Hermes Agent GitHub Skill: gh CLI for PRs, Issues, Reviews
GitHub via gh CLI: PRs, issues, reviews, repos, auth.
Written by Neura Market from the official Hermes Agent documentation for Github. Commands, paths, and version numbers are reproduced from the source unchanged.
Read the official documentationThe GitHub skill gives Hermes Agent a complete, opinionated way to work with GitHub through the gh CLI: authentication, issues, the pull request lifecycle, issue-to-PR delivery, code review, and repository management. It is bundled with Hermes Agent, so it is installed by default and needs no separate setup. Reach for it when you want an agent to carry a task from an issue all the way to a verified merge, or when you need a repeatable review and triage loop rather than one-off commands.
What it does
The skill is a router plus a set of reference files. The body you load first does not contain the full instructions for any single workflow; it tells you which reference file to read before starting that workflow. Version 2.0.0 consolidates six former skills into one, and each workflow lives complete in its own reference file.
| Task | Read first |
|---|---|
| Auth broken / new machine / token or SSH setup / gh login | references/auth.md |
| Create, triage, label, assign, close issues | references/issues.md |
| Branch, commit, open PR, watch CI, merge | references/pr-workflow.md |
| Carry an ISSUE to a verified PR (full delivery loop) | references/issue-to-pr.md |
| Review someone's PR: diffs, inline comments, verdict | references/code-review.md |
| Clone/create/fork repos, remotes, releases | references/repo-management.md |
Supporting assets ship alongside the references: scripts/gh-env.sh and scripts/git-credential-token.py for auth, a templates/ directory holding PR bodies, a bug report, and a feature request, plus references/ci-troubleshooting.md, references/conventional-commits.md, references/github-api-cheatsheet.md, and references/review-output-template.md.
In practice this means the agent always reads the matching reference before acting. If you ask it to review a PR, it loads the code review reference first. If you ask it to take an issue to a merged PR, it loads the delivery loop reference. The routing table is the contract.
Before you start
The skill runs on linux, macos, and windows. It is authored by Ben Barclay (benbarclay) and Hermes Agent, licensed MIT, and tagged upstream with github, gh, git, pull-requests, issues, code-review, repos, auth, and ci.
The one prerequisite the skill enforces is authentication. Preflight once per session with gh auth status. If that fails, go to references/auth.md before anything else. Do not attempt a workflow on a broken auth state; the reference file exists precisely for new machines, token problems, SSH setup, and gh login.
Core discipline
These rules apply to every workflow in the skill, not just one reference file.
- Preflight once per session:
gh auth status, if it fails, go toreferences/auth.mdbefore anything else. - Prefer
ghover raw REST; drop togh apionly for endpoints the porcelain lacks (the cheatsheet lists them). - Never report CI green without checking
gh pr checksyourself; never claim merged without verifyingstate,mergedAt. - Read full context before writing:
gh issue view --comments/gh pr view --comments, decisions live in threads, not titles. - Sweep for duplicates before creating anything:
gh pr list --search/gh issue list --search.
The first rule is the one people skip. A stale token produces confusing failures later, and the skill would rather stop you at the door. The second rule keeps you on the porcelain unless you genuinely need an endpoint it does not cover. The third is the honesty rule: CI status and merge state are claims about remote reality, and the skill requires you to read them fresh rather than trust a summary. The fourth and fifth rules are about not writing before reading: comments carry the decisions, and duplicate issues and PRs are cheaper to avoid than to clean up.
Verification
Each workflow's own reference file defines what done means for that task. On top of that, the skill sets a cross-cutting standard: every claim about remote state, whether CI, merge, release, or issue state, must be backed by a fresh gh read, never memory. If you are auditing an agent's work, this is the rule to check against.
When not to use it
The source does not describe exclusions or alternatives to this skill. It does, however, draw one boundary inside itself: prefer gh over raw REST, and drop to gh api only for endpoints the porcelain lacks. That is the closest thing to a "do not use this" instruction the page offers, and it is about which interface to use, not whether to use the skill.
Limits and gotchas
The routing table is not optional. The body only routes; each workflow lives complete in its reference file, so you must read the matching reference before starting that workflow. Skipping that step means working from a summary instead of the full instructions.
Auth is a hard gate. If gh auth status fails, the skill sends you to references/auth.md before anything else.
Claims about remote state are held to a fresh-read standard. Do not report CI green without checking gh pr checks yourself, and do not claim a merge without verifying state,mergedAt.
Read before you write. Use gh issue view --comments and gh pr view --comments to get full context, because decisions live in threads, not titles. And sweep for duplicates with gh pr list --search or gh issue list --search before creating anything.
What pairs with it
The source lists two related skills: codebase-inspection and requesting-code-review. Codebase inspection is the natural companion when you need to understand a repository before touching it, and requesting-code-review covers the other side of the review loop from the code-review reference in this skill.