When working with git, you’re obviously aware that you need to switch to the web browser to perform various actions on the GitHub repo - Pull Request, Issues, Review... The GitHub CLI tool gives wings to the cmd-line, so you can execute many of these actions without leaving the cmd-line.
Setup
To get started, visit the installation page and find instructions on how to install GitHub CLI for your preferred OS. The easy-peasy way for Windows users is to use scoop package manager.
Below are snapshots of install instructions for each supported platform:
Windows:
scoop bucket add github-gh https://github.com/cli/scoop-gh.git scoop install gh
macOS:
brew install github
Debian/Ubuntu Linux:
sudo apt install git && sudo dpkg -i gh_*_linux_amd64.deb
Authenticate GitHub CLI
Authenticate CLI to access your GitHub account.
gh auth login
Select Login with a Web browser
$ gh auth login
? What account do you want to log into? GitHub.com
? What is your preferred protocol for Git operations? HTTPS
? Authenticate Git with your GitHub credentials? Yes
? How would you like to authenticate GitHub CLI? Login with a web browser
! First copy your one-time code: 1DD9-7BD3
Press Enter to open github.com in your browser...
✓ Authentication complete.
- gh config set -h github.com git_protocol https
✓ Configured git protocol
✓ Logged in as pvishnuprasaath
GitHub CLI Command Struct
gh
command is structured like a tree for grabbing easily. There are basically two levels of commands. The first level consists of the below commands:
auth
browse
issue
pr
release
repo
codespace
gist
Each command has a second level of command where you specify the operation to perform — such as gh pr create
or gh repo view
.
Let's dive deep into the most commonly used commands.
GitHub Repo Command
Cloning a repo with the gh
command is easier than using the git
command. You no longer need to type or copy-paste the long Git URL to clone
gh repo clone OWNER/REPO
gh repo clone mui/material-ui
You can also fork existing repositories to your account easily from the command line.
gh repo fork cli/cli
To view the description and README of a project hosted on GitHub use the gh repo view
command.
gh repo view facebook/react
Let's create a new GitHub repository from the command line. First, we need to create a new project.
$ npx create-next-app sample-app
$ cd sample-app
To create a repo from the command line, just run the following:
$ gh repo create --public
✓ Created repository pvishnuprasaath/sample-app on GitHub
✓ Added remote https://github.com/pvishnuprasaath/sample-app.git
# Push your project code to your new remote repository
$ git push -u origin main
Pull Request Command
If you know classic git flow, creating PR is quite an effort. GitHub CLI makes it easy to create PR directly from your terminal. After a git commit
, you can execute gh pr create
. It will prompt a couple of inputs. Post that, the PR link is displayed in the terminal.
Here’s the full output:
$ gh pr create
Creating pull request for feature-1 into master in pvishnuprasaath/sample-app
? Title Added new feature
? Body Implemented and testted new feature for ABC
? What is next? Submit
Enumerating objects: 6, done.
Counting objects: 100% (6/6), done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
Writing objects: 100% (4/4), 328 bytes | 328.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 4 (delta 2), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
remote: Resolving deltas: 100% (2/2), completed with 2 local objects.
remote:
remote: Create a pull request for 'feature-1' on GitHub by visiting:
remote: https://github.com/pvishnuprasaath/sample-app/pull/new/feature-1
remote:
To https://github.com/pvishnuprasaath/sample-app.git
* [new branch] HEAD -> feature-1
Branch 'feature-1' set up to track
remote branch 'feature-1' from 'origin'.
https://github.com/pvishnuprasaath/sample-app/pull/3
A short version:
gh pr create --title "PR title" --body "PR body"
To view all the pull requests in the current repo, run gh pr list
$ gh pr list
Showing 1 of 1 pull request in pvishnuprasaath/sample-app
#3 Added new feature feature-1
Use the command gh pr checkout <number>
to checkout a PR. This command will pull the remote feature branch and switch to it. gh pr diff
will show the delta for the current PR.
Let’s take a look at the gh pr merge
command. As you’re probably aware, GitHub checks for vulnerabilities in your code and provides solutions via bump pull requests. Here’s an example:
Merging multiple PRs one by one is a tiring process. gh pr merge
makes it easy to merge a particular PR directly from the terminal.
$ gh pr merge 4
? What merge method would you like to use? Create a merge commit
remote: Counting objects: 100% (1/1), done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (1/1), done.
remote: Total 1 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
Unpacking objects: 100% (1/1), 624 bytes | 89.00 KiB/s, done.
From https://github.com/pvishnuprasaath/sample-app
* branch main -> FETCH_HEAD
09f8c52..7a8a3f2 main -> origin/main
Updating 09f8c52..7a8a3f2
Fast-forward
src/data/data.ts | 4 ++--
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
✓ Deleted branch FixLink and switched to branch main
Additional gh pr
commands
gh pr view
: displays the title, body, and other information about a pull request.gh pr status
: show the status of relevant pull requests.gh pr ready
: make a pull request as ready for review.gh pr review
: add a review to a pull request.gh pr close
: close a pull request.gh pr reopen
: reopen a pull request.
By now, there isn't a way to revert PR from the GitHub CLI yet :(
Issue Command
Issues are used to keep track of bugs, tasks and feature requests associated with a GitHub project repo. The command gh issue create
is used to create a new issue via the terminal:
$ gh issue create
Creating issue in pvishnuprasaath/sample-app
? Title Fix Docker skill link
? Title Fix Docker skill link
? Body <Received>
? What's next? Submit
https://github.com/pvishnuprasaath/sample-app/issues/6
gh issue list
command lists all issues in the current repo.
The rest of gh issue
commands are quite similar to gh pr
commands. Below is a quick summary:
gh issue view
: displays the title, body, and other information about an issue.gh issue status
: show the status of relevant issues.gh issue close
: close an issue.gh issue reopen
: reopen an issue.
GitHub CLI Cheat Sheet
Creating, deleting and configuring repo
gh repo create
gh repo create <name_of_repo> --public
gh repo create my-project --private --source=. --remote=upstream
gh repo edit --visibility <visibility-string>
gh repo sync
gh repo create --disable-issues=true --public
gh repo list
gh repo delete <name_of_repo>
gh repo clone <name_of_repo>
gh repo fork <name_of_repo>
To easily save a piece of code online use Gist:
Creating a gist
touch index.js // after create content for it
gh gist create index.js --public
gh gist create -
gh gist edit <gist_id>
gh gist list --public
gh gist list --secret
Handling issues
gh issue create
gh issue list
gh issue status
git issue close <#number_issue>
gh list -A "<name_issue>"
Handling Pull requests
gh pr create
gh pr checkout <name>
gh pr diff <#number_of_pr>
gh review -c -b "nice work"
gh pr close <#number_of_pr> -d
gh pr reopen <#number_of_pr>
gh pr status
gh
for sure saves up time in devflow. Gives additional hands to your terminal for managing the repository. Refer to the official docs for new features and detailed info on using the existing commands.