gh-news

GitHub notifications TUI built with Rust and ratatui.

Screenshot

Features

• Terminal-based UI for GitHub notifications using Ratatui
• Installs as a native gh CLI extension
• Vim-style navigation with j/k keys
• Multi-select for batch operations on notifications
• Auto-refresh with configurable interva
• Preview notifications
• Regex filtering to filter specific notifications
• Pin important notifications
• Repository grouping with collapsible headers
• Notification hooks for custom commands
• Custom actions with command templates
• Mark notifications read/unread individually or in bulk
• Static display mode for scripting and pipelines

Installation

Install as a gh CLI extension (easiest):

gh extension install chmouel/gh-news

Then run it:

gh news

Setup

You need a GitHub token. The app looks for it in this order:

1. GH_TOKEN env var
2. GITHUB_TOKEN env var
3. Your gh CLI config at ~/.config/gh/hosts.yml (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gh/hosts.yml)
4. gh auth token (queries the gh CLI, which reads from the system keyring on modern versions)

Easiest way is to just run gh auth login if you have the GitHub CLI installed. Otherwise set GH_TOKEN to your personal access token.

Usage

Just run it:

gh news

gh-news shows a loading screen while fetching notifications during start-up and manual refreshes.

Options

• -a, --all - Show all notifications (not just unread)
• -c, --config <PATH> - Use a custom config file instead of the default
• -f, --filter <PATTERN> - Only show notifications matching this regex
• -n, --max-notifications <N> - Limit how many to fetch
• -p, --participating - Only show notifications where you're participating/mentioned
• -r, --mark-read - Mark all notifications as read (non-interactive)
• -s, --static-display - Print notifications and exit (for scripts)
• --no-auto-mark-read - Disable auto-marking notifications as read when navigating
• --no-auto-archive - Disable auto-archiving notifications when navigating
• --state-file <PATH> - Use a custom state file path (overrides config and default)

Examples

gh news --filter "my-org/my-repo" # Filter to specific repos
gh news --participating # Only things you're involved in
gh news --mark-read # Mark everything read:
gh news --static-display | grep "something" # List notifications without TUI

Keybindings

Navigation

• ↑/↓ or j/k - Navigate notifications, or repository headers when repositories are collapsed
• Home/End - Jump to first/last notification
• PageUp/PageDown - Page navigation (or scroll preview if shown)

Actions

• Enter - Open notification in browser and mark as read, or toggle repository collapse on headers
• o - Open notification in browser without marking as read
• . - Toggle read/unread status
• ! - Pin/unpin notification (pinned appear at top)
• h - Collapse current repository
• x - Open action menu (run custom commands on notifications)

Multi-select

• Space - Toggle selection on notification (magenta checkmark)
• Esc - Clear selection (or quit if no selection)
• Enter - Open all selected + mark as read
• o - Open all selected without marking as read
• . - Mark all selected as read
• Ctrl+A - Archive selected (or all if none selected)
• Ctrl+Alt+A - Toggle select all notifications in current repository

View & Filter

• A - Toggle showing read notifications
• E - Expunge read notifications
• / - Filter notifications (type to search, Enter to keep, Esc to clear)
• Tab - Cycle preview modes (Off → Horizontal → Vertical)
• J/K - Scroll preview (line by line)
• Shift+U/Shift+D - Scroll preview (5 lines)
• Ctrl+U/Ctrl+D - Scroll preview (page)
• 1/2 - Focus pane 1 (list) / pane 2 (preview)
• M - Cycle auto-scroll mode (off/read/archive)

General

• Esc or q or Ctrl+C - Quit application
• ? - Show help

Help

• ↑/↓ or j/k - Scroll help
• PageUp/PageDown - Page scroll help
• Home/End - Jump to top/bottom of help
• / - Search within help (type to filter, Enter to keep, Esc to clear)

Configuration

gh-news can be configured via a TOML file at ~/.config/gh-news/config.toml. All options are optional and have sensible defaults. CLI flags take precedence over config file settings.

Example Config

See also the example config file here.

