Work with your GitHub repositories

Claude Tag works with your GitHub repositories from Slack. See repository questions answered in-thread, pull request subscriptions, chores handed back as draft pull requests, bug triage, and CLAUDE.md repository instructions.

How GitHub prompts work

This page is for engineers and anyone else with questions a repository can answer. Claude works with the GitHub repositories an admin granted for the channel. It reads the code to answer questions, watches pull requests you name, and hands back changes as draft pull requests.

Each prompt below is a Slack message. Paste it in the channel or thread where the question lives. Claude clones the repository into an isolated workspace Anthropic hosts, posts progress in that thread, and delivers the result there too.

Name the repository in the first message. A session starts with no repositories checked out and clones one when the request names it. Anything Claude opens on GitHub is authored by the Claude GitHub App, so it appears in your review queue like any other pull request.

An admin grants a repository to the channels that need it, and questions about the code work only in those channels. By default anyone in those channels can ask, and an admin can restrict who can use Claude.

Check the channel’s connections

Check that the channel has the connection below. Ask @Claude what can you access from this channel? and the reply also lists which repositories the channel can reach. An admin can add a connection the channel is missing.

Connection	Examples	Why it matters here
Code	GitHub	Required. Reads granted repositories and opens draft pull requests

The same workflows apply to other source control systems. For GitLab, an admin connects it with an access token instead of the GitHub App, and Claude clones its repositories the same way.

If Claude replies that a repository isn’t configured, the repository wasn’t granted for this channel. An admin can verify GitHub access. After the grant changes, start a fresh thread and name the repository in the first message.

Prompts to paste

Answer a repository question without interrupting the author

A question about how the code behaves lands in the channel, and the person who wrote it is away. Claude clones the repository, reads the code, and posts the answer in the thread.

@Claude in acme/data-pipeline, how does the export retry logic decide when to give up? Name the files involved.

Asking for the files involved attaches proof to the answer, so anyone in the thread can open them and check.

Investigation questions work the same way: when a behavior last changed, in which commit, and who to ask about it.

@Claude in acme/data-pipeline, did the export retry behavior change recently? Find the commit that changed it, when it landed, and who wrote it.

The clone carries the repository’s full commit history, so history questions get answered from the same checkout as code questions. If the repository keeps a CODEOWNERS file, questions about who owns a path read from it too.

Stop refreshing a pull request

Your work is blocked on a pull request a teammate opened, and the only way to know it moved is to keep checking the page. Claude subscribes to the pull request and posts in the thread when it updates, whether Claude opened it or a person did.

@Claude subscribe to PR #519 in acme/data-pipeline, the schema migration. When CI finishes or a review lands, post here, and tag me if anything failed.

Claude reads the pull request’s workflow runs and logs, so the post says whether checks passed or failed. To list or cancel a subscription later, see Manage standing work. Because the prompt asks for a tag only on failure, passing runs post to the thread without notifying you.

Hand off the change you keep postponing

Small, well-understood changes sit on the list for weeks because they never become urgent. Docs drift from the code, a config key keeps its old name, a dependency stays a version behind. Describe one in a message, and it comes back as a draft pull request linked to the thread.

@Claude in acme/data-pipeline, the CSV export docs still describe the old date format. Update them to match the code and open a draft PR. Done means CI is green and the PR links back here.

Writing a definition of done into the task lets the session check its own work. The change comes back as a draft pull request in your review queue, opened under Claude’s own GitHub identity.

Triage a suspected bug where the report lands

A report lands in the feedback channel, and nobody knows yet whether it’s a bug. Claude investigates the repository and either explains the behavior or opens a draft fix.

@Claude a user reports that exports drop rows with empty dates. In acme/data-pipeline, is that a bug or intended behavior? If it's a bug, open a draft PR with a fix; if it's intended, explain here what the code does.

For the full arc from a bug report to green CI, including a standing watch that triages a bug channel, see Fix bugs. Because the prompt asks for either a fix or an explanation, the thread gets an answer even when the behavior turns out to be intended.

Hand off a change and follow its pull request in one message

You can combine the earlier recipes in a single message. The prompt below hands off a change, sets the definition of done, and asks Claude to subscribe to the pull request it opens.

@Claude in acme/data-pipeline, the deprecation warnings in the export module still reference the removed legacy-dates option. Remove the stale warnings and open a draft PR. Done means CI is green and the PR links back here. Then subscribe to your own PR, and when CI finishes or a review lands, post here and tag me if anything failed.

Claude opens the draft and then follows it the way it follows any pull request, because subscriptions work the same whether Claude opened the pull request or a person did. CI results and review activity arrive as posts in the thread, so you open GitHub only to review the finished change.

Repository instructions in CLAUDE.md

If your repository has conventions Claude should follow, such as file layout, pull request labels, or dependencies to install, add them to a CLAUDE.md file at the repository root. When Claude clones the repository into a session, its CLAUDE.md, .claude/CLAUDE.md, and .claude/rules/*.md files load on the next turn, so the guidance arrives without further prompting. Anyone with repository write access can edit these files, and they reach every session that works in that repository, from any channel.

Each session runs in an isolated sandbox with a standard set of preinstalled tools. Two threads are two sessions with two separate sandboxes. If the repository needs a tool that the standard set doesn’t include, such as a language runtime or a database client, add the install commands to CLAUDE.md, and Claude runs them when its work needs them.

A CLAUDE.md is guidance rather than a gate. If a pull request must carry a label or pass a check, make that a repository rule. For where CLAUDE.md sits among channel memory, channel instructions, and skills, see Teach Claude something that sticks.

Related resources

Fix bugs

The full arc from a bug report to a draft pull request and green CI

Set up routines

Pull request subscriptions and other standing work