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The GitHub Achievement CLI provides an interactive menu system for running achievements. This guide walks you through the entire process from selection to completion.

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Starting the CLI

Run the CLI using npm: 
npm start
You’ll see the main menu showing your current configuration:
  • Logged in as: Your GitHub username
  • Target: The repository where achievements will be executed
  • Helper account: Whether a helper account is configured (required for Galaxy Brain and YOLO)

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Selecting Achievements

1

Choose 'Run Achievements'

From the main menu, select Run Achievements and press Enter.
2

Pick an Achievement

Browse the list of available achievements:
  • Pair Extraordinaire - Coauthored commits on merged PRs
  • Pull Shark - Merged pull requests
  • Galaxy Brain - Accepted answers in Discussions (requires helper)
  • Quickdraw - Close issue within 5 minutes
  • YOLO - Merge PR without code review (requires helper)
Use ↑/↓ arrow keys to navigate and press Enter to select.
3

Select a Tier

Choose the tier level you want to unlock:
AchievementTier Options
Pair Extraordinaire1, 10, 24, 48
Pull Shark2, 16, 128, 1024
Galaxy Brain2, 8, 16, 32
Quickdraw1
YOLO1
The number represents how many operations will be executed.
4

Confirm and Execute

Review your selections and confirm. The CLI will begin executing operations immediately.
You can select multiple achievements to run in parallel. The CLI will manage concurrency and rate limiting automatically.

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What Happens During Execution

Once you start execution, the CLI displays real-time progress for each achievement:

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Progress Indicators

  • ● Running - Operation currently in progress (blue dot)
  • ✓ Completed - Operation finished successfully (green checkmark)
  • ✗ Failed - Operation encountered an error (red X)
  • • Pending - Operation waiting to start (gray bullet)

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Real-Time Information

For each running achievement, you’ll see: 
● 🎖️ Pair Extraordinaire (Bronze)
  [████████████░░░░░░░░░░░] 60%
  Creating PR with coauthored commits...
  1. Achievement name and tier - What’s currently running
  2. Progress bar - Visual representation of completion percentage
  3. Current operation - What the CLI is doing right now (e.g., “Creating branch”, “Merging PR”)

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Execution Flow

Each achievement follows a specific workflow:
  1. Create a temporary branch (e.g., pair-extraordinaire-1)
  2. Make commits to the branch (with coauthor for Pair Extraordinaire)
  3. Open a pull request
  4. Merge the pull request
  5. Delete the temporary branch
  6. Repeat for the target count
  1. Create a discussion in the target repository
  2. Helper account posts a question
  3. Your account posts an answer
  4. Helper account marks your answer as accepted
  5. Repeat for the target count
  1. Open a new issue
  2. Immediately close the issue (within 5 minutes)
  3. Achievement unlocked!
  1. Create a branch with commits
  2. Open a pull request
  3. Merge immediately without waiting for reviews
  4. Achievement unlocked!

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Monitoring Progress

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Overall Progress

At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see aggregate statistics: 
Progress: 15/48 operations
This shows the total number of completed operations across all running achievements.

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Elapsed Time

The header displays elapsed time since execution started: 
Executing | 2m 34s elapsed

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Concurrent Execution

The CLI runs multiple operations concurrently (default: 2) while respecting GitHub’s rate limits:
  • Max concurrent operations: 2 (configurable)
  • Operations per minute: 15 (stays under GitHub’s 80 API calls/min limit)
  • Automatic retry: Failed operations retry with exponential backoff
Each operation makes approximately 5 API calls. The CLI automatically manages rate limiting to prevent hitting GitHub’s API limits.

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Understanding the Output

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Success Messages

When an achievement completes successfully: 
✓ 🎖️ Pair Extraordinaire (Bronze)
  [████████████████████████] 100%

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Error Messages

If an operation fails, you’ll see the error details: 
✗ 🎖️ Pair Extraordinaire (Bronze)
  [████████████░░░░░░░░░░░] 60%
  GitHub API error (403): Rate limit exceeded
Common errors include:
  • Rate limit exceeded
  • Authentication failures
  • Network timeouts
  • Insufficient permissions
See the Troubleshooting guide for solutions.

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After Completion

Once all operations complete, you’ll see a summary: 
Results:
✓ 2 succeeded
✗ 1 failed

Press Enter to continue, Esc to go back

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Next Steps

1

Check your GitHub profile

Visit github.com/your-username to see your new achievement badges!
2

View detailed status

Use View Status from the main menu to see progress on all achievements.
3

Run more achievements

Return to Run Achievements to unlock additional tiers or other achievements.
4

Clean up your repository

Use Reset Repo History to squash all commits into a single clean commit. See the Cleanup guide for details.
Achievements may take a few minutes to appear on your GitHub profile after completion. GitHub’s achievement system updates periodically, not instantly.

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Interrupting Execution

You can safely interrupt execution at any time:
  • Press Ctrl+C to stop the CLI
  • Progress is automatically saved to the database
  • Resume from where you left off by running npm start again and selecting View Status
The CLI tracks each operation’s state:
  • Completed operations won’t be re-run
  • In-progress operations will be reset to pending on next run
  • Pending operations will be executed when you continue
See the Tracking Progress guide for details on the resume capability.

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