# API & Network
auto_refresh_interval = 120  # seconds, 0 to disable
api_timeout = 30             # seconds
max_notifications = 100      # limit notifications fetched
pagination_size = 50         # notifications per API page

# Default filters (same as CLI flags)
show_read = false            # show read notifications (like --all)
participating_only = false   # only participating (like --participating)
default_filter = ""          # regex filter always applied

# Display
default_preview_mode = "vertical"    # "off", "horizontal", or "vertical"
repos_collapsed = false              # start with repos collapsed
org_grouping = "auto"               # "off", "auto", or "always"

# Behaviour
auto_mark_read = true                # mark notifications read when navigating to them
auto_archive = false                 # archive notifications when navigating away (implies auto_mark_read)

# External commands
browser_command = ""         # custom browser, e.g. "firefox" (uses system default if empty)

# Notification hooks
on_new_notification_command = ""  # command to run when new notifications appear

# GitHub Enterprise (optional)
github_host = "github.com"   # change for GHE, e.g. "github.mycompany.com"

Notification Hooks

Run a custom command when new notifications appear during auto-refresh:

on_new_notification_command = "/path/to/your/script.sh"

The command runs once per new notification with these environment variables:

Variable	Description
GH_NEWS_ID	Notification ID
GH_NEWS_TITLE	Notification title
GH_NEWS_REPO	Repository name
GH_NEWS_OWNER	Repository owner
GH_NEWS_TYPE	Type (Issue, PullRequest, Discussion, etc.)
GH_NEWS_REASON	Reason (mention, review_requested, comment, etc.)
GH_NEWS_URL	Web URL (if available)
GH_NEWS_UNREAD	Read status (true/false)
GH_NEWS_UPDATED_AT	ISO 8601 timestamp (if available)

Example: Desktop notification (Linux)

#!/bin/bash
notify-send "GitHub: $GH_NEWS_TYPE" "$GH_NEWS_TITLE"

Example: Sound alert

on_new_notification_command = "paplay /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/message.oga"

Example: Conditional action

#!/bin/bash
if [ "$GH_NEWS_REASON" = "review_requested" ]; then
    notify-send -u critical "Review Requested" "$GH_NEWS_TITLE"
fi

Note: For commands with complex arguments or shell features, use a wrapper script.

Custom Actions

Define custom actions that can be run on notifications via the action menu (press x):

[[actions]]
name = "Copy URL"
command = "echo {url} | xclip -selection clipboard"

[[actions]]
name = "Open in editor"
command = "code --goto {url}"

[[actions]]
name = "Add to TODO"
command = "echo '* TODO {title}' >> ~/todo.org"

[[actions]]
name = "Browse with fzf"
command = "echo {url} | fzf --preview 'curl -s {}'"
interactive = true  # Suspend TUI for interactive commands

Actions support placeholder substitution:

Placeholder	Description
{id}	Notification ID
{title}	Notification title
{url}	Web URL for the notification
{repo}	Repository name (without owner)
{owner}	Repository owner
{full_name}	Full repository name (owner/repo)
{type}	Notification type (Issue, PullRequest, etc.)
{reason}	Notification reason (mention, review_requested, etc.)
{unread}	Read status (true/false)

Batch Placeholders (plural forms):

Use plural placeholders to run a single command with all selected notifications:

Placeholder	Description
{ids}	All notification IDs, space-separated
{titles}	All notification titles, space-separated
{urls}	All web URLs, space-separated
{repos}	All repository names, space-separated
{owners}	All repository owners, space-separated
{full_names}	All full repository names, space-separated
{types}	All notification types, space-separated
{reasons}	All notification reasons, space-separated

Example batch action:

[[actions]]
name = "Open all in browser"
command = "firefox {urls}"
interactive = true

When you select multiple notifications and run this action, it executes once as firefox 'url1' 'url2' 'url3'.

Action Options:

Option	Default	Description
name	required	Display name in the action menu
command	required	Command template with placeholders
interactive	false	Suspend TUI and run command with full terminal access (for TUI tools like fzf, vim)

Actions work with multi-select: select multiple notifications with Space, then press x to run an action on all of them. With singular placeholders, the command runs once per notification. With plural placeholders (e.g., {urls}), the command runs once with all values.

Environment Variables

• GH_TOKEN - GitHub personal access token (takes precedence over GITHUB_TOKEN)
• GITHUB_TOKEN - GitHub personal access token (fallback if GH_TOKEN not set)
• GH_NEWS_AUTO_REFRESH_INTERVAL - Auto-refresh interval in seconds (default: 120). Set to 0 to disable.

License

Apache 2.0