Gitignore

The Gitignore API fetches .gitignore templates that can be used to ignore files and directories.

About the Gitignore API

When you create a new repository on GitHub.com via the API, you can specify a .gitignore template to apply to the repository upon creation. The .gitignore templates API lists and fetches templates from the GitHub .gitignore repository.

Custom media types for gitignore

You can use this custom media type when getting a gitignore template.

application/vnd.github.VERSION.raw

For more information, see "Media types."

Get all gitignore templates

Works with GitHub Apps

List all templates available to pass as an option when creating a repository.

HTTP response status codes

Status code	Description
`200`	OK
`304`	Not modified

Code samples

get/gitignore/templates

curl \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  https://api.github.com/gitignore/templates

Response

Status: 200

[
  "Actionscript",
  "Android",
  "AppceleratorTitanium",
  "Autotools",
  "Bancha",
  "C",
  "C++"
]

Get a gitignore template

Works with GitHub Apps

The API also allows fetching the source of a single template. Use the raw media type to get the raw contents.

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
`accept`string Setting to `application/vnd.github.v3+json` is recommended.
Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
`name`stringRequired

HTTP response status codes

Status code	Description
`200`	OK
`304`	Not modified

Code samples

get/gitignore/templates/{name}

curl \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  https://api.github.com/gitignore/templates/NAME

Response

Status: 200

{
  "name": "C",
  "source": "# Object files\n*.o\n\n# Libraries\n*.lib\n*.a\n\n# Shared objects (inc. Windows DLLs)\n*.dll\n*.so\n*.so.*\n*.dylib\n\n# Executables\n*.exe\n*.out\n*.app\n"
}