gh-agent-task

A GitHub CLI extension for creating and monitoring coding-agent tasks. Each task is a GitHub issue containing natural-language instructions that can trigger Copilot to make code changes and open a pull request.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to create tasks from text or files, choose a base branch, monitor progress, and review the resulting pull request.
Why use it?
It lets you start automated coding work from the command line and keep the changes in GitHub's review process.

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/github/gh-aw/gh-agent-task
Any agent
npx skills add github/gh-aw --skill gh-agent-task
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/github/gh-aw

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 19 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,345 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 86% 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 $0.00019 $0.02345
Opus 5 $0.00010 $0.01172
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00469
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00234

Measured 2d ago against content hash a56f40b5dcf9, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

gh-agent-task 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.

Origin

This is a copy

86% identical to gh-agent-session — 64 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.

.github/skills/gh-agent-task/SKILL.md · 387 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 387 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

GitHub CLI Agent Task Extension

The gh agent-task extension creates GitHub Copilot coding agent tasks from the CLI. A task is a GitHub issue that triggers automated code changes from natural language instructions.

Repository: https://github.com/github/agent-task (internal GitHub extension)

Overview

Agent tasks are GitHub issues that:

  • Contain natural language instructions for code changes
  • Trigger GitHub Copilot to autonomously execute the task
  • Create pull requests with the implemented changes
  • Provide a workflow for reviewing and merging automated code modifications

Installation

Install via GitHub CLI:

gh extension install github/agent-task

Note: This extension requires authentication with a Personal Access Token (PAT) that has appropriate permissions for creating issues and pull requests.

Core Commands

Create Agent Task

Create a new agent task from a description:

# Create task with inline description
gh agent-task create "Fix the bug in authentication flow"

# Create task from file
gh agent-task create --from-file task-description.md

# Specify base branch
gh agent-task create --base develop "Implement new feature"

# Create in different repository
gh agent-task create --repo owner/repo "Update documentation"

Command Parameters:

  • Description (positional): Natural language description of the task
  • --from-file <path>: Read task description from file
  • --base <branch>: Base branch for the pull request (default: repository default branch)
  • --repo <owner/repo>: Target repository (default: current repository)

Output Format: The command outputs the URL of the created agent task:

https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/123

List Agent Tasks

List agent tasks in a repository:

# List all agent tasks
gh agent-task list

# List with filters
gh agent-task list --state open
gh agent-task list --state closed
gh agent-task list --state all

View Agent Task

Read the full file on GitHub · 387 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 · 387 lines · 19 tokens per session scan A a56f40b5dcf9

Subscribe to this mod's changes

gh-agent-task is a skill published in the GitHub repository github/gh-aw (5,050 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 19 tokens to every session and 2,345 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 86% identical to gh-agent-session, differing in 64 lines, and is treated as a copy.

Related

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watch-tag

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justincampbell/gh-watch · 62 tokens

watch-branch

Watch a GitHub branch for new commits using the gh-watch extension. Use when the user wants to be notified when new commits are pushed to a branch, monitor main for merges, or track branch activity.

justincampbell/gh-watch · 45 tokens

watch-commit

Watch a GitHub commit for CI status changes using the gh-watch extension. Use when the user wants to monitor a commit's CI checks, wait for a build to finish, or track CI progress on a specific SHA.

justincampbell/gh-watch · 48 tokens

update-architecture-docs

Generate or update the architecture documentation in docs/content/architecture/. Use on "update architecture docs", "generate architecture documentation", "regenerate architecture docs", or after any structural change to the codebase.

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