GitHub Repo Bootstrap
Create a repo with both code/docs and metadata, not just the remote shell.
Workflow
- Inspect local project files first.
- Read
README.mdif present. - Read package metadata (
package.json,pyproject.toml, etc.) if present. - Infer a short project summary and 3-5 relevant topics from the project itself.
- Read
- Ensure these fields are set:
- repository name
- visibility (
publicorprivate) - description
- homepage if available
- topics
- If information is missing, ask for only the missing decision that cannot be inferred safely.
- Create or update the repo with GitHub CLI.
- Create:
gh repo create ... --description ... [--homepage ...] - Topics:
gh repo edit ... --add-topic ...
- Create:
- Verify the result by reading back repo metadata with
gh repo view --json name,description,homepageUrl,repositoryTopics,urlorgh api. - If verification shows zero topics, do not declare success. Infer better topics, update the repo, and verify again. Only stop if there is a real blocker you can name.
Rules
- Treat GitHub About as the combination of:
- description
- homepage / website
- topics
- Do not stop after setting only description.
- Topics are mandatory by default.
- Prefer 3-5 concise lowercase topics.
- Avoid generic filler topics like
code,app, orprojectunless they are truly useful. - Keep the description to one sentence.
- If README is missing, create a minimal one before publishing.
- If the user says “fill the about section,” interpret that as description + homepage + topics.
- Treat an empty
repositoryTopicsresult during verification as a failed task state, not a soft warning.
Topic Heuristics
Derive topics from:
- primary language or framework
- deployment target or platform
- project type (
cli,library,automation,bot,tooling, etc.) - domain keywords from README
Good examples:
cli,github,automationtypescript,react,chrome-extensionpython,fastapi,api
Commands
Create repo:
gh repo create <name> --public --description "<summary>"
Add homepage and topics:
gh repo edit <owner>/<repo> \
--homepage "<url>" \
--add-topic topic1 \
--add-topic topic2 \
--add-topic topic3
Verify:
gh repo view <owner>/<repo> --json name,description,homepageUrl,repositoryTopics,url
Verification passes only if repositoryTopics is non-empty.
Resources
- Prompt templates: read
references/prompt-templates.mdwhen the user wants a reusable prompt for Codex, Claude, or another agent. - Wrapper script: use
scripts/lazygithub.shwhen a single command is faster than repeated manualghcommands.
