A minimal CLI tool for GitHub that intelligently filters through notification noise, showing you exactly what needs your attention: PRs for review, assigned issues, and @ mentions.

GitHub notifications are overwhelming. You get spammed with every comment, issue update, and workflow run. The important stuff (PRs you need to review, comments that mention you) gets buried.

Poke filters GitHub items to show exactly what matters:

• Pull requests awaiting your personal or team review
• Issues assigned to you (open and recently closed)
• PRs you've recently reviewed
• Direct mentions (@username) and team mentions
• To-do list functionality to track issue progress and add notes

Linux/macOS:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ai-mindset/poke/main/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ai-mindset/poke/main/install.ps1 | iex

1. Create GitHub Personal Access Token (classic):

   • Go to GitHub Settings → Tokens
   • Generate a classic token with the following scopes:
     • repo (required for searching private repositories and updating labels)
     • notifications (required for notification access)

2. Edit the config file created by the installer:

   # Linux/macOS
   nano ~/.config/poke/.env
   
   # Windows
   notepad %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\poke\.env

3. Add your GitHub details to the config:

   GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_token_here
   WORK_ORGS=Your-Organization
   WORK_TEAMS=team1,team2,team3
   

4. Required environment variables:

   • GITHUB_TOKEN: Your GitHub personal access token (mandatory)
   • WORK_ORGS: Comma-separated list of your organizations (optional)
   • WORK_TEAMS: Comma-separated list of your teams (optional)

Check notifications:

poke

Filter for a specific organization:

poke my-organization

Control how many notifications to display:

poke --notifications=15

Use to-do list functionality:

# View your to-do list (both assigned issues and manually added items)
poke --todo


# Update issue status (backlog, in-progress, blocked, review)
poke --update=org/repo#123 --status=in-progress

# Add notes to an issue (automatically fetches issue title and timestamps entries)
poke --update=org/repo#123 --note="Working on authentication fix"
# Notes accumulate with timestamps instead of overwriting

# Update both status and note
poke --update=org/repo#123 --status=blocked --note="Waiting for API access"

# Update and immediately show your to-do list
poke --update=org/repo#123 --note="Fixed bug" --show

Standard view output:

🔥 3 Pull Requests need your review:

✅ [org/repo] Add new authentication feature
   your review requested • https://github.com/org/repo/pull/123

✅ [org/repo] Fix bug in API response
   team review requested • https://github.com/org/repo/pull/456

🔄 [org/repo] Update documentation
   review_requested • https://github.com/org/repo/pull/789

📋 2 Issues assigned to you:

📝 [org/repo] Implement search feature
   #42 • todo • https://github.com/org/repo/issues/42

📝 [org/repo] Fix performance issue in dashboard
   #43 • todo • https://github.com/org/repo/issues/43

To-do list view output:

📋 Your To-Do List (4 issues):

🟨 In Progress (1):

🟨 [org/repo] Implement search feature
   #42 • in-progress • https://github.com/org/repo/issues/42
   📝 Note: Working on authentication integration

🟥 Blocked (1):

🟥 [org/repo] Fix performance issue in dashboard
   #43 • blocked • https://github.com/org/repo/issues/43
   📝 Note: Waiting for API access from team

⬜ Backlog (2):

⬜ [org/repo] Update documentation
   #44 • backlog • https://github.com/org/repo/issues/44

⬜ [org/repo] Add unit tests
   #45 • backlog • https://github.com/org/repo/issues/45

Commands:
  Update status: poke --update=org/repo#123 --status=in-progress
  Add note:      poke --update=org/repo#123 --note="Working on this now"

Automate with cron (optional):

# Check every 15 minutes
*/15 * * * * ~/.local/bin/poke

1. Uses the GitHub Search API to find:

   • PRs waiting for your review (personal or team)
   • Open issues assigned to you
   • Recently closed issues you were assigned to
   • PRs you've recently reviewed

2. Prioritizes items by importance:

   • Work organization items are boosted to the top
   • PRs needing review come first
   • Then open issues assigned to you
   • Followed by recently completed work

3. Tracks issue progress with a to-do system:

   • Updates GitHub issue labels to show status (visible to your team)
   • Stores your personal notes locally in ~/.poke/todo.json
   • Notes accumulate with timestamps instead of overwriting
   • Automatically fetches and stores issue titles for context
   • Provides a unified view of issues grouped by status
   • Works with both assigned issues and manual entries

4. Sends desktop notifications with the most important items

Result: Signal without noise. See what needs your attention, ignore the rest, and track your progress effectively.

Requirements: Deno 2.0+

Run from source:

deno run --allow-env --allow-net --allow-read --allow-run poke.ts --notifications=12 # choose a number of notifications
deno run --allow-env --allow-net --allow-read --allow-run poke.ts --todo # run in to-do list mode

Run using tasks:

deno task dev         # Run in dev mode with debug output
deno task todo        # Run in to-do list mode

Build binaries:

deno task build

MIT