using-gh-cli-search

A mandatory set of instructions for using GitHub's command-line search commands correctly. It directs the right search guide based on whether you are searching code, issues, pull requests, commits, or repositories.

In plain words
What is it for?
Choosing and following the correct guide for GitHub CLI searches, setup, and troubleshooting.
Why use it?
GitHub search commands have quoting, flag, and platform-specific details that can easily produce incorrect searches.

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

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 37 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,101 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 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 $0.00037 $0.01101
Opus 5 $0.00018 $0.00550
Sonnet 5 $0.00007 $0.00220
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00110

Measured 2d ago against content hash 3f9b79e96432, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

using-gh-cli-search scanned grade A with 0 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.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/using-gh-cli-search/SKILL.md · 117 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 117 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

This is not a suggestion. This is not optional. You cannot rationalize your way out of this.

Why: GitHub CLI search syntax is full of pitfalls. The -- flag. Quoting rules. PowerShell escaping. Platform differences. You WILL get it wrong without the skills. The user will copy-paste your broken command. They will waste time debugging YOUR mistake.

GitHub CLI Search Protocol

MANDATORY DETECTION PROTOCOL

When a user message mentions ANY of these, you MUST use gh-cli-search skills:

  • ☐ Searching on GitHub
  • ☐ Finding code/issues/PRs/commits/repos
  • gh search command
  • ☐ GitHub CLI queries
  • ☐ Installing/troubleshooting gh CLI

If detected → Use the Skill tool to load the appropriate gh-cli-search skill

Available Skills

You have access to these gh-cli-search skills:

  1. gh-search-code - Searching for code across repositories
  2. gh-search-commits - Searching commit history
  3. gh-search-issues - Searching issues (and PRs)
  4. gh-search-prs - Searching pull requests specifically
  5. gh-search-repos - Searching for repositories
  6. gh-cli-setup - Installation and troubleshooting

Pick the right skill. Use the Skill tool. Follow it exactly.

Common Rationalizations That Mean You're About To Fail

If you catch yourself thinking ANY of these thoughts, STOP. You are about to give the user a broken command.

  • "This is just a simple search query" → WRONG. Simple queries still need correct quoting and the -- flag for exclusions.
  • "I know gh CLI syntax" → WRONG. You know SOME of it. The skills know ALL of it, including edge cases.
  • "I'll just construct the command myself" → WRONG. You will forget the -- flag. Or quote incorrectly. Or miss PowerShell escaping.
  • "The user didn't explicitly say 'gh search'" → WRONG. If they're asking about GitHub searching via CLI, they need these skills.
  • "I can figure out the syntax quickly" → WRONG. The skills exist because this is NOT quick. You will make mistakes.
  • "Let me try without the skill first" → WRONG. The skill IS the first step. Not the fallback.
  • "This doesn't need the full skill treatment" → WRONG. Every GitHub CLI search command needs correct syntax. Use the skill.

Read the full file on GitHub · 117 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 · 117 lines · 37 tokens per session scan A 3f9b79e96432

Subscribe to this mod's changes

using-gh-cli-search is a skill published in the GitHub repository aaddrick/gh-cli-search (8 stars, last pushed 9mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 37 tokens to every session and 1,101 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

systematic-debugging

Use when encountering any bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior, before proposing fixes.

obra/superpowers · 21 tokens

brainstorming

You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements and design before implementation.

obra/superpowers · 37 tokens

chat-pet-sprite-creation

Use when creating or changing VS Code chat pet sprite art, sprite sheets, state animations, eye treatments, Stable/Insiders variants, or pet transitions under src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/browser/widget/media/chatPet.

microsoft/vscode · 53 tokens

cpu-profile-analysis

Analyze V8/Chrome CPU profiles (.cpuprofile) and DevTools trace files (Trace-.json). Use when: profiling performance, investigating slow functions, comparing code paths, finding bottlenecks, analyzing timeToRequest, understanding call trees from sampling profiler data, analyzing layout/paint/rendering, investigating…

microsoft/vscode · 71 tokens

agent-host-chat-contributions

Build and review cross-cutting agent-host chat behavior through lifecycle contributions. Use when adding turn lifecycle side effects, prompt or context injection, restored-history transformation, protocol-action observation, or when reviewing changes that add code to AgentSideEffects or AgentService.

microsoft/vscode · 56 tokens

auto-perf-optimize

Run agent-driven VS Code performance or memory investigations. Use when asked to launch Code OSS, automate a VS Code scenario, run the Chat memory smoke runner, capture renderer heap snapshots, take workflow screenshots, compare run summaries, or drive a repeatable scenario before heap-snapshot analysis.

microsoft/vscode · 62 tokens