GitHub CLI

Links

Link	Description
GitHub CLI Installation	Installation instructions for the GitHub CLI tool.

Install GitHub CLI

Windows

gh is available via WinGet, scoop, Chocolatey, Conda, Webi, and as downloadable MSI.

WinGet

Install:	Upgrade:
winget install --id GitHub.cli	winget upgrade --id GitHub.cli

note

The Windows installer modifies your PATH. When using Windows Terminal, you will need to open a new window for the changes to take effect. (Simply opening a new tab will not be sufficient.)

Check Installation

gh --version

Authenticate the GitHub CLI

Once installed, you need to authenticate the GitHub CLI with your GitHub account. Run the following command and follow the prompts:

gh auth login

You can auth with either HTTPS or SSH, HTTPS worked well for me.

Setup GitHub Secrets

Setting a secret

Use the gh secret set command to add secrets to your GitHub repository. For example: -

gh secret set GH_NAME -b "your-github-name"
gh secret set GH_EMAIL -b "your-github-email"

Setting a secret using json

To create a secret for use with the Azure Login GitHub Action you need to create a secret in a json format. As documented here: - Login With a Service Principal Secret.

gh secret set AZURE_CREDENTIALS --body '{ "clientSecret": "your-client-secret", "subscriptionId": "your-subscription-id", "tenantId": "your-tenant-id", "clientId": "your-client-id" }' --repo your-username/your-repo

or

cat > /tmp/azure-credentials.json <<'EOF'
{
  "clientId": "xxx",
  "clientSecret": "xxx",
  "subscriptionId": "xxx",
  "tenantId": "xxx"
}
EOF
gh secret set AZURE_CREDENTIALS \
  --repo cdly450/digital-reflections \
  --body "$(cat /tmp/azure-credentials.json)"

About GITHUB_TOKEN secret

GitHub provides a token that you can use to authenticate on behalf of GitHub Actions.

At the start of each workflow job, GitHub automatically creates a unique GITHUB_TOKEN secret to use in your workflow. You can use the GITHUB_TOKEN to authenticate in the workflow job.

tip

More information can be found here: - Automatic token authentication.