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This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2022-10-12. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Search

The Search API lets you to search for specific items on GitHub Enterprise Server.

About the Search API

The Search API helps you search for the specific item you want to find. For example, you can find a user or a specific file in a repository. Think of it the way you think of performing a search on Google. It's designed to help you find the one result you're looking for (or maybe the few results you're looking for). Just like searching on Google, you sometimes want to see a few pages of search results so that you can find the item that best meets your needs. To satisfy that need, the GitHub Enterprise Server Search API provides up to 1,000 results for each search.

You can narrow your search using queries. To learn more about the search query syntax, see "Constructing a search query."

Ranking search results

Unless another sort option is provided as a query parameter, results are sorted by best match in descending order. Multiple factors are combined to boost the most relevant item to the top of the result list.

Rate limit

Note: The following rate limits are the default rate limits for GitHub Enterprise Server. Contact your site administrator to confirm the rate limits for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

The Search API has a custom rate limit. For requests using Basic Authentication, OAuth, or client ID and secret, you can make up to 30 requests per minute. For unauthenticated requests, the rate limit allows you to make up to 10 requests per minute.

See the rate limit documentation for details on determining your current rate limit status.

Constructing a search query

Each endpoint in the Search API uses query parameters to perform searches on GitHub Enterprise Server. See the individual endpoint in the Search API for an example that includes the endpoint and query parameters.

A query can contain any combination of search qualifiers supported on GitHub Enterprise Server. The format of the search query is:

SEARCH_KEYWORD_1 SEARCH_KEYWORD_N QUALIFIER_1 QUALIFIER_N

For example, if you wanted to search for all repositories owned by defunkt that contained the word GitHub and Octocat in the README file, you would use the following query with the search repositories endpoint:

GitHub Octocat in:readme user:defunkt

Note: Be sure to use your language's preferred HTML-encoder to construct your query strings. For example:

// JavaScript
const queryString = 'q=' + encodeURIComponent('GitHub Octocat in:readme user:defunkt');

See "Searching on GitHub" for a complete list of available qualifiers, their format, and an example of how to use them. For information about how to use operators to match specific quantities, dates, or to exclude results, see "Understanding the search syntax."

Limitations on query length

The Search API does not support queries that:

  • are longer than 256 characters (not including operators or qualifiers).
  • have more than five AND, OR, or NOT operators.

These search queries will return a "Validation failed" error message.

Search scope limits

To keep the Search API fast for everyone, we limit the number of repositories a query will search through. The Search API will find up to 4,000 repositories that match your filters and return results from those repositories.

Timeouts and incomplete results

To keep the Search API fast for everyone, we limit how long any individual query can run. For queries that exceed the time limit, the API returns the matches that were already found prior to the timeout, and the response has the incomplete_results property set to true.

Reaching a timeout does not necessarily mean that search results are incomplete. More results might have been found, but also might not.

Access errors or missing search results

You need to successfully authenticate and have access to the repositories in your search queries, otherwise, you'll see a 422 Unprocessable Entry error with a "Validation Failed" message. For example, your search will fail if your query includes repo:, user:, or org: qualifiers that request resources that you don't have access to when you sign in on GitHub.

When your search query requests multiple resources, the response will only contain the resources that you have access to and will not provide an error message listing the resources that were not returned.

For example, if your search query searches for the octocat/test and codertocat/test repositories, but you only have access to octocat/test, your response will show search results for octocat/test and nothing for codertocat/test. This behavior mimics how search works on GitHub.

Text match metadata

On GitHub, you can use the context provided by code snippets and highlights in search results. The Search API offers additional metadata that allows you to highlight the matching search terms when displaying search results.

code-snippet-highlighting

Requests can opt to receive those text fragments in the response, and every fragment is accompanied by numeric offsets identifying the exact location of each matching search term.

