Power of the GitHub CLI

Michelle Duke - Dec 27 '20 - - Dev Community

I had the pleasure of recently showing off the GitHub Command Line on one of my live streams. With such a simple tool, there are so many things you can accomplish without leaving the terminal.

All the GitHub tools in the terminal

Have you ever been working in multiple windows, not knowing which tab is open, where your code is, and having to flick between multiple applications?; Code editor, browser, folders, GitHub Desktop, iTunes, you name it. Having GitHub available from the command line means you can program and organise your code from the same window.

Want to clone a repo? gh repo clone
Want to open an issue? gh issue open
There are lots of standard commands to make working on code that much easier. You can also do things like view your pull requests and even merge them directly from the terminal. I was able to do things like easily clone one of my repos and start from there. I can even open a new issue in my repo and be presented with the issue templates I had already created. Being able to work like this makes things so much easier.

How do you want to use GitHub in terminal. Let me know in the comments below. Keen to see all the cool ways people are using it.

For all the commands, check out the GitHub CLI documentation. Oh, and fun fact: the GitHub CLI is open source!

Watch the CLI in action

If you missed the GitHub CLI in action, you can rewatch all the fun on Twitch. We also show how you can use it with GitHub Desktop as well. They are such a great combo. How are you using the tools you have at your disposal?

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