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.
npx agentmods add skills/jscholz/hermes-agent-workflow/github-authnpx skills add jscholz/hermes-agent-workflow --skill github-authgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jscholz/hermes-agent-workflowWhat 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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5 | $0.00048 | $0.01964 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00024 | $0.00982 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00010 | $0.00393 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00005 | $0.00196 |
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. This is a copy
88% identical to github-auth — 21 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 247 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 keysghCLI (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:
- If
gh auth statusshows authenticated → you're good, useghfor everything - If
ghis installed but not authenticated → use "gh auth" method below - If
ghis 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: Configure git to store the token
# Set up the credential helper to cache credentials
# "store" saves to ~/.git-credentials in plaintext (simple, persistent)
git config --global credential.helper store
# Now do a test operation that triggers auth — git will prompt for credentials
# Username: <their-github-username>
# Password: <paste the personal access token, NOT their GitHub password>
git ls-remote https://github.com/<their-username>/<any-repo>.git
What ships with it
1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.
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.
- 2d ago First seen · 247 lines · 48 tokens per session scan F cfa444cb6622
github-auth is a skill published in the GitHub repository jscholz/hermes-agent-workflow (2 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 48 tokens to every session and 1,964 once invoked, about $0.0002 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 88% identical to github-auth, differing in 21 lines, and is treated as a copy.
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