To get this metadata in your search results, specify the text-match media type in your Accept header.

application/vnd.github.text-match+json

When you provide the text-match media type, you will receive an extra key in the JSON payload called text_matches that provides information about the position of your search terms within the text and the property that includes the search term. Inside the text_matches array, each object includes the following attributes:

NameDescription
object_urlThe URL for the resource that contains a string property matching one of the search terms.
object_typeThe name for the type of resource that exists at the given object_url.
propertyThe name of a property of the resource that exists at object_url. That property is a string that matches one of the search terms. (In the JSON returned from object_url, the full content for the fragment will be found in the property with this name.)
fragmentA subset of the value of property. This is the text fragment that matches one or more of the search terms.
matchesAn array of one or more search terms that are present in fragment. The indices (i.e., "offsets") are relative to the fragment. (They are not relative to the full content of property.)

Example

Using cURL, and the example issue search above, our API request would look like this:

curl -H 'Accept: application/vnd.github.text-match+json' \
'http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/search/issues?q=windows+label:bug \
+language:python+state:open&sort=created&order=asc'

The response will include a text_matches array for each search result. In the JSON below, we have two objects in the text_matches array.

The first text match occurred in the body property of the issue. We see a fragment of text from the issue body. The search term (windows) appears twice within that fragment, and we have the indices for each occurrence.

The second text match occurred in the body property of one of the issue's comments. We have the URL for the issue comment. And of course, we see a fragment of text from the comment body. The search term (windows) appears once within that fragment.

{
  "text_matches": [
    {
      "object_url": "https://api.github.com/repositories/215335/issues/132",
      "object_type": "Issue",
      "property": "body",
      "fragment": "comprehensive windows font I know of).\n\nIf we can find a commonly
      distributed windows font that supports them then no problem (we can use html
      font tags) but otherwise the '(21)' style is probably better.\n",
      "matches": [
        {
          "text": "windows",
          "indices": [
            14,
            21
          ]
        },
        {
          "text": "windows",
          "indices": [
            78,
            85
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "object_url": "https://api.github.com/repositories/215335/issues/comments/25688",
      "object_type": "IssueComment",
      "property": "body",
      "fragment": " right after that are a bit broken IMHO :). I suppose we could
      have some hack that maxes out at whatever the font does...\n\nI'll check
      what the state of play is on Windows.\n",
      "matches": [
        {
          "text": "Windows",
          "indices": [
            163,
            170
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Search code

Works with GitHub Apps

Searches for query terms inside of a file. This method returns up to 100 results per page.

When searching for code, you can get text match metadata for the file content and file path fields when you pass the text-match media type. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see Text match metadata.

For example, if you want to find the definition of the addClass function inside jQuery repository, your query would look something like this:

q=addClass+in:file+language:js+repo:jquery/jquery

This query searches for the keyword addClass within a file's contents. The query limits the search to files where the language is JavaScript in the jquery/jquery repository.

Due to the complexity of searching code, there are a few restrictions on how searches are performed:

  • Only the default branch is considered. In most cases, this will be the master branch.
  • Only files smaller than 384 KB are searchable.
  • You must always include at least one search term when searching source code. For example, searching for language:go is not valid, while amazing language:go is.

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
acceptstring

Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
qstringRequired

The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub Enterprise Server. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub Enterprise Server. To learn more about the format of the query, see Constructing a search query. See "Searching code" for a detailed list of qualifiers.

sortstring

Sorts the results of your query. Can only be indexed, which indicates how recently a file has been indexed by the GitHub Enterprise Server search infrastructure. Default: best match

: indexed

orderstring

Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (desc) or lowest number of matches (asc). This parameter is ignored unless you provide sort.

