GH-VARIABLE-SET(1)

💅 NAME 💅

gh-variable-set — create or update variables, bestie. That's it. That's the whole gig. ✨

So this is the GitHub CLI manual's page for it, and tbh it's a little icon and you're gonna love her.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

gh variable set <variable-name> [flags]

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Okay so here's the tea: gh variable set sets a value for a variable, and you get to pick which level it lives at. Three options, all valid, all iconic in their own way:

• repository (this is the default, no cap): available to GitHub Actions runs or Dependabot in a repository
• environment: available to GitHub Actions runs for a deployment environment in a repository
• organization: available to GitHub Actions runs or Dependabot within an organization

And here's the extra little slay — an organization variable can optionally be restricted so it's only available to specific repositories. Not all of them. Just the chosen ones. 👑

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🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

• -b, --body <string> — the value for the variable. And if you don't specify it? It literally reads from standard input. So you can pipe it in, feed it a file, whatever. 🫶
• -e, --env <environment> — set deployment environment variable. That's the vibe.
• -f, --env-file <file> — load variable names and values from a dotenv-formatted file. Bulk queen behavior.
• -o, --org <organization> — set organization variable.
• -r, --repos <repositories> — list of repositories that can access an organization variable. Gatekeeping, but make it deliberate. 💅
• -v, --visibility <string> (default "private") — set visibility for an organization variable: {all|private|selected}

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🦋 OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS 🦋

• -R, --repo <[HOST/]OWNER/REPO> — select another repository using the [HOST/]OWNER/REPO format. Passing the repo baton, iykyk.

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🌈 EXIT CODES 🌈

• 0: Successful execution 🎉
• 1: Error 😭
• 2: Command canceled
• 4: Authentication required

NOTE: Specific commands may have additional exit codes. Refer to the command's help for more information. Don't come for me, that's just what it says. 💀

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⭐ EXAMPLE ⭐

Honestly the examples are the main character here. Look at her go:

# Add variable value for the current repository in an interactive prompt
$ gh variable set MYVARIABLE

# Read variable value from an environment variable
$ gh variable set MYVARIABLE --body "$ENV_VALUE"

# Read variable value from a file
$ gh variable set MYVARIABLE < myfile.txt

# Set variable for a deployment environment in the current repository
$ gh variable set MYVARIABLE --env myenvironment

# Set organization-level variable visible to both public and private repositories
$ gh variable set MYVARIABLE --org myOrg --visibility all

# Set organization-level variable visible to specific repositories
$ gh variable set MYVARIABLE --org myOrg --repos repo1,repo2,repo3

# Set multiple variables imported from the ".env" file
$ gh variable set -f .env

The -f .env one? Multiple variables, one command. Ate. 🔥

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

• gh-variable(1) — go read her too, she's the parent and she's lovely.

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Okay that's the whole page, bestie — no gatekeeping, every flag accounted for. This was GitHub CLI v2.102.0, dated Oct 2026, and it's giving documentation that actually respects your time. Mwah. 💖🎀