN from named env pairs, not from the user. Source scripts/gitea.sh, then call giteaauto to select the pair whose URL matches the current repo's origin; it falls back to the unaliased GITEAURL/GITEATOKEN, then to the legacy GITEAHOST/GITEAACCESSTOKEN, then asks the user. $GITEA_URL is always the base URL without the /api suffix.
3. Send Authorization: token $GITEA_TOKEN on every request. Never put the token in the query string (?token=) — it would be logged.
4. Prefer curl -s piped to jq so results are easy to inspect. Always include -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' (or --fail-with-body) when verifying success on write/delete calls — Gitea returns success bodies on 2xx and a { "message": "...", "url": "..." } error envelope on 4xx/5xx.
5. Never interpolate user or free-form text into inline JSON. Build the body with jq -n into a mktemp file, then call gitea_json METHOD PATH FILE; it validates JSON and sends it with --data-binary @file. Fixed, trusted literal bodies may use -d.
6. Respect destructiveness. Any DELETE against /branches, /contents, /releases, /tags, labels, milestones, packages, secrets, variables, or wiki pages is irreversible. State exactly what will be removed and confirm with the user unless explicitly authorized.
7. Pagination: most list endpoints take ?page=N&limit=M (default page=1, limit=30, server max usually 50). A few older endpoints accept per_page= as an alias. Loop pages until the response is empty or Link: rel="next" is absent.
8. PUT /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents/{path} (create/update file): content must be base64-encoded. Omit sha to create; pass the current file sha to update.
9. Endpoint responses are the resource directly — Gitea does not wrap them in { success, data }. Errors come back with HTTP 4xx/5xx plus { "message": "...", "url": "..." }.

Core Workflow

Environment

Credentials live in named pairs — GITEA<ALIAS>URL + GITEA<ALIAS>TOKEN — one pair per Gitea instance. giteaauto matches the current repo's origin host to one of the URLs and loads that pair into $GITEAURL + $GITEA_TOKEN. Full discovery order and helper code: [setup.md](references/setup.md#instance-selection-multi-gitea).

# Example user-side ~/.bashrc:
#   export GITEA_ORGA_URL=https://git.orga.com    GITEA_ORGA_TOKEN=...
#   export GITEA_ORGB_URL=https://git.orgb.local  GITEA_ORGB_TOKEN=...
#   export GITEA_URL=https://gitea.com            GITEA_TOKEN=...

# Per-shell bootstrap; replace <gitea-skill> with this skill's directory:
source <gitea-skill>/scripts/gitea.sh
gitea_auto || { echo "no Gitea credentials (set GITEA_<ALIAS>_URL + GITEA_<ALIAS>_TOKEN, or GITEA_URL + GITEA_TOKEN)" >&2; exit 1; }

AUTH=(-H "Authorization: token $GITEA_TOKEN")
JSON=(-H 'Content-Type: application/json')

Env-var contract:

• GITEA<ALIAS>URL + GITEA<ALIAS>TOKEN — one named pair per instance. <ALIAS> is uppercase letters/digits/underscores; GITEA<ALIAS>TOKENFILE is accepted when TOKEN is not exported.
• GITEAURL + GITEATOKEN — unaliased single-instance fallback. $GITEA_URL is the base URL without the /api suffix.
• GITEAHOST + GITEAACCESS_TOKEN — gitea-mcp legacy fallback.

The helpers (gitealistaliases, giteause, giteaauto, gitea, and giteajson) live only in scripts/gitea.sh; source that file in every fresh shell. For SSH remotes, the HTTPS port is unknowable. If multiple aliases share a host on different ports, giteaauto fails safely and requires gitea_use <ALIAS>.

Simple single-instance case (only GITEAURL + GITEATOKEN exported): skip the helpers entirely and call curl directly:

curl -s -H "Authorization: token $GITEA_TOKEN" "$GITEA_URL/api/v1/user" | jq

Two usage patterns:

• Inside a repo, no env set: giteaauto parses origin and finds the alias whose GITEA<ALIAS>_URL host matches.
• Outside a repo, or targeting a different instance: export GITEAURL=https://git.aaa.com first, then giteaauto will match git.aaa.com against the configured aliases and pull the right token. No need to remember which alias corresponds to which host.

Hard override: gitea_use ORGA activates the ORGA pair regardless of URL.

gitea helper

After resolving env, the sourced script provides both gitea and gitea_json. Every api-*.md example assumes they are in scope:

gitea GET    /version                                          # health
gitea GET    /user                                             # token identity
gitea GET   '/repos/foo/bar/issues?state=closed&limit=50'      # list with query
gitea POST   /repos/foo/bar/issues   -d '{"title":"x"}'        # write
gitea DELETE /repos/foo/bar/releases/42                        # destructive

The helper auto-injects $GITEA_URL/api/v1, the auth header, and Content-Type: application/json; surfaces curl transport failures and HTTP 4xx/5xx (with the {message, url} envelope) on stderr and returns 1; pretty-prints success bodies via jq.

Single issue create + comment (canonical write flow)

BODY_FILE=$(mktemp)
trap 'rm -f "$BODY_FILE"' EXIT
jq -n --arg title "$TITLE" --arg body "$BODY" \
  '{title: $title, body: $body}' > "$BODY_FILE"
ISSUE=$(gitea_json POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues "$BODY_FILE") || exit 1
NUM=$(echo "$ISSUE" | jq -r '.number')

jq -n --arg body "$COMMENT" '{body: $body}' > "$BODY_FILE"
gitea_json POST "/repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/$NUM/comments" "$BODY_FILE"

Reference Packs

Load only the pack that covers the task at hand. Each pack lists every endpoint with method, path, key params, and a curl example.

• references/setup.md

Env vars, auth, /api/v1/version probe, PAT scopes, pagination, error envelope, common gotchas.

• references/api-repo.md — ~23 operations

Repos & forks, branches, tags, commits, repo tree, file contents (read / create / update / delete), releases.

• references/api-issues-prs.md — issue + PR endpoints

list/get/create/update issues, comments, labels-on-issue; PR list/get/diff/files/status/reviews/create/update/close/merge/update-branch/add-reviewers; review submit/dismiss.

• references/api-project.md — labels, milestones, time tracking, wiki

Repo & org labels (CRUD), milestones (CRUD), stopwatches + tracked time entries, wiki pages + revisions.

• references/api-discovery.md — users, orgs, search, notifications, version

/user, /user/orgs, /users/search, /orgs/{org}/teams/search, /repos/search, /repos/issues/search, notifications list/get/mark-read, /version.

• references/api-cicd.md — actions & packages

Workflows + runs + jobs + logs, dispatch/cancel/rerun runs, repo/org Actions secrets + variables CRUD, packages list/versions/get/delete.

Quick Routing

• Connection refused, 401, 403, missing token, PAT scopes: references/setup.md.
• Clone / fork / create repo, read or commit a file, branch / tag, release: references/api-repo.md.
• File issues, comment, manage PRs, request/submit reviews, merge: references/api-issues-prs.md.
• Labels, milestones, time tracking, wiki pages: references/api-project.md.
• "Who am I", search repos/users/issues, org list, notifications: references/api-discovery.md.
• CI runs/workflows, secrets/variables, packages: references/api-cicd.md.

Reminder (rule 0): github.com -> use gh; failed /api/v1/version probe -> ask the user, do not guess another forge.