Default: desc

Can be one of: desc, asc

per_pageinteger

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default: 30

pageinteger

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

Status codeDescription
200

OK

304

Not modified

403

Forbidden

422

Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

503

Service unavailable

Code samples

get/search/code
curl \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/search/code

Response

Status: 200
{ "total_count": 7, "incomplete_results": false, "items": [ { "name": "classes.js", "path": "src/attributes/classes.js", "sha": "d7212f9dee2dcc18f084d7df8f417b80846ded5a", "url": "https://api.github.com/repositories/167174/contents/src/attributes/classes.js?ref=825ac3773694e0cd23ee74895fd5aeb535b27da4", "git_url": "https://api.github.com/repositories/167174/git/blobs/d7212f9dee2dcc18f084d7df8f417b80846ded5a", "html_url": "https://github.com/jquery/jquery/blob/825ac3773694e0cd23ee74895fd5aeb535b27da4/src/attributes/classes.js", "repository": { "id": 167174, "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkxNjcxNzQ=", "name": "jquery", "full_name": "jquery/jquery", "owner": { "login": "jquery", "id": 70142, "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjcwMTQy", "avatar_url": "https://0.gravatar.com/avatar/6906f317a4733f4379b06c32229ef02f?d=https%3A%2F%2Fidenticons.github.com%2Ff426f04f2f9813718fb806b30e0093de.png", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery", "html_url": "https://github.com/jquery", "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/followers", "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/orgs", "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/repos", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/received_events", "type": "Organization", "site_admin": false }, "private": false, "html_url": "https://github.com/jquery/jquery", "description": "jQuery JavaScript Library", "fork": false, "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery", "forks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/forks", "keys_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/keys{/key_id}", "collaborators_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/collaborators{/collaborator}", "teams_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/teams", "hooks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/hooks", "issue_events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/issues/events{/number}", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/events", "assignees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/assignees{/user}", "branches_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/branches{/branch}", "tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/tags", "blobs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/git/blobs{/sha}", "git_tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/git/tags{/sha}", "git_refs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/git/refs{/sha}", "trees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/git/trees{/sha}", "statuses_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/statuses/{sha}", "languages_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/languages", "stargazers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/stargazers", "contributors_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/contributors", "subscribers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/subscribers", "subscription_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/subscription", "commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/commits{/sha}", "git_commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/git/commits{/sha}", "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/comments{/number}", "issue_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/issues/comments/{number}", "contents_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/contents/{+path}", "compare_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/compare/{base}...{head}", "merges_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/merges", "archive_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/{archive_format}{/ref}", "downloads_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/downloads", "issues_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/issues{/number}", "pulls_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/pulls{/number}", "milestones_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/milestones{/number}", "notifications_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/notifications{?since,all,participating}", "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/labels{/name}", "deployments_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/deployments", "releases_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/releases{/id}" }, "score": 1 } ] }

Search commits

Works with GitHub Apps

Find commits via various criteria on the default branch (usually master). This method returns up to 100 results per page.

When searching for commits, you can get text match metadata for the message field when you provide the text-match media type. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see Text match metadata.

For example, if you want to find commits related to CSS in the octocat/Spoon-Knife repository. Your query would look something like this:

q=repo:octocat/Spoon-Knife+css

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
acceptstring

Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

See preview notice
Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
qstringRequired

The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub Enterprise Server. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub Enterprise Server. To learn more about the format of the query, see Constructing a search query. See "Searching commits" for a detailed list of qualifiers.

sortstring

Sorts the results of your query by author-date or committer-date. Default: best match

Can be one of: author-date, committer-date

orderstring

Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (desc) or lowest number of matches (asc). This parameter is ignored unless you provide sort.

