Exploring the New GitHub CLI

GitHub recently announced their new CLI offering. cli.github.com

It allows us to do GitHub work directly from the command line. This is more than just push or pull and is not tied directly to the Git command line tools. It is also not the same as GitHub’s hub CLI tool .

GitHub CLI Beta

Installing the GitHub CLI

There are installers for Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you are on Mac, you can use Homebrew to install using:

brew install github/gh/gh

What can the GitHub CLI do?

The GitHub CLI is focused on our workflows as team developers. Here’s a quick list of GitHub CLI features that we can do from the command line:

• Issues:
  • Create an issue
  • List all issues (and filter)
  • See status of an issue (and filter)
  • View a single issue
• Pull Requests:
  • Checkout a PR
  • Create a PR
  • List all PRs (and filter)
  • See status of a PR (and filter)
  • View a single PR

What is the difference between gh and hub?

gh and hub will both continue to work. From the GitHub CLI README :

"For many years, hub was the unofficial GitHub CLI tool. gh is a new project for us to explore what an official GitHub CLI tool can look like with a fundamentally different design. While both tools bring GitHub to the terminal, hub behaves as a proxy to git and gh is a standalone tool."

• GitHub CLI Features include Issues and Pull Requests
• hub Features include cloning/creating repos

Working on Issues with the GitHub CLI

Showing All Issues

gh issue list [flags]

# flags can be:
# -a, --assignee string   Filter by assignee
# -l, --label strings     Filter by label
# -L, --limit int         Maximum number of issues to fetch (default 30)
# -s, --state string      Filter by state: {open|closed|all}

Creating an Issue

gh issue create [flags]

# flags can be:
# -b, --body string    Supply a body. Will prompt for one otherwise.
# -t, --title string   Supply a title. Will prompt for one otherwise.
# -w, --web            Open the browser to create an issue

Show the Status of Issues

gh issue status [flags]

# flags can be:
# --help                  Show help for command
# -R, --repo OWNER/REPO   Select another repository using the OWNER/REPO format

View a Single Issue

gh issue view {<number> | <url> | <branch>} [flags]

# example
# gh issue view 8

# flags can be:
# -p, --preview   Display preview of issue content

Working on Pull Requests with the GitHub CLI

Checkout a Pull Request

gh pr checkout {<number> | <url> | <branch>} [flags]

# example
# gh pr checkout 12

Creating a Pull Request

gh pr create

# flags can be:
# -B, --base string    The branch into which you want your code merged
# -b, --body string    Supply a body. Will prompt for one otherwise.
# -d, --draft          Mark pull request as a draft
# -t, --title string   Supply a title. Will prompt for one otherwise.
# -w, --web            Open the web browser to create a pull request

List All Pull Requests

gh pr list [flags]

# flags can be:
# -a, --assignee string   Filter by assignee
# -B, --base string       Filter by base branch
# -l, --label strings     Filter by label
# -L, --limit int         Maximum number of items to fetch (default 30)
# -s, --state string      Filter by state: {open|closed|merged|all} (default "open")

Show the Status of Pull Requests

gh pr status [flags]

View a Single Pull Request

gh pr view [{<number> | <url> | <branch>}] [flags]

# example
# gh pr view 14

The GitHub CLI should help those out who work on repos with a lot of issues and PRs.

The GitHub CLI is still in early stages so give them feedback if you want to help out: https://forms.gle/umxd3h31c7aMQFKG7

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