Auditing GitHub CLI extensions before installing more

JinHyuk Sung — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:50:21 +0000

GitHub CLI extensions are useful, but extension discovery has a small practical problem: it is easy to find more extensions before you understand whether your current setup already covers the workflows you care about.

I built a small browser-only audit page for that problem:

https://sjh9714.github.io/gh-extension-atlas/audit.html?demo=1

It opens with a sample result loaded. If you want to check your own setup, run:

gh extension list

Then paste the output into the page.

The audit runs locally in the browser. There is no sign-in, no analytics script, and no remote audit API. The pasted extension list is not uploaded.

What the audit checks

The page compares installed GitHub CLI extensions against the GitHub CLI Extension Atlas catalog:

https://github.com/sjh9714/gh-extension-atlas

It shows:

installed extensions that are already reviewed in the atlas
installed extensions that are not listed yet
missing Top Picks
workflow coverage gaps
copyable install commands for missing workflow recommendations

The goal is not to install every recommended extension. The goal is to make the next install decision smaller and easier to review.

Why not just use `gh extension search`?

gh extension search is useful when you already know what you are looking for.

It is less useful when the question is:

Which terminal dashboard should I try first?
Do I need a notification tool if I already use a broader dashboard?
Which extension is for GitHub Actions operations versus workflow statistics?
Is this branch cleanup tool the right fit for my risk tolerance?

Those are comparison questions, not search questions.

The atlas tries to answer them with a reviewed catalog, Top Picks, comparison guides, and workflow recommendations.

A few examples

For daily GitHub triage, the atlas points to gh-dash first because it covers PRs, issues, and notifications in one terminal dashboard.

For GitHub Actions, it separates different jobs:

gh-enhance for an interactive Actions TUI
gh-workflow-stats for success rate and duration summaries
gh-act for local workflow runs
gh-actions-importer for migration work

For branch cleanup, it compares tools like gh-poi, gh-branch, gh-clean-branches, gh-tidy, and gh-worktree because they sound related but solve different habits and risk profiles.

The data contract

The catalog is also available as JSON:

https://sjh9714.github.io/gh-extension-atlas/api/extensions.json

Each entry includes fields such as:

repository
category
install command
best-fit use case
avoid-if note
license
archived status
maintenance status
verification date

That makes it usable by scripts, documentation tools, or coding agents that need current extension metadata instead of stale memory.

What feedback would help

I am mainly looking for factual corrections and missing-extension suggestions:

inaccurate descriptions
wrong categories
misleading maintenance labels
better comparisons between overlapping tools
useful GitHub CLI extensions that are missing from the catalog

If you maintain a GitHub CLI extension and the atlas describes it poorly, a short correction is enough.

Note: I used AI assistance while organizing the launch plan and editing this post, but the project metadata, examples, and claims were reviewed before publishing.