GitHub CLI 2.94.0 now allows reading and writing Discussions via gh discussion, and listing Agent Skills via gh skill.

Hey there! I'm Yuji Nishimura from the Operations Division!

GitHub CLI 2.94.0 brings a major update with Issue types / sub-issues support for gh issue, but there's another change you shouldn't miss.

gh discussion for handling GitHub Discussions and gh skill list / gh skill install --all to reinforce Agent Skills management have been added.

In terms of reading GitHub context from CLI and AI agents, I think this is also a long-awaited update. In this article, we'll take a look at gh discussion and gh skill.

What We're Looking At

Of GitHub CLI 2.94.0, this article covers the following two areas.

Let's Try It Out

Environment

• macOS / Darwin arm64
• GitHub CLI 2.94.0

Reading Discussions with gh discussion

GitHub CLI 2.94.0 adds the gh discussion command set.

GENERAL COMMANDS
  create:        Create a new discussion (preview)
  list:          List discussions in a repository (preview)

TARGETED COMMANDS
  comment:       Add, edit, or delete a comment or a reply on a discussion (preview)
  edit:          Edit a discussion (preview)
  view:          View a discussion (preview)

create, edit, and comment are all available, but these modify real data. Let's first check the read-only list / view, then in the second half, try create / edit / comment on my own repository with Discussions enabled.

Let's list the Discussions of a public repository.

gh discussion list --repo cli/cli --limit 3

Here are the results.

While Issues tend to be organized as bugs or tasks, Discussions retain Q&As, consultations, design uncertainties, and usage questions.

Being able to read this from the CLI makes it easier to check from the terminal whether "there's no Issue for this but is there a similar consultation in Discussions." When investigating OSS or incidents, we often look at not just Issues but also Discussions, so having the entry point consolidated in gh is convenient.

Creating, Editing, and Commenting with gh discussion

Since create / edit / comment modify real data, I'll try these not on a public repository but on my own repository with Discussions enabled (referred to as OWNER/REPO below).

With create, passing --title / --category / --body creates a Discussion without an interactive prompt.

gh discussion create --repo OWNER/REPO --title "gh discussion operation check (test)" --category General --body "create operation check"

Here are the results. A URL is returned.

https://github.com/<OWNER/REPO>/discussions/<number>

Add a top-level comment to the created Discussion using comment. Pass the Discussion number (or URL) as an argument.

gh discussion comment <number> --repo OWNER/REPO --body "comment operation check"

Here are the results. A URL is returned.

https://github.com/<OWNER/REPO>/discussions/<number>#discussioncomment-99999999

Update the title and body with edit.

gh discussion edit <number> --repo OWNER/REPO --title "gh discussion operation check (edited)" --body "edit operation check: body updated"

Here are the results. A URL is returned.

https://github.com/<OWNER/REPO>/discussions/<number>

Finally, use view to confirm that the comment addition and title/body edits have been reflected.

gh discussion view <number> --repo OWNER/REPO

Here are the results.

Compatibility with AI Agents

Having gh discussion list / view increases the range of targets you can have AI agents investigate.

For example, when you're stuck on how to use a certain CLI, it becomes easier to have agents investigate in the following order:

1. Search for related Issues with gh issue list
2. Search for related Discussions with gh discussion list
3. Use view to summarize found Issues and Discussions
4. Cross-reference with README and release notes

Information on GitHub doesn't only exist in Issues — it may also be in Discussions. With Discussions now accessible from the CLI, you can naturally extend an agent's research scope.

Listing Agent Skills with gh skill list

In v2.94.0, gh skill list has also been added.

gh skill list

Running this in this vault listed the skills found in the project's .agents/skills. The output looks like this:

When I previously tried gh skill in GitHub CLI v2.90.0, I wrote that listing installed skills was weak and you needed to look directly at the directory.

With gh skill list added, at least "which skills are installed, for which agent, and with which scope" can now be checked from the CLI.

install --all and skip behavior during update

In gh skill install --help, --all is also available.

--all                 Install all skills without prompting for skill selection

When importing a repository containing multiple skills, you can install them all at once without going through interactive selection.

In gh skill update --help, the behavior of skipping skills without metadata when using --all or non-interactive mode is also described.

Skills without GitHub metadata ... With --all or in non-interactive mode, they are skipped with a notice.

This matters in environments where custom or manually placed skills are mixed in. Rather than stopping at an interactive prompt, it falls on the safe side for CI or agent execution.

How to Handle This in Practice

The updates to gh discussion and gh skill this time are changes that make it easier to handle "context on GitHub" and "agent work environments" from the CLI.

When investigating OSS or incidents, not stopping at Issues but also tracking Discussions where Q&As and consultations accumulate reduces oversights. Whether you're manually identifying leads or having agents investigate, having the entry point consolidated in gh is easier to work with.

gh skill list becomes a useful command in environments where Agent Skills are shared across multiple hosts and multiple agents. Even in shared directories like .agents/skills, being able to list from the CLI which skills are installed for which host makes management easier.

Points to Note

Points to note based on what I confirmed this time.

• gh discussion and gh skill are in preview, so expect future changes
• gh skill list also picks up skills within the project, so results vary depending on the execution directory
• gh skill update --all skips skills without metadata, so updating manually placed skills needs to be considered separately

Summary

GitHub CLI 2.94.0 also brought useful updates to gh discussion and gh skill.

gh discussion enables reading Q&As and consultations from the CLI that can't be captured in Issues alone. gh skill list makes it easier to list Agent Skills when using them across multiple environments.

It's not as flashy as Issue types or sub-issues, but viewed as part of the trend of working with GitHub not just through a browser but through CLI and agents, it's a quite practical update.

I hope this is helpful to someone.

Reference Links:

• GitHub CLI 2.94.0 Release Notes
• GitHub CLI manual