Default: desc

Can be one of: desc, asc

per_pageinteger

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default: 30

pageinteger

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

Status codeDescription
200

OK

304

Not modified

Code samples

get/search/commits
curl \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/search/commits

Response

Status: 200
{ "total_count": 1, "incomplete_results": false, "items": [ { "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f", "sha": "bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f", "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commit/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f", "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f/comments", "commit": { "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/commits/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f", "author": { "date": "2014-02-04T14:38:36-08:00", "name": "The Octocat", "email": "octocat@nowhere.com" }, "committer": { "date": "2014-02-12T15:18:55-08:00", "name": "The Octocat", "email": "octocat@nowhere.com" }, "message": "Create styles.css and updated README", "tree": { "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/trees/a639e96f9038797fba6e0469f94a4b0cc459fa68", "sha": "a639e96f9038797fba6e0469f94a4b0cc459fa68" }, "comment_count": 8 }, "author": { "login": "octocat", "id": 583231, "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==", "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/583231?v=3", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat", "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat", "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers", "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs", "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events", "type": "User", "site_admin": false }, "committer": {}, "parents": [ { "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits/a30c19e3f13765a3b48829788bc1cb8b4e95cee4", "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commit/a30c19e3f13765a3b48829788bc1cb8b4e95cee4", "sha": "a30c19e3f13765a3b48829788bc1cb8b4e95cee4" } ], "repository": { "id": 1300192, "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkxMzAwMTky", "name": "Spoon-Knife", "full_name": "octocat/Spoon-Knife", "owner": { "login": "octocat", "id": 583231, "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==", "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/583231?v=3", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat", "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat", "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers", "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs", "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events", "type": "User", "site_admin": false }, "private": false, "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife", "description": "This repo is for demonstration purposes only.", "fork": false, "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife", "forks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/forks", "keys_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/keys{/key_id}", "collaborators_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/collaborators{/collaborator}", "teams_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/teams", "hooks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/hooks", "issue_events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/issues/events{/number}", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/events", "assignees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/assignees{/user}", "branches_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/branches{/branch}", "tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/tags", "blobs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/blobs{/sha}", "git_tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/tags{/sha}", "git_refs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/refs{/sha}", "trees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/trees{/sha}", "statuses_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/statuses/{sha}", "languages_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/languages", "stargazers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/stargazers", "contributors_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/contributors", "subscribers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/subscribers", "subscription_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/subscription", "commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits{/sha}", "git_commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/commits{/sha}", "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/comments{/number}", "issue_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/issues/comments{/number}", "contents_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/contents/{+path}", "compare_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/compare/{base}...{head}", "merges_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/merges", "archive_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/{archive_format}{/ref}", "downloads_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/downloads", "issues_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/issues{/number}", "pulls_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/pulls{/number}", "milestones_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/milestones{/number}", "notifications_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/notifications{?since,all,participating}", "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/labels{/name}", "releases_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/releases{/id}", "deployments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/deployments" }, "score": 1, "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==" } ] }

Preview notice

The Commit Search API is currently available for developers to preview. During the preview period, the APIs may change without advance notice. Please see the blog post for full details.

To access the API you must provide a custom media type in the Accept header:

application/vnd.github.cloak-preview

Search issues and pull requests

Works with GitHub Apps

Find issues by state and keyword. This method returns up to 100 results per page.

When searching for issues, you can get text match metadata for the issue title, issue body, and issue comment body fields when you pass the text-match media type. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see Text match metadata.

For example, if you want to find the oldest unresolved Python bugs on Windows. Your query might look something like this.

q=windows+label:bug+language:python+state:open&sort=created&order=asc

This query searches for the keyword windows, within any open issue that is labeled as bug. The search runs across repositories whose primary language is Python. The results are sorted by creation date in ascending order, which means the oldest issues appear first in the search results.

Note: For user-to-server GitHub App requests, you can't retrieve a combination of issues and pull requests in a single query. Requests that don't include the is:issue or is:pull-request qualifier will receive an HTTP 422 Unprocessable Entity response. To get results for both issues and pull requests, you must send separate queries for issues and pull requests. For more information about the is qualifier, see "Searching only issues or pull requests."

