GitHub Issues Workflow

Markdown bodies: never inline multiline text

Never pass multiline Markdown through --body "...". Shell quoting can leak literal \n into GitHub.

Always write Markdown to a temp file and use --body-file:

cat > /tmp/body.md <<'EOF'
## Summary

- ...

## Tests

- `...`
EOF

gh pr create --body-file /tmp/body.md
# or
gh pr edit <number> --body-file /tmp/body.md
# or
gh issue create --body-file /tmp/body.md

View issue

gh issue view <number>

Create issue safely

For non-trivial bodies, always write the draft to a temp file first. Do not inline long Markdown with shell quoting.

cat > /tmp/issue.md <<'EOF'
### What happened?

...
EOF

gh issue create --repo OWNER/REPO --title "Short title" --body-file /tmp/issue.md

Before creating issues in someone else's repo, check templates/contributing docs and keep the report concise.

gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE --jq '.[].name'
gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/CONTRIBUTING.md --jq .content | base64 --decode

If gh issue create prompts for confirmation, review the preview carefully before accepting.

Link issues in commits, changelogs, releases

• Commits: fix: description (#1) or fix: description (fixes #1) — auto-closes on merge to default branch
• Changelog: ([#1](https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/1))
• Release notes: fixes #1 — does NOT auto-close, must close manually

Close with comment

Always thank the reporter and mention the fix version:

gh issue close <number> --comment "Fixed in v1.2.3. Thanks for the report!"

Test fixes before closing

For npm packages, simulate fresh install:

npm pack --pack-destination /tmp/
cd /tmp && mkdir test && cd test
echo '{"name":"test"}' > package.json
bun add /tmp/package-name-1.0.0.tgz
./node_modules/.bin/command --help