openclaw/docs/plugins/github.md

summary	title	doc-schema-version	read_when
Find public GitHub issues and pull requests, and read items beside chat	GitHub	1	You want GitHub links to open beside your conversation You need to enable or disable GitHub link previews and the reader You want an agent to search a chosen public GitHub repository

GitHub

The bundled GitHub plugin adds public-repository link previews and a read-only reader to the Control UI, plus the github_read and github_search agent tools. It is separate from the GitHub Copilot model provider.

Upgrading with an existing plugin allowlist

GitHub previews that previously lived in core now belong to the bundled github plugin. A nonempty plugins.allow list remains authoritative: if it omits github, both hovercards and the reader stay unavailable, and links open externally. OpenClaw does not add a plugin to an existing allowlist during an upgrade or Doctor repair.

To restore previews, append github to your existing plugins.allow list without removing its other entries, then enable GitHub in Plugins. Keep plugins.deny and explicit disabled entries consistent with your choice. Doctor explains this recovery when an implicit allowlist exclusion blocks the feature. To intentionally keep it off and silence that notice, set plugins.entries.github.enabled: false.

Read an item beside chat

The plugin is enabled by default. Connect to the Gateway, then click a public GitHub issue, pull request, or commit link in chat. The reader opens beside the conversation with a GitHub icon and an Open on GitHub link. Hover or focus an issue or pull request link to see its preview. Issue and pull request chips show the full owner/repo#number reference, including shorthand references resolved from the session repository. Descriptive link labels stay unchanged. Login, OAuth, profile, repository, and other general GitHub pages remain ordinary links: neither native item previews nor the generic page-preview fallback fetches them. A PR or issue URL inside a login redirect query does not make the login link previewable.

Each reader tab has its own Back and Forward history. Opening the same URL selects its existing tab. Links inside the reader navigate the current tab; the + button starts another tab. Up to ten tabs stay in memory. Closing the page discards the documents and history. The reader follows the session panel’s responsive layout; on a phone it can sit below chat or expand with the panel.

The reader includes descriptions, discussion comments, published inline PR review comments with file and diff context, commit comments, and expandable file diffs. The header separates the item state, author, change counts, and PR branches. Overview, Checks, Files, and Discussion shortcuts jump to the relevant section without leaving the reader.

Pull requests show check runs and commit statuses for the exact head commit. Expand the checks summary to inspect individual results and open their source logs. Failed checks expand by default. Pending, failed, passed, skipped, empty, and unavailable results remain distinct; a partial response never implies that all checks passed. These results describe CI, not approval or merge readiness. Use Refresh to fetch the current PR and its checks again.

Descriptions and replies render named emoji shortcodes such as :white_check_mark: and :rocket: in prose, tables, link labels, and disclosure summaries. Code, URLs, unknown shortcodes, and plain emoticons such as :) stay literal.

HTML comments in descriptions and replies stay hidden, matching GitHub; literal comment examples inside code remain visible. Markdown images and standalone HTML image attachments can display inline. The GitHub plugin fetches public user attachments anonymously through the Gateway, including GitHub's attachment redirects, so they do not need browser CORS headers. Requests send no GitHub credentials, cookies, or referrer. PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP attachments up to 2 MiB are supported by the resolver. If resolution fails, the reader preserves the original anonymous-CORS image path; images that still cannot load retain a full-size external link. Each loaded document bounds concurrent requests and cached image data; closing its tab or replacing the document retires that cache. Script and connection policies are unchanged; remote content cannot run scripts or app widgets.

Ask the agent to read an item

Give the agent a public GitHub issue, pull request, or commit URL. The github_read tool reads it through the Gateway and returns the title, description, applicable discussion and review comments, file changes, and pull request checks. It accepts url and optional refresh: true to fetch current content.

This tool works for permitted sandboxed agents without GitHub credentials or outbound network access inside the sandbox. The Gateway selects the invoking agent's managed identity, or uses the same service-token/anonymous fallback as the reader. The tool cannot select another agent or expose the credential. Current invocation, tool and identity authority remain required through delivery, including cached reads.

github_read is included in the coding profile and default sandbox tool allowlist. Explicit tool allowlists and deny rules remain authoritative. If you maintain a custom sandbox allowlist, include github_read to permit it. Disabling github removes the tool as well as the UI reader. The tool reads known references; it does not search, post, edit or merge GitHub content.