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
acceptstring

Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
qstringRequired

The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub Enterprise Server. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub Enterprise Server. To learn more about the format of the query, see Constructing a search query. See "Searching issues and pull requests" for a detailed list of qualifiers.

sortstring

Sorts the results of your query by the number of comments, reactions, reactions-+1, reactions--1, reactions-smile, reactions-thinking_face, reactions-heart, reactions-tada, or interactions. You can also sort results by how recently the items were created or updated, Default: best match

Can be one of: comments, reactions, reactions-+1, reactions--1, reactions-smile, reactions-thinking_face, reactions-heart, reactions-tada, interactions, created, updated

orderstring

Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (desc) or lowest number of matches (asc). This parameter is ignored unless you provide sort.

Default: desc

Can be one of: desc, asc

per_pageinteger

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default: 30

pageinteger

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

Status codeDescription
200

OK

304

Not modified

403

Forbidden

422

Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

503

Service unavailable

Code samples

get/search/issues
curl \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/search/issues

Response

Status: 200
{ "total_count": 280, "incomplete_results": false, "items": [ { "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/issues/132", "repository_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit", "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/issues/132/labels{/name}", "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/issues/132/comments", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/issues/132/events", "html_url": "https://github.com/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/issues/132", "id": 35802, "node_id": "MDU6SXNzdWUzNTgwMg==", "number": 132, "title": "Line Number Indexes Beyond 20 Not Displayed", "user": { "login": "Nick3C", "id": 90254, "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjkwMjU0", "avatar_url": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/934442aadfe3b2f4630510de416c5718?d=https://a248.e.akamai.net/assets.github.com%2Fimages%2Fgravatars%2Fgravatar-user-420.png", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C", "html_url": "https://github.com/Nick3C", "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/followers", "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/orgs", "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/repos", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/received_events", "type": "User", "site_admin": true }, "labels": [ { "id": 4, "node_id": "MDU6TGFiZWw0", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/labels/bug", "name": "bug", "color": "ff0000" } ], "state": "open", "assignee": null, "milestone": { "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones/1", "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/milestones/v1.0", "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones/1/labels", "id": 1002604, "node_id": "MDk6TWlsZXN0b25lMTAwMjYwNA==", "number": 1, "state": "open", "title": "v1.0", "description": "Tracking milestone for version 1.0", "creator": { "login": "octocat", "id": 1, "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=", "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat", "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat", "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers", "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs", "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events", "type": "User", "site_admin": false }, "open_issues": 4, "closed_issues": 8, "created_at": "2011-04-10T20:09:31Z", "updated_at": "2014-03-03T18:58:10Z", "closed_at": "2013-02-12T13:22:01Z", "due_on": "2012-10-09T23:39:01Z" }, "comments": 15, "created_at": "2009-07-12T20:10:41Z", "updated_at": "2009-07-19T09:23:43Z", "closed_at": null, "pull_request": { "url": "https://api/github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/pull/1347", "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/pull/1347", "diff_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/pull/1347.diff", "patch_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/pulls/1347" }, "body": "...", "score": 1, "locked": true, "author_association": "COLLABORATOR", "state_reason": "completed" } ] }

Search labels

Works with GitHub Apps

Find labels in a repository with names or descriptions that match search keywords. Returns up to 100 results per page.

When searching for labels, you can get text match metadata for the label name and description fields when you pass the text-match media type. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see Text match metadata.

For example, if you want to find labels in the linguist repository that match bug, defect, or enhancement. Your query might look like this:

q=bug+defect+enhancement&repository_id=64778136

The labels that best match the query appear first in the search results.

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
acceptstring

Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
repository_idintegerRequired

The id of the repository.

qstringRequired

The search keywords. This endpoint does not accept qualifiers in the query. To learn more about the format of the query, see Constructing a search query.

sortstring

Sorts the results of your query by when the label was created or updated. Default: best match

Can be one of: created, updated

orderstring

Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (desc) or lowest number of matches (asc). This parameter is ignored unless you provide sort.

