User interactions

Use the REST API to temporarily restrict which type of user can comment, open issues, or create pull requests in your public repositories.

About user interactions

You can use the REST API to temporarily restrict which type of user can comment, open issues, or create pull requests on your public repositories. When restrictions are enabled, only the specified type of GitHub user will be able to participate in interactions. Restrictions automatically expire after a defined duration. Here's more about the types of GitHub users:

Existing users: When you limit interactions to existing_users, new users with accounts less than 24 hours old who have not previously contributed and are not collaborators will be temporarily restricted from interacting with your repositories.
Contributors only: When you limit interactions to contributors_only, users who have not previously contributed and are not collaborators will be temporarily restricted from interacting with your repositories.
Collaborators only: When you limit interactions to collaborators_only, users who are not collaborators will be temporarily restricted from interacting with your repositories.

Setting the interaction limit at the user level will overwrite any interaction limits that are set for individual repositories owned by the user. To set different interaction limits for individual repositories owned by the user, use the Repository interactions endpoints instead.

Get interaction restrictions for your public repositories

Shows which type of GitHub user can interact with your public repositories and when the restriction expires.

HTTP response status codes

Status code	Description
`200`	Default response
`204`	Response when there are no restrictions

Code samples

get/user/interaction-limits

curl \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>"\
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  https://api.github.com/user/interaction-limits

Default response

Status: 200

{
  "limit": "collaborators_only",
  "origin": "organization",
  "expires_at": "2018-08-17T04:18:39Z"
}

Set interaction restrictions for your public repositories

Temporarily restricts which type of GitHub user can interact with your public repositories. Setting the interaction limit at the user level will overwrite any interaction limits that are set for individual repositories owned by the user.

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
`accept`string Setting to `application/vnd.github+json` is recommended.
Body parameters
Name, Type, Description
`limit`stringRequired The type of GitHub user that can comment, open issues, or create pull requests while the interaction limit is in effect. Can be one of: `existing_users`, `contributors_only`, `collaborators_only`
`expiry`string The duration of the interaction restriction. Default: `one_day`. Can be one of: `one_day`, `three_days`, `one_week`, `one_month`, `six_months`

HTTP response status codes

Status code	Description
`200`	OK
`422`	Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

Code samples

put/user/interaction-limits

curl \
  -X PUT \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>"\
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  https://api.github.com/user/interaction-limits \
  -d '{"limit":"collaborators_only","expiry":"one_month"}'

Response

Status: 200

{
  "limit": "collaborators_only",
  "origin": "user",
  "expires_at": "2018-08-17T04:18:39Z"
}

Remove interaction restrictions from your public repositories

Removes any interaction restrictions from your public repositories.

HTTP response status codes

Status code	Description
`204`	No Content

Code samples

delete/user/interaction-limits

curl \
  -X DELETE \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>"\
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  https://api.github.com/user/interaction-limits

Response

Status: 204