GitHub Workflow

Use git for repository operations (clone, fetch, commit, push, branch, merge). Use GitHub MCP for GitHub-specific operations (PRs, issues, releases, Actions, checks).

Tooling: Prefer GitHub MCP server tools (mcp__plugin_claudius_github__*) for all GitHub API operations -- PRs, issues, reviews, actions, branches, releases, security alerts. If GitHub MCP is unavailable, read gh-cli-fallback.md for gh CLI equivalents.

Attribution: Every commit, PR, issue, and comment posted to GitHub must include this footer (blank line before it):

<sub>🤖 Co-authored by [Claudius the Magnificent](https://github.com/lklimek/claudius) AI Agent</sub>

Before Starting Work

1. Verify you're on a base branch — if on an unrelated feature branch, switch to base or confirm with user.
2. Pull (fast-forward only). On diverged history, rebase if trivial, otherwise alert user.
3. Search open PRs for related fixes — don't duplicate work already in progress.

Committing

Create feature branches. NEVER commit to base branch.

Stage specific files -- never git add . or git add -A.

Use conventional commits (feat, fix, docs, refactor, test, chore, perf). Append ! for breaking changes.

Commit message format (always use HEREDOC):

git add <file1> <file2>
git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
<type>: <description>

<optional body>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
EOF
)"

Changelog

When editing CHANGELOG.md, follow Keep a Changelog format.

Pushing

If a push fails with 403 or "Resource not accessible" and ghsudo is installed, retry through ghsudo (see Elevated Permissions).

Always ask the user for explicit confirmation before every push. Never push automatically -- even after committing or creating a PR. Even if the user agreed to push earlier, ask again before next push.

Never force-push. Never amend commits. Always create new commits. If force-push is required, ask the user to do it manually.

Pull Requests

Creating a PR

Check for a PR template first. If a template exists, read and fill it in. When applicable, include an informal user story (what the user can achieve, no technical details -- start with "Imagine you are...").

Always create PRs as drafts.

Reviewing a PR

Never submit a final review (approve/request-changes). Always create draft/pending reviews. The user must publish the review themselves. When using MCP, omit the event field in pull_request_review_write to create a pending review.

See pr-review.md for the full procedure: fetching PR context, deduplication, diff-bounds verification, and posting inline comments.

Issues

Before creating, search existing issues (open + closed) and PRs for duplicates. If found, show to user and ask before proceeding. Check for issue templates. Always append attribution footer.

Feature/enhancement issues must include a ### User Story section -- an informal story describing what the user can achieve (no technical details). Start with "As a <persona>, I want to ... so that ...". Multiple personas are fine. Place user stories before technical details.

Safety Rules

1. Always ask before pushing or publishing to GitHub -- pushes, PRs, issues, comments, reviews. Commits are local and don't require confirmation, but pushes always do.
2. Never force-push. Never amend commits. Always create new commits. If force-push is needed, ask the user to do it manually.
3. Never use git add . or git add -A -- stage specific files
4. Never use interactive flags (-i) -- requires terminal input
5. Never skip hooks (--no-verify) unless explicitly requested
6. Check for .env, credentials, or secret files before staging -- warn if found
7. Check for PR/issue templates before creating -- use them if they exist
8. Avoid gh api -- prefer MCP tools or high-level gh subcommands. Use gh api only for read-only queries when no subcommand or MCP tool exists. Never use gh api for write operations. Exception: gh api graphql for mutations with no MCP/CLI equivalent (e.g., thread resolution).
9. Never fork repositories -- on access denied (403/404), use ghsudo to elevate permissions or ask the user. Forking creates a separate repo and breaks the workflow. This applies to both gh repo fork and fork_repository MCP tool.
10. Sandbox and gh/ghsudo CLI -- these commands need network access to api.github.com. The recommended fix is adding "api.github.com" to sandbox.network.allowedDomains in settings.json — this lets gh work inside the sandbox without disabling it. If that's not configured and gh fails with network errors, use dangerouslyDisableSandbox: true on the Bash tool call as a fallback. MCP tools (mcp__plugin_claudius_github__*) bypass the sandbox and are unaffected.

Context Management — Large MCP Responses

GitHub MCP tools can return 10k+ tokens (file lists, diffs, review threads, CI logs), polluting the calling agent's context window with data that's only needed briefly.

Solution: Delegate large MCP operations to a disposable subagent via the Agent tool. The subagent calls the MCP tool, extracts what's needed, and returns only a concise summary. Its full context is discarded after completion.

Delegate these (unbounded/large responses):

• pull_request_read with get_files — file lists on large PRs
• pull_request_read with get_diff — full PR diffs
• pull_request_read with get_review_comments — PRs with many threads
• get_job_logs — CI logs (10k+ tokens typical)
• list_* and search_* operations with many results

Safe to call directly (bounded data): single PR metadata (get), single issue, branch list, single commit.

Pattern:

Agent(
  subagent_type="Explore",
  prompt="Fetch changed files for PR #123 in owner/repo using pull_request_read (get_files). Return only: file paths with +/- line counts and total stats."
)

Use Explore for read-only extraction (has MCP tools, no Edit/Write). Use general-purpose when writes are needed.

Key principle: Tell the subagent exactly what to extract and what format to return. Not "fetch PR data" but "fetch changed file list, return file paths with +/- line counts, total stats."

Escaping and Formatting

• Use HEREDOCs (<<'EOF') for multi-line bodies
• When using gh api (read-only only), prefer --jq over | jq -- --jq is processed internally by gh, avoiding shell expansion issues (! triggers history expansion)

GitHub MCP PR Body Formatting

When passing a body parameter to create_pull_request or update_pull_request MCP tools, use actual multi-line strings — NOT \n escape sequences on a single line. MCP tools pass the string directly to the API; \n renders as literal backslash-n on GitHub instead of a newline.

Requesting Reviewers

Use gh-request-reviewer.sh for all reviewer requests — supports multiple reviewers and @copilot:

gh-request-reviewer.sh <owner/repo> <pr_number> <reviewer> [reviewer ...]

@copilot reviewer syntax requires gh ≥ 2.88.0. If requesting review fails, check gh --version and escalate to the user if upgrade is needed.

Elevated Permissions (ghsudo) -- Optional Fallback

If a gh or git command fails with 403/404 or "Resource not accessible", use ghsudo (pip install ghsudo) to retry with elevated permissions. Never fork the repository as a workaround -- forking creates a separate repo and breaks push/PR workflows. See gh-cli-fallback.md for full usage and exit codes.