Default: desc

Can be one of: desc, asc

per_pageinteger

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default: 30

pageinteger

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

Status codeDescription
200

OK

304

Not modified

403

Forbidden

404

Resource not found

422

Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

Code samples

get/search/labels
curl \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/search/labels

Response

Status: 200
{ "total_count": 2, "incomplete_results": false, "items": [ { "id": 418327088, "node_id": "MDU6TGFiZWw0MTgzMjcwODg=", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/linguist/labels/enhancement", "name": "enhancement", "color": "84b6eb", "default": true, "description": "New feature or request.", "score": 1 }, { "id": 418327086, "node_id": "MDU6TGFiZWw0MTgzMjcwODY=", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/linguist/labels/bug", "name": "bug", "color": "ee0701", "default": true, "description": "Something isn't working.", "score": 1 } ] }

Search repositories

Works with GitHub Apps

Find repositories via various criteria. This method returns up to 100 results per page.

When searching for repositories, you can get text match metadata for the name and description fields when you pass the text-match media type. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see Text match metadata.

For example, if you want to search for popular Tetris repositories written in assembly code, your query might look like this:

q=tetris+language:assembly&sort=stars&order=desc

This query searches for repositories with the word tetris in the name, the description, or the README. The results are limited to repositories where the primary language is assembly. The results are sorted by stars in descending order, so that the most popular repositories appear first in the search results.

When you include the mercy preview header, you can also search for multiple topics by adding more topic: instances. For example, your query might look like this:

q=topic:ruby+topic:rails

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
acceptstring

Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

See preview notice
Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
qstringRequired

The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub Enterprise Server. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub Enterprise Server. To learn more about the format of the query, see Constructing a search query. See "Searching for repositories" for a detailed list of qualifiers.

sortstring

Sorts the results of your query by number of stars, forks, or help-wanted-issues or how recently the items were updated. Default: best match

Can be one of: stars, forks, help-wanted-issues, updated

orderstring

Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (desc) or lowest number of matches (asc). This parameter is ignored unless you provide sort.

Default: desc

Can be one of: desc, asc

per_pageinteger

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default: 30

pageinteger

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

Status codeDescription
200

OK

304

Not modified

422

Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

503

Service unavailable

Code samples

get/search/repositories
curl \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/search/repositories

Response

Status: 200
{ "total_count": 40, "incomplete_results": false, "items": [ { "id": 3081286, "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkzMDgxMjg2", "name": "Tetris", "full_name": "dtrupenn/Tetris", "owner": { "login": "dtrupenn", "id": 872147, "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjg3MjE0Nw==", "avatar_url": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e7956084e75f239de85d3a31bc172ace?d=https://a248.e.akamai.net/assets.github.com%2Fimages%2Fgravatars%2Fgravatar-user-420.png", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://api.github.com/users/dtrupenn", "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/dtrupenn/received_events", "type": "User", "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat", "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers", "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs", "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}", "site_admin": true }, "private": false, "html_url": "https://github.com/dtrupenn/Tetris", "description": "A C implementation of Tetris using Pennsim through LC4", "fork": false, "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris", "created_at": "2012-01-01T00:31:50Z", "updated_at": "2013-01-05T17:58:47Z", "pushed_at": "2012-01-01T00:37:02Z", "homepage": "https://github.com", "size": 524, "stargazers_count": 1, "watchers_count": 1, "language": "Assembly", "forks_count": 0, "open_issues_count": 0, "master_branch": "master", "default_branch": "master", "score": 1, "archive_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/{archive_format}{/ref}", "assignees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/assignees{/user}", "blobs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/git/blobs{/sha}", "branches_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/branches{/branch}", "collaborators_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/collaborators{/collaborator}", "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/comments{/number}", "commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/commits{/sha}", "compare_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/compare/{base}...{head}", "contents_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/contents/{+path}", "contributors_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/contributors", "deployments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/deployments", "downloads_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/downloads", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/events", "forks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/forks", "git_commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/git/commits{/sha}", "git_refs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/git/refs{/sha}", "git_tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/git/tags{/sha}", "git_url": "git:github.com/dtrupenn/Tetris.git", "issue_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/issues/comments{/number}", "issue_events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/issues/events{/number}", "issues_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/issues{/number}", "keys_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/keys{/key_id}", "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/labels{/name}", "languages_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/languages", "merges_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/merges", "milestones_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/milestones{/number}", "notifications_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/notifications{?since,all,participating}", "pulls_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/pulls{/number}", "releases_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/releases{/id}", "ssh_url": "git@github.com:dtrupenn/Tetris.git", "stargazers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/stargazers", "statuses_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/statuses/{sha}", "subscribers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/subscribers", "subscription_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/subscription", "tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/tags", "teams_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/teams", "trees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/git/trees{/sha}", "clone_url": "https://github.com/dtrupenn/Tetris.git", "mirror_url": "git:git.example.com/dtrupenn/Tetris", "hooks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/dtrupenn/Tetris/hooks", "svn_url": "https://svn.github.com/dtrupenn/Tetris", "forks": 1, "open_issues": 1, "watchers": 1, "has_issues": true, "has_projects": true, "has_pages": true, "has_wiki": true, "has_downloads": true, "archived": true, "disabled": true, "visibility": "private", "license": { "key": "mit", "name": "MIT License", "url": "https://api.github.com/licenses/mit", "spdx_id": "MIT", "node_id": "MDc6TGljZW5zZW1pdA==", "html_url": "https://api.github.com/licenses/mit" } } ] }

