github-auth

A setup guide for authenticating an agent with GitHub, the service used to host code repositories and collaborate on changes. It covers Git over HTTPS or SSH and the optional gh command-line tool.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to check available GitHub tools, choose an authentication method, and configure access for repository and code-review tasks.
Why use it?
It helps establish the access needed to work with repositories, pull requests, issues, and continuous-integration checks.

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/atlasomnia/donna-starter/github-auth
Any agent
npx skills add AtlasOmnia/donna-starter --skill github-auth
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/AtlasOmnia/donna-starter

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 21 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,710 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan F 4 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 80% copy Near-identical to another mod 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 $0.00021 $0.01710
Opus 5 $0.00010 $0.00855
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00342
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00171

Measured 2d ago against content hash aa426cdc48d4, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade F, and why

github-auth scanned grade F with 4 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.

Enumerates the file system for secretshighData exfiltration

Searching home directories for .env, .ssh, .aws or credential files is reconnaissance for credential theft.

ls -la ~/.ssh/id_*.pub 2>/dev/null || echo "No SSH keys found"

Asks for rootmediumPrivilege escalation

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

3. If `gh` is not installed → use "git-only" method below (no sudo needed)

Reaches for credential fileshighPrivilege escalation

SSH keys, cloud credentials, git-credentials, .npmrc, /etc/shadow: reading these is how a config file becomes a credential leak.

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -N ""

Makes network callslowCapability

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

When `gh` is not available, you can still access the full GitHub API using `curl` with a personal access token. This is how the other GitHub skills implement their fallbacks.
Origin

This is a copy

80% identical to github-auth — 100 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

skills/github/github-auth/SKILL.md · 232 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 232 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

GitHub Authentication Setup

This skill sets up authentication so the agent can work with GitHub repositories, PRs, issues, and CI. It covers two paths:

  • git (always available) — uses HTTPS personal access tokens or SSH keys
  • gh CLI (if installed) — richer GitHub API access with a simpler auth flow

Detection Flow

When a user asks you to work with GitHub, run this check first:

# Check what's available
git --version
gh --version 2>/dev/null || echo "gh not installed"

# Check if already authenticated
gh auth status 2>/dev/null || echo "gh not authenticated"
git config --global credential.helper 2>/dev/null || echo "no git credential helper"

Decision tree:

  1. If gh auth status shows authenticated → you're good, use gh for everything
  2. If gh is installed but not authenticated → use "gh auth" method below
  3. If gh is not installed → use "git-only" method below (no sudo needed)

Method 1: Git-Only Authentication (No gh, No sudo)

This works on any machine with git installed. No root access needed.

Option A: HTTPS with Personal Access Token (Recommended)

This is the most portable method — works everywhere, no SSH config needed.

Step 1: Create a personal access token

Tell the user to go to: https://github.com/settings/tokens

  • Click "Generate new token (classic)"
  • Give it a name like "hermes-agent"
  • Select scopes:
  • repo (full repository access — read, write, push, PRs)
  • workflow (trigger and manage GitHub Actions)
  • read:org (if working with organization repos)
  • Set expiration (90 days is a good default)
  • Copy the token — it won't be shown again

Step 2: Authenticate git — prefer the CLI or OS credential manager

# Recommended: log in with the GitHub CLI (token handled by gh/OS keychain)
gh auth login
# Or use git's built-in credential manager (macOS Keychain / Windows Credential Manager)
git config --global credential.helper osxkeychain # macOS
git config --global credential.helper manager # Windows

Read the full file on GitHub · 232 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 · 232 lines · 21 tokens per session scan F aa426cdc48d4

Subscribe to this mod's changes

github-auth is a skill published in the GitHub repository AtlasOmnia/donna-starter (102 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 21 tokens to every session and 1,710 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it F with 4 findings (enumerates the file system for secrets, asks for root, reaches for credential files). It is 80% identical to github-auth, differing in 100 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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