github-auth

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• SKILL.md

SKILL.md (first lines)

# GitHub Authentication Setup

This skill sets up authentication so the agent can work with GitHub repositories, PRs, issues, and CI. It covers two paths:

- **`git` (always available)** — uses HTTPS personal access tokens or SSH keys
- **`gh` CLI (if installed)** — richer GitHub API access with a simpler auth flow

## Detection Flow

When a user asks you to work with GitHub, run this check first:

```bash
# Check what's available
git --version
gh --version 2>/dev/null || echo "gh not installed"

# Check if already authenticated
gh auth status 2>/dev/null || echo "gh not authenticated"
git config --global credential.helper 2>/dev/null || echo "no git credential helper"
```

**Decision tree:**
1. If `gh auth status` shows authenticated → you're good, use `gh` for everything
2. If `gh` is installed but not authenticated → use "gh auth" method below
3. If `gh` is not installed → use "git-only" method below (no sudo needed)

---

## Method 1: Git-Only Authentication (No gh, No sudo)

This works on any machine with `git` installed. No root access needed.

### Option A: HTTPS with Personal Access Token (Recommended)

This is the most portable method — works everywhere, no SSH config needed.

**Step 1: Create a personal access token**

Tell the user to go to: **https://github.com/settings/tokens**

- Click "Generate new token (classic)"
- Give it a name like "hermes-agent"
- Select scopes:
  - `repo` (full repository access — read, write, push, PRs)
  - `workflow` (trigger and manage GitHub Actions)
  - `read:org` (if working with organization repos)
- Set expiration (90 days is a good default)
- Copy the token — it won't be shown again

**Step 2: Configure git to store the token**

```bash
# Set up the credential helper to cache credentials
# "store" saves to ~/.git-credentials in plaintext (simple, persistent)
git config --global credential.helper store

# Now do a test operation that triggers auth — git will prompt for credentials
# Username: <their-github-username>
# Password: <paste the personal access token, NOT their GitHub password>
git ls-remote https://github.com/<their-username>/<any-repo>.git
```

After entering credentials once, they're saved and reused for all future operations.

**Alternative: cache helper (credentials expire from memory)**

```bash
# Cache in memory for 8 hours (28800 seconds) instead of saving to disk
git config --global credential.helper 'cache --timeout=28800'
```

**Alternative: set the token directly in the remote URL (per-repo)**

```bash
# Embed token in the remote URL (avoids credential prompts entirely)
git remote set-url origin https://<username>:<token>@github.com/<owner>/<repo>.git
```

**Step 3: Configure git identity**

```bash
# Required for commits — set name and email
git config --global user.name "Their Name"
git config --global user.email "their-email@example.com"
```

**Step 4: Verify**

```bash
# Test push access (this should work without any prompts now)
git ls-remote https://github.com/<their-username>/<any-repo>.git

# Verify identity
git config --global user.name
git config --global user.email
```

### Option B: SSH Key Authentication

Good for users who prefer SSH or already have keys set up.

**Step 1: Check for existing SSH keys**

```bash
ls -la ~/.ssh/id_*.pub 2>/dev/null || echo "No SSH keys found"
```

**Step 2: Generate a key if needed**

```bash
# Generate an ed25519 key (modern, secure, fast)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "their-email@example.com" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -N ""

# Display the public key for them to add to GitHub
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
```

Tell the user to add the public key at: **https://github.com/settings/keys**
- Click "New SSH key"

From evangit2/hamsterball-re, MIT.

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