skills/common/engineering/forge-interaction/SKILL.md

name, description

name	description
forge-interaction	Use when the user wants forge work such as opening a PR, creating or listing issues, checking CI, looking at the repo, pushing a branch, publishing changes, or making a release on GitHub or Gitea.

Forge Interaction

Use this skill for Git forge work on GitHub or Gitea, especially when the user asks to:

• open a PR;
• create, list, modify, or comment on issues;
• create, list, modify, comment on, or merge pull requests;
• check CI;
• look at the repo on the forge;
• push a branch;
• publish changes;
• make or inspect a release.

Purpose

Choose the correct forge CLI and use it to interact with issues, pull requests, releases, CI, and repository state.

This skill is intended to perform forge actions, including mutating actions, when the user asks for them. Do not turn every requested forge action into a confirmation loop; if the user clearly asks to create, edit, comment, publish, or release, do the requested action after selecting the correct forge and tool.

Strict Decision Tree

Follow this order every time.

1. Determine the target remote

1. If the user explicitly says which remote or forge to use, use that.
2. Else, if user/project memory or repo guidance states where to find the forge, use that.
3. Else, if a remote named forge exists, use forge.
4. Else, if the user has configured a default remote, use that.
5. Else, use origin.

Useful inspection commands:

git remote -v
git config --get checkout.defaultRemote
git config --get clone.defaultRemoteName
git config --get branch.$(git branch --show-current).remote

Interpretation:

• A remote named forge is the preferred convention for the canonical forge remote.
• If no forge remote exists, origin is the fallback.
• If the current branch has an upstream remote and no stronger rule applies, treat that as the user's configured default for the current work.

Only mention this selection if there is ambiguity or a conflict.

2. Determine the forge type from the chosen remote

Inspect the selected remote URL:

git remote get-url <remote>

Classify it:

• URLs containing github.com are GitHub.
• URLs containing gitea, or a known Gitea host from memory/project guidance, are Gitea.
• If the remote is self-hosted and ambiguous, inspect repo guidance, memory, and web/API/tool configuration before asking.

Do not choose based on which CLI is installed. The remote determines the forge; the forge determines the CLI.

3. Choose the CLI

• If the forge is GitHub, use gh.
• If the forge is Gitea, use tea.

Check whether the chosen CLI is available:

command -v gh >/dev/null 2>&1 && gh --version
command -v tea >/dev/null 2>&1 && tea --version

If the needed CLI is missing:

• Tell the user which CLI is required: gh for GitHub, tea for Gitea.
• Tell the user to install it.
• If it may already be installed but not discoverable, tell the user to add it to their PATH.
• Do not use the wrong CLI as a fallback.

4. Check authentication/context

Use read-only checks for the selected tool:

# GitHub
gh auth status
gh repo view

# Gitea
tea login list
tea repos ls

If authentication is missing, tell the user which CLI needs login/configuration. Do not ask the user to paste tokens or secrets.

5. Do the requested forge task

Perform the requested action with the selected CLI.

For GitHub, use gh commands such as:

gh issue list
gh issue create
gh issue comment
gh pr list
gh pr create
gh pr view
gh pr comment
gh pr edit
gh pr merge
gh run list
gh run view
gh release list
gh release create

For Gitea, use tea commands such as:

tea issues list
tea issues create
tea issues comment
tea pulls list
tea pulls create
tea pulls view
tea pulls comment
tea pulls merge
tea releases list
tea releases create

Use exact command syntax supported by the installed CLI version; inspect help when needed:

gh help
tea help

Mutating Actions

Mutating forge actions are allowed when clearly requested by the user, including:

• create an issue;
• modify an issue;
• comment on an issue;
• create a pull request;
• modify a pull request;
• comment on a pull request;
• push a branch;
• publish changes;
• create a release.

Still be careful with destructive or high-impact actions:

• Ask before deleting branches, tags, releases, issues, or repositories.
• Ask before force-pushing.
• Ask before merging a PR unless the user explicitly asked to merge it.
• Ask before overwriting existing release assets or tags.

Branch and PR Preparation

Before creating or updating a PR:

1. Select the remote using the strict decision tree.
2. Select the CLI from the remote's forge type.
3. Inspect branch state and upstream tracking.
4. Inspect the diff against the target branch.
5. Read the PR template if one exists.
6. Push the branch if needed and requested by the workflow.
7. Create or update the PR.

Useful local inspection:

git status --short --branch
git branch -vv
git diff --stat
git diff --check

Output Style

Normally, do not over-explain. If the remote/tool selection is straightforward, just complete the task and summarize the result.

Report detection details only when there is ambiguity, conflict, missing tooling, or failure. In those cases include:

• selected remote;
• detected forge;
• selected CLI;
• reason for the choice;
• what the user needs to fix, if anything.

Companion Personal Skill

Personal forge preferences should live in a separate skill or memory entry, not in this general skill. That companion skill/memory may specify things like:

• preferred default remote conventions;
• known personal Gitea or GitHub hosts;
• preferred issue/PR/release styles;
• project-specific forge rules.

This general skill should consume that memory/guidance when present, but keep the generic decision tree above as the fallback.