GitHub Issues Management

Manage GitHub issues — create, list, view, label, assign, and close issues — using the gh CLI. Requires gh auth login (see github-auth skill) or GH_TOKEN environment variable.

When to Use

• User wants to create a bug report or feature request issue
• User wants to list open issues in a repository
• User wants to add a comment or close an issue
• User wants to filter issues by label, assignee, or milestone
• User wants to bulk-triage or update multiple issues

How to Use

1. List open issues

# List open issues in current repo
gh issue list

# List with specific filters
gh issue list --state open --label bug --limit 20

# List issues assigned to me
gh issue list --assignee @me

2. View an issue

gh issue view 42
gh issue view 42 --comments

3. Create a new issue

# Interactive (opens editor)
gh issue create

# Non-interactive with all fields
gh issue create --title "Login fails on mobile Safari" --body "Steps to reproduce:
1. Open app on iOS Safari
2. Tap Sign In
3. Form submits but returns to login page

Expected: successful login. Actual: redirect loop." --label bug --assignee "@me"

4. Add a comment

gh issue comment 42 --body "Investigated — root cause is a CSRF token mismatch. Fix in progress."

5. Edit an issue (labels, assignees, milestone, title)

# Add a label
gh issue edit 42 --add-label "priority:high"

# Remove a label and add another
gh issue edit 42 --remove-label bug --add-label wont-fix

# Assign to someone
gh issue edit 42 --add-assignee johndoe

# Change title
gh issue edit 42 --title "Login redirect loop on mobile Safari"

6. Close and reopen issues

# Close (resolved)
gh issue close 42 --comment "Fixed in v2.1.3"

# Close as not planned
gh issue close 42 --reason "not planned"

# Reopen
gh issue reopen 42

7. Search issues across repos

# Search open issues mentioning a keyword
gh issue list --repo owner/repo --search "authentication token" --state all

# GitHub search syntax in --search
gh issue list --repo owner/repo --search "label:bug created:>2026-01-01"

8. Bulk operations

# Close all issues with a specific label
gh issue list --label "duplicate" --limit 100 --json number |
  python -c "import json,sys; [print(i['number']) for i in json.load(sys.stdin)]" |
  ForEach-Object { gh issue close $_ --reason "not planned" }

Examples

"Create a GitHub issue for the login bug we just found" → Use step 3 with title, body describing steps to reproduce, and --label bug.

"Show me all open bugs assigned to me in this repo" → Use step 1: gh issue list --label bug --assignee @me.

"Close issue 42 and add a comment that it's fixed" → Use step 6: gh issue close 42 --comment "Fixed in latest release".

Cautions

• gh must be authenticated — run gh auth status to verify before use
• Labels must already exist in the repository — creating non-existent labels with --add-label will error
• Bulk operations cannot be undone — confirm with the user before closing multiple issues
• Issue numbers are repository-specific — always confirm the correct repo with --repo owner/repo for multi-repo workflows