Use this reference to configure GitHub access for AI agents through MCP, a protocol for connecting agents to tools. Covers tool selection, authentication, read-only access, and migration of existing workflow settings.
- Configuring GitHub access for an AI agent
- Selecting tools for issues and pull requests
- Migrating allowed lists to toolsets
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Design error recovery for gh-aw workflows, including failed installations and API calls. Define retry limits, increasing wait times, error categories, and debug logs to handle temporary failures and prevent endless retries.
- Add bounded retries to network operations
- Plan recovery from installation failures
- Handle GitHub API rate limits
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Guide changes to gh-aw internals, including workflow validation, session scoring, and GitHub output handling. Find implementation locations and design rules for configuration checks, YAML compatibility, and limits on log responses returned to agents.
- Choose where to add workflow validation
- Review changes to session scoring
- Investigate YAML parsing differences
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Helps agents work within gh-aw tool restrictions by checking the allowlist, diagnosing denied calls, and choosing permitted alternatives. It guides agents to complete available work and report specific limitations before repeated denials end the session.
- Handling a denied tool call
- Checking commands against an allowlist
- Finding permitted alternatives
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Build and troubleshoot canvas extensions displayed in the GitHub Copilot app's side panel. Follow guidance for scaffolding, implementing actions and inputs, preserving state, matching app themes, and checking behavior through canvas tools and extension logs.
- Create a canvas extension for the side panel
- Check actions and input validation
- Investigate extension loading failures
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Retrieve labels from a GitHub repository, filter their names by partial matches, and choose page sizes and page numbers. Results arrive as JSON, including label names, colors, descriptions, and pagination details.
- Check the labels available in a repository
- Find labels whose names contain a specific word
- Retrieve label lists in pages of a chosen size
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Resolve merge conflicts in generated workflow lock files by rebuilding them from merged Markdown sources. The skill checks for leftover conflict markers, stages regenerated files, and verifies that unresolved paths and whitespace errors are cleared.
- Merging origin/main when only workflow lock files conflict
- Resuming a merge after resolving source conflicts
- Checking workflow Markdown for leftover conflict markers
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Write JavaScript for actions/github-script@v8 in GitHub Actions. Apply consistent logging, pass outputs and environment variables to later steps, publish readable summaries, and handle errors with the action's provided utilities.
- Standardize logs in GitHub Actions scripts
- Pass outputs and variables to later steps
- Add Markdown summaries to workflow results
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Format gh-aw terminal output using Go struct tags, annotations attached to data fields. Set labels and section titles, format numbers and dollar amounts, omit empty fields, and render lists of records as tables.
- Display workflow details as aligned fields
- Show job lists as terminal tables
- Format token counts and estimated costs
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Set up gh-aw, a GitHub CLI extension that turns Markdown workflows into GitHub Actions. The skill provides installation options and points agents to further instructions for creating, updating, debugging, and optimizing those workflows.
- Setting up gh-aw
- Turning Markdown workflows into GitHub Actions
- Finding guidance for workflow creation and updates
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Query GitHub pull requests by author, status, or review needs, and extract selected fields as JSON. Inspect the data structure and size first, then use jq, a JSON filtering tool, to refine results.
- Find pull requests awaiting review
- List pull request numbers and titles by author
- Identify pull requests with many changed files
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Implement HTTP headers that pass GitHub Actions secrets through environment variables in gh-aw’s copilot engine. This reference explains secret extraction, generated MCP configuration, execution-step settings, and tests for keeping secret values out of configuration files.
- Passing API keys to HTTP MCP servers
- Reviewing generated configuration for secret handling
- Supporting secret expressions with default values
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Publish gh-aw changes as a draft pull request from a GitHub Copilot cloud agent. The workflow checks repository templates, runs required local validation, commits and pushes through runtime tools, and records the validation results in the PR.
- Publishing validated gh-aw changes as a draft pull request
- Preparing a PR body using the repository template
- Recording passed validation commands in a pull request
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Design metrics that measure whether a workflow achieved its intended outcome using recorded session evidence. Choose built-in checks or custom JavaScript, retain suitable Bash evaluators, and define tests that distinguish success, failure, and missing evidence.
- Define outcome metrics for a workflow
- Build evaluators from recorded session evidence
- Migrate existing Bash evaluators
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Organize gh-aw Go code with guidance on splitting files by function, placing shared helpers, and keeping tests near implementations. It also explains string cleanup conventions and replacement implementations for features unavailable in WebAssembly builds.
- Splitting large Go files by responsibility
- Choosing where to place shared helper functions
- Distinguishing character cleanup from format normalization
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Review regular expressions used to detect errors in agent engines. Check for empty matches, test patterns against real logs, and add safeguards against repeated matches that can cause JavaScript loops to hang.
- Review new error detection patterns
- Test patterns against empty strings
- Check detection using real error logs
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Add an agent execution engine to gh-aw using a shared Markdown definition where possible. The skill guides installation, authentication, configuration, and testing, with Go infrastructure changes reserved for capabilities that existing settings cannot express.
- Adding an agent execution engine to gh-aw
- Defining CLI installation, authentication, and MCP settings
- Extending shared behavior settings when existing options fall short
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Inspect JSON files or API responses with jq and produce a compact map of keys and value types. Use the result to understand nested data before writing queries or processing the full dataset.
- Inspecting an unfamiliar API response
- Checking keys and types in a JSON file
- Understanding nested data before writing queries
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Handle pull request review feedback by collecting comments, grouping requests, planning fixes, and validating changes before replying. The workflow covers team members and trusted GitHub automation, with individual replies and resolution of addressed discussion threads.
- Planning responses to accumulated pull request feedback
- Addressing review comments from Copilot and GitHub Actions
- Replying to each comment and resolving addressed threads
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Turn a code pattern fixed in a pull request into a custom Go linter, a tool that checks code without running it. Covers a focused detection rule, tests, and registration in the linter runner.
- Turning a PR fix into a repeatable code check
- Adding a custom Go linter
- Testing cases that should and should not be flagged
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Use concrete JSON and Markdown examples to structure Sergo tool caches, strategy histories, improvement tasks, and reports. The templates show which fields to record and how to organize findings for review.
- Formatting a cached snapshot of available tools
- Recording analysis strategies and their results
- Structuring improvement tasks and analysis reports
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Review git and gh operations in gh-aw workflows to check credential availability for each repository. Identify missing token handoffs, risky expansions of limited checkouts, and error handling needed where credentials are intentionally unavailable.
- Reviewing git operations after repository checkout
- Checking tokens for private cross-repository access
- Reviewing sparse and shallow checkout changes
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Improve validation errors in gh-aw so users can see what went wrong, what input is expected, and how to fix it. Provides writing patterns, valid YAML examples, Go error-handling guidance, and checks for message quality.
- Rewrite vague validation errors with concrete fixes
- Add valid YAML examples to configuration errors
- Standardize messages for format, type, and choice errors
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026
Query GitHub Discussions and extract titles, authors, categories, or answer status. First inspect the data structure and size, then use jq, a JSON filtering tool, to select relevant discussions, sort updates, or count entries by category.
- List unanswered discussions
- Filter discussions by author or category
- Count discussions by category
github/gh-aw☆ 5.4KUpdated Oct 19, 2026