gh-cli-setup

A setup and troubleshooting guide for GitHub CLI, the command-line program for working with GitHub. It covers installation, login, configuration checks, and authentication problems.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when GitHub CLI is not installed, login fails, authentication behaves unexpectedly, or you need to verify installed versions and accounts.
Why use it?
It explains why the gh command may be missing or rejected and provides platform-specific ways to correct the setup.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/aaddrick/gh-cli-search/gh-cli-setup
Any agent
npx skills add aaddrick/gh-cli-search --skill gh-cli-setup
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aaddrick/gh-cli-search

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 32 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,000 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 2 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00032 $0.02000
Opus 5 $0.00016 $0.01000
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00400
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00200

Measured 2d ago against content hash 5ee6a0c28a0c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

gh-cli-setup scanned grade B with 2 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Asks for rootmediumPrivilege escalation

A mod that escalates privileges can change anything on the machine, not only the project.

sudo port install gh

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

type -p curl >/dev/null || (sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl -y)
skills/gh-cli-setup/SKILL.md · 418 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 418 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

GitHub CLI Setup & Troubleshooting

Overview

This skill helps diagnose and fix GitHub CLI (gh) installation, configuration, and authentication issues.

IMPORTANT: When providing installation instructions, always:

  • Explain the recommended method (e.g., "Homebrew is the recommended way to install on macOS")
  • Provide the actual command
  • Mention alternative installation methods
  • Add context about what the command does
  • Do NOT just return a bare command without explanation

When to Use

Use this skill when:

  • gh command not found
  • Authentication errors occur
  • gh CLI behaves unexpectedly
  • Need to check gh CLI configuration
  • Setting up gh CLI for first time

Quick Diagnostic

Run these commands to check status:

# Check if gh is installed
which gh

# Check gh version
gh --version

# Check authentication status
gh auth status

# List authenticated accounts
gh auth status --show-token

Installation

macOS

Using Homebrew (recommended):

brew install gh

Using MacPorts:

sudo port install gh

Using Conda:

conda install gh --channel conda-forge

Linux

Debian/Ubuntu/Raspbian:

# Add GitHub CLI repository
type -p curl >/dev/null || (sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl -y)
curl -fsSL https://cli.github.com/packages/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg | sudo dd of=/usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg
sudo chmod go+r /usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg] https://cli.github.com/packages stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/github-cli.list > /dev/null

# Install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install gh -y

Fedora/CentOS/RHEL:

sudo dnf install gh

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S github-cli

Using Snap:

sudo snap install gh

Using Conda:

conda install gh --channel conda-forge

Windows

Read the full file on GitHub · 418 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 418 lines · 32 tokens per session scan B 5ee6a0c28a0c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

gh-cli-setup is a skill published in the GitHub repository aaddrick/gh-cli-search (8 stars, last pushed 9mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 32 tokens to every session and 2,000 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 2 findings (asks for root, makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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