About GitHub App Manifests
When someone creates a GitHub App from a manifest, they only need to follow a URL and name the app. The manifest includes the permissions, events, and webhook URL needed to automatically register the app. The manifest flow creates the GitHub App registration and retrieves the app's webhook secret, private key (PEM file), and GitHub App ID. The person who creates the app from the manifest will own the app and can choose to edit the app's configuration settings, delete it, or transfer it to another person on GitHub.
You can use Probot to get started with GitHub App Manifests or see an example implementation. See "Using Probot to implement the GitHub App Manifest flow" to learn more.
Here are some scenarios where you might use GitHub App Manifests to create preconfigured apps:
- Help new team members come up-to-speed quickly when developing GitHub Apps.
- Allow others to extend a GitHub App using the GitHub APIs without requiring them to configure an app.
- Create GitHub App reference designs to share with the GitHub community.
- Ensure you deploy GitHub Apps to development and production environments using the same configuration.
- Track revisions to a GitHub App configuration.
Implementing the GitHub App Manifest flow
The GitHub App Manifest flow uses a handshaking process similar to the OAuth flow. The flow uses a manifest to register a GitHub App and receives a temporary code
used to retrieve the app's private key, webhook secret, and ID.
Note: You must complete all three steps in the GitHub App Manifest flow within one hour.
Follow these steps to implement the GitHub App Manifest flow:
- You redirect people to GitHub to create a new GitHub App.
- GitHub redirects people back to your site.
- You exchange the temporary code to retrieve the app configuration.
1. You redirect people to GitHub to create a new GitHub App
To redirect people to create a new GitHub App, provide a link for them to click that sends a POST
request to https://github.com/settings/apps/new
for a user account or https://github.com/organizations/ORGANIZATION/settings/apps/new
for an organization account, replacing ORGANIZATION
with the name of the organization account where the app will be created.
You must include the GitHub App Manifest parameters as a JSON-encoded string in a parameter called manifest
. You can also include a state
parameter for additional security.
The person creating the app will be redirected to a GitHub page with an input field where they can edit the name of the app you included in the manifest
parameter. If you do not include a name
in the manifest
, they can set their own name for the app in this field.
GitHub App Manifest parameters
Name | Typ | Beschreibung |
---|---|---|
name | string | The name of the GitHub App. |
url | string | Required. The homepage of your GitHub App. |
hook_attributes | Objekt | The configuration of the GitHub App's webhook. |
redirect_url | string | The full URL to redirect to after the person installs the GitHub App. |
Beschreibung | string | A description of the GitHub App. |
public | boolean | Set to true when your GitHub App is available to the public or false when it is only accessible to the owner of the app. |
default_events | array | The list of events the GitHub App subscribes to. |
default_permissions | Objekt | The set of permissions needed by the GitHub App. The format of the object uses the permission name for the key (for example, issues ) and the access type for the value (for example, write ). |
The hook_attributes
object has the following key:
Name | Typ | Beschreibung |
---|---|---|
url | string | Required. The URL of the server that will receive the webhook POST requests. |
active | boolean | Deliver event details when this hook is triggered, defaults to true. |
Parameters
Name | Typ | Beschreibung |
---|---|---|
state | string | An unguessable random string. It is used to protect against cross-site request forgery attacks. |
Beispiele
This example uses a form on a web page with a button that triggers the POST
request for a user account:
<form action="https://github.com/settings/apps/new?state=abc123" method="post">
Create a GitHub App Manifest: <input type="text" name="manifest" id="manifest"><br>
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
<script>
input = document.getElementById("manifest")
input.value = JSON.stringify({
"name": "Octoapp",
"url": "https://www.example.com",
"hook_attributes": {
"url": "https://example.com/github/events",
},
"redirect_url": "https://example.com/callback",
"public": true,
"default_permissions": {
"issues": "write",
"checks": "write"
},
"default_events": [
"issues",
"issue_comment",
"check_suite",
"check_run"
]
})
</script>
This example uses a form on a web page with a button that triggers the POST
request for an organization account. Replace ORGANIZATION
with the name of the organization account where you want to create the app.
