GitHub CLI Authentication

Automatically authenticate

gh

CLI using the token from

.gh-token.txt

in the repository root.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Seeing authentication errors: "gh auth login", "GH_TOKEN environment variable", "not logged into any GitHub hosts"
• Before running

  gh

  commands if auth status is uncertain
• User explicitly requests GitHub authentication

Authentication Steps

1. Get repo root and authenticate

REPO_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
gh auth login --with-token < "$REPO_ROOT/.gh-token.txt"

2. Verify success

gh auth status

Should show:

✓ Logged in to github.com account <username>

3. Proceed with original task

If authentication was triggered by a failed command, retry that command.

Error Handling

Missing

.gh-token.txt

:

ERROR: .gh-token.txt not found in repository root

Create it:
1. Generate token: https://github.com/settings/tokens
2. Save to .gh-token.txt in repo root
3. File is git-ignored

Invalid token format:

ERROR: Invalid token format

Tokens should start with github_pat_ or ghp_
Check .gh-token.txt for correct token

Already authenticated: If

gh auth status

shows active authentication, skip to the original task.

Example

User: "List pull requests"

Action:

1. Run

   gh pr list

   → authentication error
2. Detect error → activate skill
3. Run:

   REPO_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel) && gh auth login --with-token < "$REPO_ROOT/.gh-token.txt"

4. Verify:

   gh auth status

   → success
5. Retry:

   gh pr list

   → returns PR list

Security

• Token read via stdin (never in command args or history)

• .gh-token.txt

  should be in

  .gitignore

• Tokens masked in

  gh auth status

  output