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
    # The agent's .env is at ${HERMES_HOME}/.env — NOT ~/.hermes/.env (HOME is
    # redirected to ${HERMES_HOME}/home in the tool subprocess). Resolve via
    # $HERMES_HOME, honoring precedence GITHUB_PAT > GITHUB_TOKEN > GH_TOKEN.
    HERMES_ENV="${HERMES_HOME:-$HOME/.hermes}/.env"
    if [ -f "$HERMES_ENV" ]; then
      for _v in GITHUB_PAT GITHUB_TOKEN GH_TOKEN; do
        _l=$(grep -E "^${_v}=" "$HERMES_ENV" | head -1)
        [ -n "$_l" ] && { GITHUB_TOKEN=$(printf '%s' "$_l" | cut -d= -f2- | tr -d '\n\r' | sed 's/^["'\'']//;s/["'\'']$//'); break; }
      done
    fi
    if [ -z "$GITHUB_TOKEN" ] && grep -q "github.com" ~/.git-credentials 2>/dev/null; then
      GITHUB_TOKEN=$(grep "github.com" ~/.git-credentials 2>/dev/null | head -1 | sed 's|https://[^:]*:\([^@]*\)@.*|\1|')
    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)

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1. Cloning Repositories

Cloning is pure git — works identically either way.

Default to a shallow clone (--depth 1). A full clone of a large repo can take minutes (and time out in the tool sandbox); --depth 1 is typically a couple of seconds and is all you need to read, edit, branch, and push. Only do a full clone when you genuinely need history (e.g. git log, git blame, git bisect, or rebasing onto an old base) — and you can deepen a shallow clone later with git fetch --unshallow.