Instar Skill: GitHub

A Project Instar skill that gives your bot read access to GitHub issues and pull requests, plus the ability to post PR comments.

Tools

Tool	Permission Level	Description
github_issues_read	Read	List and read issues for a repository
github_pr_read	Read	List and read pull requests with diffs
github_pr_comment	Write	Post comments on pull requests

Read and write are separate tools — grant github_issues_read and github_pr_read for read-only access, add github_pr_comment when you want the bot to participate in code review.

Grant Metadata

This skill uses grant metadata instead of global credentials. Each grant specifies which repo the bot can access:

Metadata Key	Description	Example
project_root	Filesystem path to the git repository	/repos/my-project
github_repo	GitHub repo in owner/repo format	octocat/hello-world

This means different passphrases can grant access to different repos — the bot only sees what each grant allows.

How It Works

1. Install this skill via Admin UI or manually
2. Create a grant with the GitHub tools and set the grant metadata:
   • project_root — where the repo lives on disk
   • github_repo — the owner/repo on GitHub
3. The bot uses the GitHub CLI (gh) under the hood — ensure it's authenticated in the tool executor environment

File Structure

github/
├── manifest.yaml        # Skill metadata + grant_metadata declaration
├── __init__.py           # Imports tool classes
├── base.py               # Shared GitHub API helpers
├── github_issues.py     # Issues read tool
└── github_pr.py          # PR read + comment tools

Installation

Via Admin UI (Recommended)

1. Download this repo as a zip
2. In the Instar Admin UI, go to Tools
3. Click Upload and select the zip

Manual

git clone https://github.com/thegman54/instar-skill-github.git
cp -r instar-skill-github/ /path/to/project-instar/tool-executor/src/tools/github/

License

MIT