github.list_issues

The "show me what's open on this repo" pack. Caller supplies repo and optional filters (state, labels, assignee); the pack GETs /repos/{repo}/issues with the filters and returns the GitHub issue array verbatim wrapped in {issues: [...], count: N}.

Stateless — no session needed. Public-repo reads work without a credential (60 req/hr unauthenticated rate limit); authenticated calls get the standard 5000 req/hr.

Inputs

Field	Type	Required	Default	Notes
repo	string	yes	—	owner/name slug.
state	string	no	"open"	One of open, closed, all.
labels	string	no	""	Comma-separated label names. AND'd — issues must have all listed labels.
assignee	string	no	""	Login of an assignee.
credential	string	no	github-token	Optional vault credential. Public reads work without it.

Outputs

Field	Type	Notes
issues	array	The GitHub issue objects verbatim. Each carries number, title, state, body, labels[].name, user.login, assignees[], created_at, updated_at, html_url, etc.
count	number	len(issues). Note: paginated upstream — for a repo with >30 open issues, this is page 1's count, not the total. Filter or paginate via additional calls.

⚠️ Indexing latency observed at capture: immediately after github.create_issue succeeds, this pack may return count: 0 for a few minutes — GitHub's list endpoint is eventually-consistent with respect to issue creation. The created issue is fetchable directly via gh api repos/.../issues/N without delay.

Vault credentials needed

Optional. github-token (PAT) raises the rate limit to 5000 req/hr and is required for private repos. Public-repo reads work without it.

Use it from your agent (OpenClaw chat-UI worked example)

Prompt (sent in OpenClaw chat UI / openclaw-cli agent):

Use the helmdeck__github-list_issues tool against repo "tosin2013/helmdeck-pack-doc-fixtures" with state=open and credential=github-token. Tell me the count and the titles.

Tool call (1 call, no failures):

{
  "name": "helmdeck__github-list_issues",
  "arguments": {
    "repo": "tosin2013/helmdeck-pack-doc-fixtures",
    "state": "open",
    "credential": "github-token"
  }
}

Pack response (truncated):

{"pack":"github.list_issues","version":"v1","output":{"count":2,"issues":[{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/tosin2013/helmdeck-pack-doc-fixtures/issues/2","repository_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/tosin2013/helmdeck-pack-doc-fixtures","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/tosin2013/helmdeck-pack-doc-fixtures/issues/2/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/tosin2013/helmdeck-pack-doc-fixtures/issues/2/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/tosin2013/helmdeck-pack-doc-fixtures/issues/2/events","html_url":"https://github.com/tosin2013/helmdeck-pack-doc-fixtures/issues/2","id":4406682427,"node_id":"I_kwDOSX1U_c8AAAABBqijOw","number":2,"title":"Demo issue from helmdeck pack capture","user":{"login":"tosin2013","id":1975599,"node_id":"MDQ6VXNlcjE5N
  ...[truncated]

Agent's final reply:

The repository has 2 open issues:

1. Demo issue from helmdeck pack capture (issue #2)
2. Demo issue from helmdeck pack capture (issue #1)

Verified via OpenClaw 2026.5.6 + helmdeck v0.9.0-dev + openrouter/openai/gpt-oss-120b on 2026-05-07 (cost: $0.0013).

Developer reference (curl)

curl -fsS -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/v1/packs/github.list_issues \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $JWT" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "repo":       "tosin2013/helmdeck-pack-doc-fixtures",
    "state":      "open",
    "credential": "github-token"
  }'

Captured response (empty repo):

{
  "pack": "github.list_issues",
  "version": "v1",
  "output": {
    "count":  0,
    "issues": []
  },
  "duration_ms": 372152259
}

Error codes

Code	Triggers	Captured response
handler_failed	repo missing	{"error":"handler_failed","message":"repo is required"}
handler_failed	Repo doesn't exist or PAT lacks access	{"error":"handler_failed","message":"github API GET /repos/…/issues: 404 Not Found"}
handler_failed	Rate-limited (60 req/hr unauthenticated)	{"error":"handler_failed","message":"github API GET …: 403 API rate limit exceeded …"}

Session chaining

No session. Stateless. Common chain — list, then iterate via github.post_comment against each one ("triage every open issue with comment X").

Async behavior

Synchronous.

See also

• Catalog row: PACKS.md — github.list_issues.
• Source: internal/packs/builtin/github.go.
• ADR 034 — Core GitHub pack set.
• Companion packs: github.list_prs, github.search, github.create_issue.