Ever get tired of switching between your code editor and GitHub’s web interface? The GitHub CLI tool (gh) is a game-changer for managing repositories directly from your terminal. Here’s how I set it up and use it daily.

Quick Setup

First, install the GitHub CLI on your system. On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install gh

For other systems, check out the official installation guide.

Authentication Made Simple

Before you can use gh, you’ll need to authenticate with your GitHub account:

gh auth login

Just follow the prompts—you can choose between password-based authentication or using a personal access token (which you’d generate on GitHub’s website). The guided process makes it surprisingly painless.

What Can You Do?

Once authenticated, you’ve unlocked a whole world of GitHub functionality right from your terminal. You can:

  • Create new repositories
  • Clone existing ones
  • Create and manage issues
  • Review and merge pull requests
  • Manage releases
  • And much more

No more context-switching between terminal and browser—everything’s at your fingertips!

Get started exploring what’s possible with gh help or check out the official documentation.

It’s amazing how much more productive I’ve become since adding this tool to my workflow. What terminal tools have revolutionized your development process?