create_gist.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Testing out creating a gist using the GitHub API.
# https://developer.github.com/v3/gists/

# Requires a personal access token
# https://github.com/settings/tokens
# https://help.github.com/en/articles/creating-a-personal-access-token-for-the-command-line
user="dphiffer"
key="[snip]"

curl -u "$user:$key" \
     -H "User-Agent: $user" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"description": "testing", "public": false, "files": {"test.txt": {"content": "hey there" } } }' \
     https://api.github.com/gists

This works now! Thanks to Ian Dees!