GitHub REST API

Use this skill to read and write GitHub data through the REST API at https://api.github.com. You issue the HTTP requests yourself with whatever capability you have — a shell (curl), an HTTP request tool, or a language runtime. This skill tells you which request to make and how to read the result.

Authentication

This skill is a full client: it acquires and manages its own credentials. Get a token in this order, and never invent one:

1. Environment. If GITHUB_TOKEN is set, use it (caller-provided — don't cache or overwrite it).
2. Cached token. Otherwise read the token cache at ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/gh-skills/token.json. If it holds an access token that is not expired, use it. If it's expired but has a refresh_token, refresh it, save the result, and use it.
3. OAuth device flow. If there's still no usable token, log in via the OAuth device flow — this client does not ask for a Personal Access Token and does not shell out to other tools. Run scripts/login.sh (it requests the code, shows the URL + code, polls, and writes the cache), or do it by hand per references/authentication.md. The skill ships a default OAuth client id, so no setup is needed. On success the token and its expiry are saved to the cache (step 2's path); then use it.

4. Validate a freshly obtained token with GET /user (expects 200):

   curl -sS https://api.github.com/user \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
     -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
     -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28"

5. On 401 (expired or revoked): delete the cached token and re-authenticate — refresh if possible, otherwise run the device flow again.

Always also send Accept: application/vnd.github+json and X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28. Only ever send the token to api.github.com — never put it in a URL, send it to another host, echo it, or write it to a shared/committed file.

When is a token required? Public, read-only data works without one but is capped at 60 requests/hour (authenticated: 5,000/hour), and private resources are invisible (they return 404). Anything private, any write, and search/code require a token — so for real work, authenticate first.

For token types, scopes per task, creating a token, and the OAuth device-flow login, see references/authentication.md.

The request shape

Every call is METHOD https://api.github.com<path> with the three headers above. Paths use {owner}/{repo} and resource ids, e.g. /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{number}. Bodies (for POST/PATCH) are JSON; add -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{...}'.

In a shell, prefer the bundled helper scripts/api.sh — it resolves the token (env → cache → refresh), sends the three headers, and trims the response through a jq filter you pass with -q:

scripts/api.sh <path> [-X METHOD] [-d '<json body>'] [-q '<jq filter>'] [--raw]

The helper is just an accelerator for the curl case; with an HTTP tool or a language runtime, make the same request by hand (the recipes below show both).

Read only the fields you need

A bare list endpoint returns ~30 fields per item — fetching 30 issues is tens of thousands of tokens you then have to read. Always narrow the response to the fields the task needs. With the REST API you do this client-side:

• With the helper: pass -q '[.[]|{number,title,state}]'.
• With raw curl: pipe through jq, e.g. curl … | jq '[.[]|{number,title,state}]'.
• With a language runtime: parse the JSON and keep only the fields you use.

references/endpoints.md lists the useful fields for each resource so you know what to select. Also send the smallest request: a specific path + per_page beats fetching everything.

Most-used recipes

Each recipe shows the lean helper form first, then the equivalent raw request.

5 most recent open issues in a repo (newest first; this endpoint also returns pull requests — drop any item that has a pull_request field):

scripts/api.sh "repos/vercel/next.js/issues?state=open&sort=created&direction=desc&per_page=5" \
  -q '[.[]|select(.pull_request|not)|{number,title,user:.user.login,comments}]'
# raw equivalent:
curl -sS "https://api.github.com/repos/vercel/next.js/issues?state=open&sort=created&direction=desc&per_page=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN" -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  | jq '[.[]|select(.pull_request|not)|{number,title,user:.user.login,comments}]'

Search issues/PRs across GitHub (returns { total_count, items }):

scripts/api.sh "search/issues?q=repo:cli/cli+is:issue+is:open+label:bug&sort=created&order=desc&per_page=5" \
  -q '{total_count, items:[.items[]|{number,title,state}]}'

One issue with its body: scripts/api.sh repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{number} -q '{number,title,state,body}' Recent commits on a branch: scripts/api.sh "repos/{owner}/{repo}/commits?sha={branch}&per_page=10" -q '[.[]|{sha:.sha[0:7],msg:.commit.message,author:.commit.author.name}]' A file's contents: scripts/api.sh repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents/{path}?ref={branch} --raw (omit --raw to get the JSON envelope with base64 content and the sha you need to update it).

See references/endpoints.md for the full catalog and useful fields, and references/search-syntax.md for search qualifiers.

Conventions that trip people up

• "Most recent" / "latest" → sort=created&direction=desc. "Top N" → per_page=N.
• The repo issues list includes PRs. Filter them out by checking for a pull_request key on each item.
• Pagination: per_page (max 100) + page. The response Link header carries rel="next"; follow it to page, stop when it's absent.
• Dates are ISO 8601 UTC (2026-06-19T20:13:00Z). Search supports ranges like created:>=2026-01-01.
• Search has its own, lower rate limit (~30 requests/min) and caps results at 1,000 — narrow the query rather than paging deeply.
• Prefer the smallest request: a specific path + per_page to limit items, plus a jq/-q filter to limit fields (see "Read only the fields you need").

Errors & rate limits

• 401 invalid/expired token · 403 often a rate-limit or permission issue · 404 missing or no access (GitHub hides private resources as 404) · 422 validation error (bad query/params).
• Check X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset (epoch seconds). On 403/429 with a Retry-After header, wait that many seconds before retrying. Back off on secondary-rate-limit messages.
• On error, the JSON body has a message and often a documentation_url — read it before retrying.