GitHub CLI extensions¶

ID: gh-ext
Home page: https://cli.github.com
Version requirement: >= 2
Platforms: 🐧 Linux · 🍎 macOS · 🪟 Windows
Operations: installed · search · install · upgrade · upgrade_all · remove
purl types: pkg:gh-ext
CLI name: gh
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: gh-ext
Source: meta_package_manager/managers/gh_ext.toml

This is a real, 100%-config-defined manager: mpm loads it from this file at startup through the very same schema and parser a user’s own [mpm.managers.<id>] section goes through, dogfooding the configuration-defined-manager feature on a genuine cross-platform CLI.

mpm identifies each extension by its owner/repo slug: it is the only id both reported by gh extension list and accepted by every extension subcommand, so ids round-trip cleanly through install, remove, upgrade and backup/restore.

What `mpm` adds to `gh-ext`¶

Through mpm, gh-ext gains --exact and --extended search, to narrow to exact names or match descriptions.

Bigger still, mpm reaches across every manager at once: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover gh-ext alongside every other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of materials.

Every mpm command also gains --dry-run and --plan previews, cross-scheme version comparison and purl identifiers. See manager augmentations for how each one is built.

Your `gh-ext` commands, in `mpm`¶

You already know gh-ext: each operation maps one-to-one onto mpm, in an interface shared by every manager.

To…	With `gh-ext`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`gh extension list`	`mpm --gh-ext installed`
Search for a package	`gh extension search <query>`	`mpm --gh-ext search <query>`
Install a package	`gh extension install <package_id>`	`mpm install pkg:gh-ext/<package_id>`
Upgrade one package	`gh extension upgrade <package_id>`	`mpm --gh-ext upgrade <package_id>`
Upgrade everything	`gh extension upgrade --all`	`mpm --gh-ext upgrade --all`
Remove a package	`gh extension remove <package_id>`	`mpm remove pkg:gh-ext/<package_id>`

Prefix any command above with --dry-run to simulate the underlying manager calls without touching the system: the safe way to watch what mpm would do before trusting it.

Operations¶

Operation	Supported	Notes
`installed`	✓
`outdated`
`orphans`
`search`	✓	exact and extended search backfilled by `mpm`
`install`	✓
`upgrade`	✓
`upgrade_all`	✓
`remove`	✓
`sync`
`cleanup`
`doctor`

Selecting and configuring `gh-ext`¶

Deselect gh-ext for a single run with --no-gh-ext, or persist the choice in your configuration:

[mpm]
gh-ext = false

Keep it enabled but tune how mpm drives it with a per-manager override:

[mpm.managers.gh-ext]
timeout = 900

mpm config-template gh-ext prints every overridable attribute as a ready-to-paste block.

Recipes¶

A few jobs you would otherwise script around gh-ext, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --gh-ext dump gh-ext.toml, then mpm restore gh-ext.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --gh-ext sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).

Privilege escalation¶

mpm runs this manager as the current user and never prepends sudo by default. Flip the policy for its privileged operations with --sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

None of its operations needs root.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Cooldown¶

State of GitHub CLI extensions’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: ❌ None (installs extensions from git repos)

A cooldown only pays off where a compromised release can be withdrawn while the clock runs, and can only be emulated where the registry dates its releases. From the retraction table:

Registry: GitHub release assets
Retraction: None: withdrawing a build is the upstream author deleting their own release or tag. Nothing sits between them and the user
Publish date: ✅ server-set published_at on each release (REST API)

With --cooldown set, mpm skips this manager’s install and upgrade operations rather than run them unguarded (fail-closed); --allow-unsupported-managers opts back in.

Version probe¶

The version is probed by running:

$ gh --version
gh version 2.62.0 (2024-11-14)

and extracted with:

r"gh version\s+(?P<version>\d+\.\d+\.\d+)"

Reference traces¶

Raw native outputs captured in the bundled definition: the reference mpm’s parsers were written against. If you know GitHub CLI extensions well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ gh extension list
gh dash	dlvhdr/gh-dash	v4.7.0
gh cockpit	github/gh-cockpit	a1b2c3d4

$ gh extension search {query}
dlvhdr/gh-dash	A rich terminal UI for GitHub
	vilmibm/gh-screensaver	Screensavers for your terminal
installed	cli/gh-webhook	Forward webhooks to localhost

Feed any of these through mpm and the raw output becomes one uniform table, the same shape for every manager: filter it, project columns, or export it (mpm --gh-ext installed --output json, or csv, toml, yaml), each package carrying a purl and a version comparable across managers.

Changelog¶

7.2.0 (2026-07-09)
- Report installed extensions by their owner/repo slug instead of the bare extension name, so the ids returned by mpm installed and mpm backup feed back into install, remove, upgrade and restore.
7.1.0 (2026-07-07)
- Add GitHub CLI extensions (gh extension) manager with installed, search, install, upgrade, and remove support, cross-platform on Linux, macOS, and Windows; mpm’s first bundled configuration-defined manager. Requires gh >=2.0.0.