Preview notice

The topics property for repositories on GitHub is currently available for developers to preview. To view the topics property in calls that return repository results, you must provide a custom media type in the Accept header:

application/vnd.github.mercy-preview+json

Search topics

Works with GitHub Apps

Find topics via various criteria. Results are sorted by best match. This method returns up to 100 results per page. See "Searching topics" for a detailed list of qualifiers.

When searching for topics, you can get text match metadata for the topic's short_description, description, name, or display_name field when you pass the text-match media type. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see Text match metadata.

For example, if you want to search for topics related to Ruby that are featured on https://github.com/topics. Your query might look like this:

q=ruby+is:featured

This query searches for topics with the keyword ruby and limits the results to find only topics that are featured. The topics that are the best match for the query appear first in the search results.

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
acceptstring

Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

See preview notice
Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
qstringRequired

The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub Enterprise Server. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub Enterprise Server. To learn more about the format of the query, see Constructing a search query.

per_pageinteger

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default: 30

pageinteger

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

Status codeDescription
200

OK

304

Not modified

415

Preview header missing

Code samples

get/search/topics
curl \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/search/topics

Response

Status: 200
{ "total_count": 6, "incomplete_results": false, "items": [ { "name": "ruby", "display_name": "Ruby", "short_description": "Ruby is a scripting language designed for simplified object-oriented programming.", "description": "Ruby was developed by� Yukihiro \"Matz\" Matsumoto� in 1995 with the intent of having an easily readable programming language. It is integrated with the Rails framework to create dynamic web-applications. Ruby's syntax is similar to that of Perl and Python.", "created_by": "Yukihiro Matsumoto", "released": "December 21, 1995", "created_at": "2016-11-28T22:03:59Z", "updated_at": "2017-10-30T18:16:32Z", "featured": true, "curated": true, "score": 1 }, { "name": "rails", "display_name": "Rails", "short_description": "Ruby on Rails (Rails) is a web application framework written in Ruby.", "description": "Ruby on Rails (Rails) is a web application framework written in Ruby. It is meant to help simplify the building of complex websites.", "created_by": "David Heinemeier Hansson", "released": "December 13 2005", "created_at": "2016-12-09T17:03:50Z", "updated_at": "2017-10-30T16:20:19Z", "featured": true, "curated": true, "score": 1 }, { "name": "python", "display_name": "Python", "short_description": "Python is a dynamically typed programming language.", "description": "Python is a dynamically typed programming language designed by Guido Van Rossum. Much like the programming language Ruby, Python was designed to be easily read by programmers. Because of its large following and many libraries, Python can be implemented and used to do anything from webpages to scientific research.", "created_by": "Guido van Rossum", "released": "February 20, 1991", "created_at": "2016-12-07T00:07:02Z", "updated_at": "2017-10-27T22:45:43Z", "featured": true, "curated": true, "score": 1 }, { "name": "jekyll", "display_name": "Jekyll", "short_description": "Jekyll is a simple, blog-aware static site generator.", "description": "Jekyll is a blog-aware, site generator written in Ruby. It takes raw text files, runs it through a renderer and produces a publishable static website.", "created_by": "Tom Preston-Werner", "released": "2008", "created_at": "2016-12-16T21:53:08Z", "updated_at": "2017-10-27T19:00:24Z", "featured": true, "curated": true, "score": 1 }, { "name": "sass", "display_name": "Sass", "short_description": "Sass is a stable extension to classic