GitHub CLI telemetry by default sent HN into the opt-out details

GitHub’s telemetry page for the gh CLI drew a fast Hacker News debate because the tool sits in a sensitive place: developer laptops, build systems, scripts, and servers. The page says GitHub CLI collects pseudoanonymous telemetry so the team can understand feature usage and prioritize work. HN did not only argue about analytics in the abstract. The thread dug into defaults, opt-out mechanics, and what happens when a command-line tool runs far outside an interactive desktop.

That distinction matters. A web app can show a settings screen. A CLI may be installed in a base image, called from CI/CD, wrapped in internal scripts, or executed by service accounts. Even when an opt-out exists, every environment needs to carry that choice consistently. Commenters worried about outbound calls in restricted build environments, about whether environment variables and config files are enough, and about the practical meaning of “pseudoanonymous” when requests already touch GitHub infrastructure.

gh already uses the network for GitHub API operations, but usage telemetry adds a separate trust question.

Developer-tool defaults often become organization policy issues rather than individual preferences.

CI and server contexts make opt-out drift easier than in a single-user desktop app.

Community discussion noted the reasonable product argument too: maintainers need usage signals to avoid investing in unused features. The pushback was about where that measurement starts. For many HN readers, a command-line tool should be quiet unless explicitly told otherwise, because it becomes part of reproducible infrastructure. That is why the thread became a governance debate rather than a short complaint about one setting.

The useful detail for engineering teams is not simply whether to allow gh. It is whether their base images, CI runners, and developer onboarding scripts now need an explicit telemetry policy. Once a CLI becomes part of automation, defaults become infrastructure state, and infrastructure state needs to be visible in code review.

The source is GitHub’s telemetry page, and the HN discussion is at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47862331.