GitHub CLI Best Practices

Reference guide for using the gh CLI reliably and correctly.

Sandboxed Terminal Workarounds

VS Code and other sandboxed terminals can mangle commands with complex quoting. Follow these rules:

1. Always disable the pager — prefix commands with GH_PAGER=cat to prevent alternate-buffer hangs:

   GH_PAGER=cat gh pr list
   

2. Use single quotes for simple string arguments:

   GH_PAGER=cat gh pr create --title 'Add CSV export'
   

3. Never pass long markdown inline via --body '...' — it will be garbled by the shell.