github-repo-management

GitHub Repository Management

Create, clone, fork, configure, and manage GitHub repositories. Each section shows gh first, then the git + curl fallback.

Prerequisites

• Authenticated with GitHub (see github-auth skill)

Setup

if command -v gh &>/dev/null && gh auth status &>/dev/null; then
 AUTH="gh"
else
 AUTH="git"
 if [ -z "$GITHUB_TOKEN" ]; then
 if _hermes_env="${HERMES_HOME:-$HOME/.hermes}/.env"; [ -f "$_hermes_env" ] && grep -q "^GITHUB_TOKEN=" "$_hermes_env"; then
 GITHUB_TOKEN=$(grep "^GITHUB_TOKEN=" "$_hermes_env" | head -1 | cut -d= -f2 | tr -d '\n\r')
# Plaintext ~/.git-credentials is intentionally not used; prefer `gh auth login` or GITHUB_TOKEN in .env
 fi
 fi
fi

# Get your GitHub username (needed for several operations)
if [ "$AUTH" = "gh" ]; then
 GH_USER=$(gh api user --jq '.login')
else
 GH_USER=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" https://api.github.com/user | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['login'])")
fi

If you're inside a repo already:

REMOTE_URL=$(git remote get-url origin)
OWNER_REPO=$(echo "$REMOTE_URL" | sed -E 's|.*github\.com[:/]||; s|\.git$||')
OWNER=$(echo "$OWNER_REPO" | cut -d/ -f1)
REPO=$(echo "$OWNER_REPO" | cut -d/ -f2)

---

1. Cloning Repositories

Cloning is pure git — works identically either way:

# Clone via HTTPS (works with credential helper or token-embedded URL)
git clone https://github.com/owner/repo-name.git

# Clone into a specific directory
git clone https://github.com/owner/repo-name.git ./my-local-dir

# Shallow clone (faster for large repos)
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/owner/repo-name.git

# Clone a specific branch
git clone --branch develop https://github.com/owner/repo-name.git

# Clone via SSH (if SSH is configured)
git clone [email protected]:owner/repo-name.git

With gh (shorthand):

gh repo clone owner/repo-name
gh repo clone owner/repo-name -- --depth 1

2. Creating Repositories

With gh: