Why is caching necessary for Claude's GitHub operations?

GitHub's GraphQL API has a strict 5,000 point/hour limit. Standard unoptimized operations can consume thousands of points in minutes; caching reduces this consumption to nearly zero for read operations.

When is the GitHub API cache initialized?

The cache is designed to be initialized automatically by the session-start skill at the beginning of every Claude Code interaction to ensure all subsequent tools have access to fresh data.

How do I refresh the cache if project data changes?

The skill includes a dedicated refresh_items_cache function that can be manually or programmatically triggered after write operations to synchronize the environment variables.

Does this skill affect write operations like updating issue status?

Write operations still require API calls, but this skill provides the necessary field and option IDs from the cache, reducing the number of calls required to execute the update.

GitHub API Cache

Name: GitHub API Cache
Author: troykelly

bytroykelly

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Collaboration Tools

Optimizes GitHub project workflows by caching metadata to prevent API rate limit exhaustion during autonomous development sessions.

About

The GitHub API Cache skill is a critical performance optimization layer designed for high-frequency GitHub project operations. By fetching project metadata, field IDs, and item statuses once at the session start and storing them in environment variables, it reduces API consumption from thousands of points to just a few calls. This ensures that Claude can perform complex, multi-step tasks like issue tracking, project board enforcement, and autonomous orchestration without hitting GitHub's GraphQL rate limits, significantly increasing the reliability and speed of AI-driven development.

Key Features

Initializes project metadata cache with only 2-3 GraphQL API calls
Includes helper functions for instant issue and status lookups
Provides zero-cost data access through environment variable storage
5 GitHub stars
Proactively monitors GitHub rate limit quotas before bulk operations
Supports selective cache refreshing to maintain data integrity after writes

Use Cases

Optimizing project board enforcement tasks across large software repositories
Preventing rate limit lockouts during complex, multi-issue project management
Accelerating autonomous coding sessions by eliminating redundant API requests

About

Key Features

Initializes project metadata cache with only 2-3 GraphQL API calls
Includes helper functions for instant issue and status lookups
Provides zero-cost data access through environment variable storage
5 GitHub stars
Proactively monitors GitHub rate limit quotas before bulk operations
Supports selective cache refreshing to maintain data integrity after writes

Use Cases

Optimizing project board enforcement tasks across large software repositories
Preventing rate limit lockouts during complex, multi-issue project management
Accelerating autonomous coding sessions by eliminating redundant API requests