<form action="https://github.com/organizations/<em>ORGANIZATION</em>/settings/apps/new?state=abc123" method="post">
Create a GitHub App Manifest: <input type="text" name="manifest" id="manifest"><br>
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
<script>
input = document.getElementById("manifest")
input.value = JSON.stringify({
"name": "Octoapp",
"url": "https://www.example.com",
"hook_attributes": {
"url": "https://example.com/github/events",
},
"redirect_url": "https://example.com/callback",
"public": true,
"default_permissions": {
"issues": "write",
"checks": "write"
},
"default_events": [
"issues",
"issue_comment",
"check_suite",
"check_run"
]
})
</script>
2. GitHub redirects people back to your site
When the person clicks Create GitHub App, GitHub redirects back to the redirect_url
with a temporary code
in a code parameter. Ein Beispiel:
https://example.com/callback?code=a180b1a3d263c81bc6441d7b990bae27d4c10679
If you provided a state
parameter, you will also see that parameter in the redirect_url
. Ein Beispiel:
https://example.com/callback?code=a180b1a3d263c81bc6441d7b990bae27d4c10679&state=abc123
3. You exchange the temporary code to retrieve the app configuration
To complete the handshake, send the temporary code
in a POST
request to the Create a GitHub App from a manifest endpoint. The response will include the id
(GitHub App ID), pem
(private key), and webhook_secret
. GitHub creates a webhook secret for the app automatically. You can store these values in environment variables on the app's server. For example, if your app uses dotenv to store environment variables, you would store the variables in your app's .env
file.
You must complete this step of the GitHub App Manifest flow within one hour.
Note: This endpoint is rate limited. See Rate limits to learn how to get your current rate limit status.
Note: GitHub App Manifests are currently available for developers to preview. To access this API during the preview period, you must provide a custom media type in the Accept
header:
application/vnd.github.fury-preview+json
Warning: The API may change without advance notice during the preview period. Preview features are not supported for production use. If you experience any issues, contact your site administrator.
POST /app-manifests/:code/conversions
For more information about the endpoint's response, see Create a GitHub App from a manifest.
When the final step in the manifest flow is completed, the person creating the app from the flow will be an owner of a registered GitHub App that they can install on any of their personal repositories. They can choose to extend the app using the GitHub APIs, transfer ownership to someone else, or delete it at any time.
Using Probot to implement the GitHub App Manifest flow
Probot is a framework built with Node.js that performs many of the tasks needed by all GitHub Apps, like validating webhooks and performing authentication. Probot implements the GitHub App manifest flow, making it easy to create and share GitHub App reference designs with the GitHub community.
To create a Probot App that you can share, follow these steps:
- Generate a new GitHub App.
- Open the project you created, and customize the settings in the
app.yml
file. Probot uses the settings inapp.yml
as the GitHub App Manifest parameters. - Add your application's custom code.
- Run the GitHub App locally or host it anywhere you'd like. When you navigate to the hosted app's URL, you'll find a web page with a Register GitHub App button that people can click to create a preconfigured app. The web page below is Probot's implementation of step 1 in the GitHub App Manifest flow:
Using dotenv, Probot creates a .env
file and sets the APP_ID
, PRIVATE_KEY
, and WEBHOOK_SECRET
environment variables with the values retrieved from the app configuration.
Hosting your app with Glitch
You can see an example Probot app that uses Glitch to host and share the app. The example uses the Checks API and selects the necessary Checks API events and permissions in the app.yml
file. Glitch is a tool that allows you to "Remix your own" apps. Remixing an app creates a copy of the app that Glitch hosts and deploys. See "About Glitch" to learn about remixing Glitch apps.