CSS.", "description": "Sass is a stylesheet language with a main implementation in Ruby. It is an extension of CSS that makes improvements to the old stylesheet format, such as being able to declare variables and using a cleaner nesting syntax.", "created_by": "Hampton Catlin, Natalie Weizenbaum, Chris Eppstein", "released": "November 28, 2006", "created_at": "2016-12-16T21:53:45Z", "updated_at": "2018-01-16T16:30:40Z", "featured": true, "curated": true, "score": 1 }, { "name": "homebrew", "display_name": "Homebrew", "short_description": "Homebrew is a package manager for macOS.", "description": "Homebrew is a package manager for Apple's macOS operating system. It simplifies the installation of software and is popular in the Ruby on Rails community.", "created_by": "Max Howell", "released": "2009", "created_at": "2016-12-17T20:30:44Z", "updated_at": "2018-02-06T16:14:56Z", "featured": true, "curated": true, "score": 1 } ] }

Preview notice

The topics property for repositories on GitHub is currently available for developers to preview. To view the topics property in calls that return repository results, you must provide a custom media type in the Accept header:

application/vnd.github.mercy-preview+json

Search users

Works with GitHub Apps

Find users via various criteria. This method returns up to 100 results per page.

When searching for users, you can get text match metadata for the issue login, public email, and name fields when you pass the text-match media type. For more details about highlighting search results, see Text match metadata. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see Text match metadata.

For example, if you're looking for a list of popular users, you might try this query:

q=tom+repos:%3E42+followers:%3E1000

This query searches for users with the name tom. The results are restricted to users with more than 42 repositories and over 1,000 followers.

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
acceptstring

Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
qstringRequired

The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub Enterprise Server. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub Enterprise Server. To learn more about the format of the query, see Constructing a search query. See "Searching users" for a detailed list of qualifiers.

sortstring

Sorts the results of your query by number of followers or repositories, or when the person joined GitHub Enterprise Server. Default: best match

Can be one of: followers, repositories, joined

orderstring

Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (desc) or lowest number of matches (asc). This parameter is ignored unless you provide sort.

Default: desc

Can be one of: desc, asc

per_pageinteger

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default: 30

pageinteger

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

Status codeDescription
200

OK

304

Not modified

422

Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

503

Service unavailable

Code samples

get/search/users
curl \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/search/users

Response

Status: 200
{ "total_count": 12, "incomplete_results": false, "items": [ { "login": "mojombo", "id": 1, "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=", "avatar_url": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/25c7c18223fb42a4c6ae1c8db6f50f9b?d=https://a248.e.akamai.net/assets.github.com%2Fimages%2Fgravatars%2Fgravatar-user-420.png", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://api.github.com/users/mojombo", "html_url": "https://github.com/mojombo", "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/mojombo/followers", "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/mojombo/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/mojombo/orgs", "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/mojombo/repos", "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/mojombo/received_events", "type": "User", "score": 1, "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/mojombo/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/mojombo/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/mojombo/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/mojombo/events{/privacy}", "site_admin": true } ] }