The same limits below apply. Inspect partial, bodyTruncated, commentsTruncated, filesTruncated, and individual comment/patch/check markers; a bounded result does not establish that the full discussion or diff was read.

Ask the agent to find issues or pull requests

Use github_search with a chosen public repository such as openclaw/openclaw. Choose kind: "issue" or kind: "pull" for each call. Search each kind separately when you need both; GitHub App user tokens require a single kind per query. Optional query keywords match text, and state selects all, open, or closed. Omit the query to use just the filters. Query text is literal: GitHub qualifiers, quotes, backslashes and parentheses are not accepted, and Boolean words cannot widen the repository scope. The quoted keywords must fit GitHub's 256-character search limit; use fewer or shorter words if the tool rejects a long query.

Each call returns up to 20 items, sorted by most recently updated first, with URLs that github_read can open. Start at page: 1, then repeat the same filters with the returned nextPage. A null nextPage ends the available pages. incomplete: true means GitHub did not finish the search; limited: true means more than its first 1,000 matches exist. Refine the query or filters instead of assuming either result is exhaustive. Results can move between pages as issues and pull requests change on GitHub.

Search uses the same Gateway-held identity and current invocation authority as reading. The selected repository must be public before the search and before its results are delivered. The tool is included in the coding profile and default sandbox allowlist; add github_search to a custom allowlist if needed. Explicit deny rules and plugin disablement still apply. Rate-limit errors include GitHub's retry delay when available. Search does not discover repositories, search private content, post, edit, or merge.

Enable or disable the plugin

Open Plugins in the Control UI to manage the GitHub plugin. The corresponding configuration is:

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      github: { enabled: false },
    },
  },
}

Apply the configuration through the normal Gateway configuration flow. Capability updates remove disabled readers without requiring a browser reconnect. When disabled, the plugin contributes no reader or hovercard, and GitHub links open externally.

Limits and unavailable content

• The reader is public-only and read-only. Use Open on GitHub for private repositories, posting comments, or merging pull requests.
• Previews and reader documents use the selected agent’s managed GitHub identity, or the configured Control UI GitHub token and Gateway environment fallback when no managed identity is selected. Without credentials they use GitHub’s shared anonymous IP quota. Authenticated documents remain public-only: the reader checks repository visibility and identity before returning fresh or cached content. Identity changes abort stale requests. Attachment images remain anonymous.
• Each comment collection is limited to 20 entries; PR discussion and inline review comments have separate limits. Up to 30 changed files are shown.
• PR checks use at most one page each of check runs and commit statuses and show up to 100 results. Incomplete or unavailable checks retain a link to GitHub.
• Long text and patches are bounded. Incomplete content is labeled rather than presented as a complete conversation or diff.
• Uncached hover previews share a two-second upstream request budget. Slow avatars or co-author lookups are omitted; slow required metadata returns a retryable unavailable error. The full reader keeps its longer request timeout.
• Hover previews are shared for one minute across readers using the same GitHub identity. Concurrent requests share a fetch, but each reader must still have access when the result arrives. Expired previews can appear with a stale marker while one background refresh runs. Cached delivery checks the current credential once; each upstream dispatch also checks it. Refresh waits for current metadata. Refreshes use GitHub ETags for unchanged item and commit responses; identity changes, eviction, or a failed refresh retire those cached responses. Repository visibility is checked again for every authenticated refresh.
• Slow preview reads (500 ms or longer) log phase durations for identity preparation, cache/load wait, delivery credential checks, metadata rendering, optional decoration, and upstream authentication/network waits. Network timings cover response headers; metadata/decorations include response-body reads. These diagnostics omit URLs, item contents, and credentials.
• Refresh requests the current item again. Rate limits, deleted items, and unavailable services show their specific explanation in the reader and hovercards, including GitHub's retry delay when available. Cached preview details stay visible with the failure notice. Use the reader's Retry action or Open on GitHub; the server's API quota is separate from your signed-in browser session.

Plugin author integration

GitHub uses the generic docked link-reader contribution in the Plugin SDK. The plugin owns URL matching, GitHub API requests, caching, and mapping source data into the passive reader model. The Control UI owns tabs, layout, safe rendering, and keyboard interaction.