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Talk to GitHub through its API instead of the gh CLI (account per host, saved token, GHE) #1528
Description
Every PR operation shells out to gh (electron/worktrees-pr.js:36, prWorkspace.js gh pr view, the refresher). The costs: one process per poll per thread, gh must be installed and logged in, the wrong account gets picked on multi-account machines, and GHE is unsupported (see the polling-hygiene issue).
Proposal (M):
- A small GitHub REST/GraphQL transport. It gets its token from
gh auth token --hostname <host>when available (so nothing changes for existing users), or from a token saved in the OS keychain via Settings. - Choose the account per host in Settings › Source control.
- Batch the refresher: one GraphQL query for all open PRs in a repo instead of
gh pr viewper thread. - Keep
ghas the fallback during migration. Route the outbound secret scan over the new path too.
This is also the abstraction GitLab (#193) should plug into later.
Activity
currentbits commentedon Oct 9, 2026
Part 1 is on branch
coder/talk-to-github-through-its-api-instead-o-04dd2a(d1ecfc69).electron/github.js. It gets a token fromgh auth token --hostname <host>(cached per host, cleared on a 401 and on Settings › Rescan), sends GraphQL overfetch, and supports GHE viahttps://<host>/api/graphql.gh pr viewper thread. If there's no token or the API fails, it falls back to the old per-threadghcall.CODER_GITHUB_API=0forcesgh.Split out: #1533 (account per host and a saved token; the keychain is blocked by the safeStorage ACL problem described in
secrets.js) and #1534 (moving the interactive PR and issue operations onto the transport, with the outbound secret scan on that path).currentbits commentedon Oct 9, 2026
All four parts are on branch
coder/talk-to-github-through-its-api-instead-o-04dd2a, which isn't pushed or open as a PR yet:electron/github.js), with tokens from gh, the chosen account, or a saved token — d1ecfc69 / bcab6b1cgh pr viewper thread — d1ecfc69gh pr checkoutdeliberately stays on gh.A join test (26eac0bc) confirms that a token saved in Settings authenticates interactive PR actions.
Merged tree: typecheck clean; renderer tests 2693/0; electron tests 4136/0 with a CI-style env.
Separate pre-existing gap, not part of this work: issue comments and creates have never been secret-scanned. Filed as a suggested follow-up.
currentbits commentedon Oct 9, 2026
PR #1550 is open. It's rebased onto current main as one commit (87b4f31) and closes #1528, #1533 and #1534 when merged. Ported onto main's split modules:
worktrees-pr.js,ipc-app.js, thestore-*modules andsettings/GitPane.tsx. The batched refresher now sits alongside PR watch-and-wake (#1493). Tests: renderer 2916/0, electron 4407/0,vite buildsucceeds.currentbits commentedon Oct 9, 2026
PR #1550 is open. It's rebased onto current main as one commit (87b4f31) and closes #1528, #1533 and #1534 when merged. Ported onto main's split modules:
worktrees-pr.js,ipc-app.js, thestore-*modules andsettings/GitPane.tsx. The batched refresher now sits alongside PR watch-and-wake (#1493). Tests: renderer 2916/0, electron 4407/0,vite buildsucceeds.Talk to GitHub through its API instead of the gh CLI (#1528)
Talk to GitHub through its API instead of the gh CLI (#1528)