GitHub Operations

Comprehensive GitHub CLI (gh) operations for project management, from basic issue creation to advanced Projects v2 integration and milestone tracking via REST API.

Overview

Creating and managing GitHub issues and PRs
Working with GitHub Projects v2 custom fields
Managing milestones (sprints, releases) via REST API
Automating bulk operations with gh
Running GraphQL queries for complex operations

Quick Reference

Issue Operations

# Create issue with labels and milestone
gh issue create --title "Bug: API returns 500" --body "..." --label "bug" --milestone "Sprint 5"

# List and filter issues
gh issue list --state open --label "backend" --assignee @me

# Edit issue metadata
gh issue edit 123 --add-label "high" --milestone "v2.0"

PR Operations

# Create PR with reviewers
gh pr create --title "feat: Add search" --body "..." --base dev --reviewer @teammate

# Watch CI status and auto-merge
gh pr checks 456 --watch
gh pr merge 456 --auto --squash --delete-branch

# Resume a session linked to a PR (CC 2.1.27)
claude --from-pr 456           # Resume session with PR context (diff, comments, review status)
claude --from-pr https://github.com/org/repo/pull/456

Tip (CC 2.1.27): Sessions created via gh pr create are automatically linked to the PR. Use --from-pr to resume with full PR context.

Milestone Operations (REST API)

Footgun: gh issue edit --milestone takes a NAME (string), not a number. The REST API uses a NUMBER (integer). Never pass a number to --milestone. See CLI-vs-API Identifiers.

# List milestones with progress
gh api repos/:owner/:repo/milestones --jq '.[] | "\(.title): \(.closed_issues)/\(.open_issues + .closed_issues)"'

# Create milestone with due date
gh api -X POST repos/:owner/:repo/milestones \
  -f title="Sprint 8" -f due_on="2026-02-15T00:00:00Z"

# Close milestone (API uses number, not name)
MILESTONE_NUM=$(gh api repos/:owner/:repo/milestones --jq '.[] | select(.title=="Sprint 8") | .number')
gh api -X PATCH repos/:owner/:repo/milestones/$MILESTONE_NUM -f state=closed

# Assign issues to milestone (CLI uses name, not number)
gh issue edit 123 124 125 --milestone "Sprint 8"

Projects v2 Operations

# Add issue to project
gh project item-add 1 --owner @me --url https://github.com/org/repo/issues/123

# Set custom field (requires GraphQL)
gh api graphql -f query='mutation {...}' -f projectId="..." -f itemId="..."

JSON Output Patterns

# Get issue numbers matching criteria
gh issue list --json number,labels --jq '[.[] | select(.labels[].name == "bug")] | .[].number'

# PR summary with author
gh pr list --json number,title,author --jq '.[] | "\(.number): \(.title) by \(.author.login)"'

# Find ready-to-merge PRs
gh pr list --json number,reviewDecision,statusCheckRollupState \
  --jq '[.[] | select(.reviewDecision == "APPROVED" and .statusCheckRollupState == "SUCCESS")]'

Key Concepts

Milestone vs Epic

Milestones	Epics
Time-based (sprints, releases)	Topic-based (features)
Has due date	No due date
Progress bar	Task list checkbox
Native REST API	Needs workarounds

Rule: Use milestones for "when", use parent issues for "what".

Projects v2 Custom Fields

Projects v2 uses GraphQL for setting custom fields (Status, Priority, Domain). Basic gh project commands work for listing and adding items, but field updates require GraphQL mutations.

Rules Quick Reference

Rule	Impact	What It Covers
issue-tracking-automation	HIGH	Auto-progress from commits, sub-task completion, session summaries
issue-branch-linking	MEDIUM	Branch naming, commit references, PR linking patterns

Batch Issue Creation

When creating multiple issues at once (e.g., seeding a sprint), use an array-driven loop:

# Define issues as an array of "title|labels|milestone" entries
SPRINT="Sprint 9"
ISSUES=(
  "feat: Add user auth|enhancement,backend|$SPRINT"
  "fix: Login redirect loop|bug,high|$SPRINT"
  "chore: Update dependencies|maintenance|$SPRINT"
)

for entry in "${ISSUES[@]}"; do
  IFS='|' read -r title labels milestone <<< "$entry"
  NUM=$(gh issue create \
    --title "$title" \
    --label "$labels" \
    --milestone "$milestone" \
    --body "" \
    --json number --jq '.number')
  echo "Created #$NUM: $title"
done

Tip: Capture the created issue number with --json number --jq '.number' so you can reference it immediately (e.g., add to Projects v2, link in PRs).

Best Practices

Always use --json for scripting - Parse with --jq for reliability
Non-interactive mode for automation - Use --title, --body flags
Check rate limits before bulk operations - gh api rate_limit
Use heredocs for multi-line content - --body "$(cat <<'EOF'...EOF)"
Link issues in PRs - Closes #123, Fixes #456 — GitHub auto-closes on merge
Use ISO 8601 dates - YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ for milestone due_on
Close milestones, don't delete - Preserve history
--milestone takes NAME, not number - See CLI-vs-API Identifiers
Never gh issue close directly - Comment progress with gh issue comment; issues close only when their linked PR merges to the default branch

Related Skills

ork:create-pr - Create pull requests with proper formatting and review assignments
ork:review-pr - Comprehensive PR review with specialized agents
ork:release-management - GitHub release workflow with semantic versioning and changelogs
stacked-prs - Manage dependent PRs with rebase coordination
ork:issue-progress-tracking - Automatic issue progress updates from commits

Key Decisions

Decision	Choice	Rationale
CLI vs API	gh CLI preferred	Simpler auth, better UX, handles pagination automatically
Output format	--json with --jq	Reliable parsing for automation, no regex parsing needed
Milestones vs Epics	Milestones for time	Milestones have due dates and progress bars, epics for topic grouping
Projects v2 fields	GraphQL mutations	gh project commands limited, GraphQL required for custom fields
Milestone lifecycle	Close, don't delete	Preserves history and progress tracking

References

Issue Management - Bulk operations, templates, sub-issues
PR Workflows - Reviews, merge strategies, auto-merge
Milestone API - REST API patterns for milestone CRUD
Projects v2 - Custom fields, GraphQL mutations
GraphQL API - Complex queries, pagination, bulk operations
CLI vs API Identifiers - NAME vs NUMBER footguns, milestone/project ID mapping

Examples

Automation Scripts - Ready-to-use scripts for bulk operations, PR automation, milestone management

github-operations