Github Pr Review Operation

GitHub PR Review Operation

PR review operations using GitHub CLI (gh).

Prerequisites

• gh installed
• Authenticated via gh auth login

Resolving OWNER/REPO/NUMBER

Never guess OWNER, REPO, or NUMBER from directory names, paths, or context. Incorrect guesses cause 404 errors and waste API calls.

Pick the approach that matches the input, then use the resulting OWNER, REPO, and NUMBER in every Operation command that follows.

| Input | How to resolve | |---|---| | PR URL given (https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/pull/NUMBER) | Parse OWNER, REPO, NUMBER directly from the URL. | | PR number given | Run gh pr view --json url --jq .url and parse the returned URL. | | No identifier (e.g., "this PR" on a branch) | Run gh pr view --json url --jq .url and parse the returned URL. |

For the gh pr view cases, the command resolves the number or branch against the current working directory's git repository, so OWNER/REPO come from the real repo context rather than a guess.

If gh pr view fails (not in a git repo, branch has no PR, invalid number), ask the user for the full PR URL rather than guessing.

Operations

1. Get PR Info

gh pr view NUMBER --repo OWNER/REPO --json title,body,author,state,baseRefName,headRefName,url

2. Get Diff (with line numbers)

gh pr diff NUMBER --repo OWNER/REPO | awk 'BEGIN {
  while ((getline line) > 0) {
    if (line ~ /^@@/) {
      match(line, /-[0-9]+/); old_line = substr(line, RSTART + 1, RLENGTH - 1)
      match(line, /\+[0-9]+/); new_line = substr(line, RSTART + 1, RLENGTH - 1)
      print line
    } else if (line ~ /^-/) { printf "L%-4d     | %s\n", old_line++, line }
    else if (line ~ /^\+/) { printf "     R%-4d| %s\n", new_line++, line }
    else if (line ~ /^ /) { printf "L%-4d R%-4d| %s\n", old_line++, new_line++, line }
    else print line
  }
}'

Example output:

@@ -46,15 +46,25 @@ jobs:
L46   R46  |            prompt: |
L49       | -            (deleted line)
     R49  | +            (added line)
L50   R50  |              # Review guidelines

• L: LEFT (base) side line number - use with side=LEFT for inline comments
• R: RIGHT (head) side line number - use with side=RIGHT for inline comments

3. Get Comments

Issue Comments (comments on the entire PR):

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/issues/NUMBER/comments --jq '.[] | {id, user: .user.login, created_at, body}'

Review Comments (comments on specific code lines):

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/NUMBER/comments --jq '.[] | {id, user: .user.login, path, line, created_at, body, in_reply_to_id}'

4. Comment on PR

gh pr comment NUMBER --repo OWNER/REPO --body "Comment body"

For a complex body (backticks, $, quotes, newlines), write the body to a file and pass it with --body-file :

gh pr comment NUMBER --repo OWNER/REPO --body-file 

5. Inline Comment (on specific code lines)

First, get the head commit SHA:

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/NUMBER --jq '.head.sha'

Single line comment:

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/NUMBER/comments \
  --method POST \
  -f body="Comment body" \
  -f commit_id="COMMIT_SHA" \
  -f path="src/example.py" \
  -F line=15 \
  -f side=RIGHT

Multi-line comment (lines 10-15):

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/NUMBER/comments \
  --method POST \
  -f body="Comment body" \
  -f commit_id="COMMIT_SHA" \
  -f path="src/example.py" \
  -F line=15 \
  -f side=RIGHT \
  -F start_line=10 \
  -f start_side=RIGHT

For a complex body (backticks, $, quotes, newlines), write the body to a file and pass it with -F body=@. Do not use -f body=@ — -f (raw-field) does not expand @, so the literal path is posted as the body.

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/NUMBER/comments \
  --method POST \
  -F body=@ \
  -f commit_id="COMMIT_SHA" \
  -f path="src/example.py" \
  -F line=15 \
  -f side=RIGHT

Notes:

• -f (raw-field): sends the value as a literal string; does not expand @file
• -F (field): converts numbers/booleans by type and expands @file into file contents. Use -F for numeric parameters (line, start_line) and for passing a body from a file. Using -f for numeric parameters sends them as strings and causes errors
• side: RIGHT (added lines) or LEFT (deleted lines)

6. Reply to a Comment

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/NUMBER/comments/COMMENT_ID/replies \
  --method POST \
  -f body="Reply body"

For a complex body, write it to a file and pass it with -F body=@ (see Operation 5).

Use the id obtained from comment retrieval as COMMENT_ID.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: shibayu36
• Source: shibayu36/agent-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.