gh-outagedeck: check GitHub and dependency status before debugging #14084

When gh or an Actions workflow starts failing, the first question is often whether the problem is local configuration, credentials, the network, or GitHub itself. I made a small extension that puts the official GitHub status signal next to that workflow:

gh extension install outagedeck/gh-outagedeck
gh outagedeck

With no arguments it checks the GitHub provider rollup plus the GitHub Actions, API, and Web service rows:

OK GitHub: Operational — All Systems Operational
   OK GitHub Actions         operational
   OK GitHub API             operational
   OK GitHub Web             operational
   Source checked: 2026-08-05T20:30:01.319+00:00 (GitHub Status)

It also accepts other OutageDeck provider slugs, so the same command can check dependencies around a repository or deployment:

gh outagedeck github cloudflare openai anthropic
gh outagedeck --json --fail-on=outage github openai
gh outagedeck search "Claude"

The failure threshold gives automation a stable exit contract: 0 below threshold, 1 for request/response errors, and 2 when a provider reaches the chosen threshold. Unreachable or malformed responses fail closed rather than being shown as operational.

The extension is MIT-licensed, needs no account or API key for public checks, and has precompiled macOS, Linux, and Windows releases for AMD64 and ARM64:

https://github.com/outagedeck/gh-outagedeck

One important limit: OutageDeck normalizes vendors' official feeds; it does not synthetically probe GitHub or the other providers, so this is corroborating incident evidence rather than an earlier-warning detector. The live GitHub record and source freshness are visible here:

https://outagedeck.com/providers/github?utm_source=github_cli_showcase&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=gh_extension_showcase

Disclosure: I maintain OutageDeck and this extension. The implementation and this post were prepared with AI assistance, then validated with unit tests, Go vet, six cross-platform builds, checksum verification, and a clean install from the public v0.1.0 release.