GitHub CLI checks tell an old gh apart from a broken one / Claude Code v2.1.242

You'll notice

Useful2 Signal2

Elsewhere

An outdated GitHub CLI no longer looks like a missing or signed-out one.

What

Checking whether your GitHub CLI login can be shared now reports two outcomes it previously folded into not-installed or not-authenticated: gh_too_old, meaning gh is logged in but lacks the auth-token command, and gh_check_failed, meaning the check itself errored. Remote and web setup surface each with its own message, so an outdated CLI no longer looks like a missing or signed-out one.

Details

The status check is version-aware and falls back to a network check on older gh versions that cannot report their capability directly.
gh_too_old shows "GitHub CLI is logged in, but this version is too old to share its login", names 2.17.0 or newer as the requirement for gh auth token, and offers the web sign-in path instead.
gh_check_failed reports that the status check failed and appends the trimmed error text.
Both outcomes are reported through the existing tengu_remote_setup_result event.
A background probe of the GitHub connection times out after 3 seconds and reports to a new api_github_connection_status event, distinguishing connected, not connected and unknown; the foreground path allows 10 seconds.

Evidence

api_github_connection_status, GitHub CLI is logged in, but this version is too old to share its login

Strings lifted out of the shipped bundle, so the claim above can be checked against them.