Search GitHub Issues and PRs

Use gh CLI to search for issues and PRs beyond notifications. This covers your full "issues inbox" — assigned work, triage queue, open PRs, and custom queries.

My assigned issues

gh api /search/issues --jq '.items[] | {number, title, repo: .repository_url, state, labels: [.labels[].name], updated_at, html_url}' -f q='assignee:@me is:open is:issue sort:updated-desc'

My open PRs

gh api /search/issues --jq '.items[] | {number, title, repo: .repository_url, state, draft: .draft, updated_at, html_url}' -f q='author:@me is:open is:pr sort:updated-desc'

PRs waiting for my review

gh api /search/issues --jq '.items[] | {number, title, repo: .repository_url, state, updated_at, html_url}' -f q='review-requested:@me is:open is:pr sort:updated-desc'

Issues needing triage (no type label)

This depends on the repo's label conventions. Common pattern — issues with no bug, feature-request, or enhancement label:

gh api /search/issues --jq '.items[] | {number, title, labels: [.labels[].name], updated_at, html_url}' -f q='assignee:@me is:open is:issue -label:bug -label:feature-request -label:enhancement sort:updated-desc repo:{owner}/{repo}'

Replace {owner}/{repo} with the target repository.

Issues in a specific repo

gh api /search/issues --jq '.items[] | {number, title, state, labels: [.labels[].name], updated_at, html_url}' -f q='is:open is:issue repo:{owner}/{repo} sort:updated-desc'

Stale issues (no activity in 30 days)

gh api /search/issues --jq '.items[] | {number, title, updated_at, html_url}' -f q='assignee:@me is:open is:issue sort:updated-asc updated:<{30_days_ago_date}'

Replace {30_days_ago_date} with a date like 2026-01-24.

Issues by milestone

gh api /search/issues --jq '.items[] | {number, title, state, labels: [.labels[].name], html_url}' -f q='is:open milestone:"{milestone}" repo:{owner}/{repo}'

Custom query

The GitHub search syntax supports:

• assignee:@me, author:@me, mentions:@me
• is:open, is:closed, is:issue, is:pr
• label:bug, -label:duplicate
• repo:owner/repo, org:microsoft
• review-requested:@me, reviewed-by:@me
• sort:updated-desc, sort:created-desc
• updated:>2026-01-01 (date filters)

gh api /search/issues --jq '.items[] | {number, title, state, labels: [.labels[].name], updated_at, html_url}' -f q='{query}'

Rules

• Run each search as a separate terminal invocation
• NEVER pipe to jq or other programs — use --jq
• NEVER add 2>/dev/null or redirects