Skip to main content

This version of GitHub Enterprise Server was discontinued on 2023-09-25. 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 Server. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

After a site administrator upgrades your Enterprise Server instance to Enterprise Server 3.9 or later, the REST API will be versioned. To learn how to find your instance's version, see "About versions of GitHub Docs". For more information, see "About API versioning."

Starring

Use the REST API to bookmark a repository.

About starring

You can use the REST API to star (bookmark) a repository. Stars are shown next to repositories to show an approximate level of interest. Stars have no effect on notifications or the activity feed. For more information, see "Saving repositories with stars."

Starring versus watching

In August 2012, we changed the way watching works on GitHub. Some API client applications may still be using the original "watcher" endpoints for accessing this data. You should now use the "star" endpoints instead (described below). For more information, see the REST API "Watching" documentation and the Watcher API changelog post.

In responses from the REST API, watchers, watchers_count, and stargazers_count correspond to the number of users that have starred a repository, whereas subscribers_count corresponds to the number of watchers.

Custom media types for starring

There is one supported custom media type for these endpoints. When you use this custom media type, you will receive a response with the starred_at timestamp property that indicates the time the star was created. The response also has a second property that includes the resource that is returned when the custom media type is not included. The property that contains the resource will be either user or repo.

application/vnd.github.star+json

For more information about media types, see "Media types."

List stargazers

Works with GitHub Apps

Lists the people that have starred the repository.

You can also find out when stars were created by passing the following custom media type via the Accept header: application/vnd.github.star+json.

Parameters for "List stargazers"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
accept string

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

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
owner string Required

The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

repo string Required

The name of the repository without the .git extension. The name is not case sensitive.

Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
per_page integer

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default: 30

page integer

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

HTTP response status codes for "List stargazers"

Status codeDescription
200

OK

422

Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

Code samples for "List stargazers"

get/repos/{owner}/{repo}/stargazers
curl -L \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/repos/OWNER/REPO/stargazers

Default response

Status: 200
[ { "login": "octocat", "id": 1, "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=", "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat", "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat", "followers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/followers", "following_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/orgs", "repos_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/repos", "events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/received_events", "type": "User", "site_admin": false } ]

List repositories starred by the authenticated user

Lists repositories the authenticated user has starred.

You can also find out when stars were created by passing the following custom media type via the Accept header: application/vnd.github.star+json.

Parameters for "List repositories starred by the authenticated user"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
accept string

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

Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
sort string

The property to sort the results by. created means when the repository was starred. updated means when the repository was last pushed to.

Default: created

Can be one of: created, updated

direction string

The direction to sort the results by.

Default: desc

Can be one of: asc, desc

per_page integer

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default: 30

page integer

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

HTTP response status codes for "List repositories starred by the authenticated user"

Status codeDescription
200

OK

304

Not modified

401

Requires authentication

403

Forbidden

Code samples for "List repositories starred by the authenticated user"

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

Default response

Status: 200
[ { "id": 1296269, "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkxMjk2MjY5", "name": "Hello-World", "full_name": "octocat/Hello-World", "owner": { "login": "octocat", "id": 1, "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=", "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat", "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat", "followers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/followers", "following_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/orgs", "repos_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/repos", "events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/received_events", "type": "User", "site_admin": false }, "private": false, "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World", "description": "This your first repo!", "fork": false, "url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World", "archive_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/{archive_format}{/ref}", "assignees_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/assignees{/user}", "blobs_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/blobs{/sha}", "branches_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/branches{/branch}", "collaborators_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/collaborators{/collaborator}", "comments_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/comments{/number}", "commits_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits{/sha}", "compare_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/compare/{base}...{head}", "contents_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contents/{+path}", "contributors_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contributors", "deployments_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/deployments", "downloads_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads", "events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/events", "forks_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/forks", "git_commits_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits{/sha}", "git_refs_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs{/sha}", "git_tags_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/tags{/sha}", "git_url": "git:github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git", "issue_comment_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/comments{/number}", "issue_events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/events{/number}", "issues_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues{/number}", "keys_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/keys{/key_id}", "labels_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels{/name}", "languages_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/languages", "merges_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/merges", "milestones_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones{/number}", "notifications_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/notifications{?since,all,participating}", "pulls_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/pulls{/number}", "releases_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/releases{/id}", "ssh_url": "git@github.com:octocat/Hello-World.git", "stargazers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/stargazers", "statuses_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/statuses/{sha}", "subscribers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscribers", "subscription_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscription", "tags_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tags", "teams_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/teams", "trees_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/trees{/sha}", "clone_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git", "mirror_url": "git:git.example.com/octocat/Hello-World", "hooks_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/hooks", "svn_url": "https://svn.github.com/octocat/Hello-World", "homepage": "https://github.com", "language": null, "forks_count": 9, "stargazers_count": 80, "watchers_count": 80, "size": 108, "default_branch": "master", "open_issues_count": 0, "is_template": true, "topics": [ "octocat", "atom", "electron", "api" ], "has_issues": true, "has_projects": true, "has_wiki": true, "has_pages": false, "has_downloads": true, "archived": false, "disabled": false, "visibility": "public", "pushed_at": "2011-01-26T19:06:43Z", "created_at": "2011-01-26T19:01:12Z", "updated_at": "2011-01-26T19:14:43Z", "permissions": { "admin": false, "push": false, "pull": true }, "allow_rebase_merge": true, "template_repository": null, "temp_clone_token": "ABTLWHOULUVAXGTRYU7OC2876QJ2O", "allow_squash_merge": true, "allow_auto_merge": false, "delete_branch_on_merge": true, "allow_merge_commit": true, "subscribers_count": 42, "network_count": 0, "license": { "key": "mit", "name": "MIT License", "url": "https://HOSTNAME/licenses/mit", "spdx_id": "MIT", "node_id": "MDc6TGljZW5zZW1pdA==", "html_url": "https://github.com/licenses/mit" }, "forks": 1, "open_issues": 1, "watchers": 1 } ]

Check if a repository is starred by the authenticated user

Whether the authenticated user has starred the repository.

Parameters for "Check if a repository is starred by the authenticated user"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
accept string

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

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
owner string Required

The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

repo string Required

The name of the repository without the .git extension. The name is not case sensitive.

HTTP response status codes for "Check if a repository is starred by the authenticated user"

Status codeDescription
204

Response if this repository is starred by you

304

Not modified

401

Requires authentication

403

Forbidden

404

Not Found if this repository is not starred by you

Code samples for "Check if a repository is starred by the authenticated user"

get/user/starred/{owner}/{repo}
curl -L \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/user/starred/OWNER/REPO

Response if this repository is starred by you

Status: 204

Star a repository for the authenticated user

Note that you'll need to set Content-Length to zero when calling out to this endpoint. For more information, see "HTTP verbs."

Parameters for "Star a repository for the authenticated user"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
accept string

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

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
owner string Required

The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

repo string Required

The name of the repository without the .git extension. The name is not case sensitive.

HTTP response status codes for "Star a repository for the authenticated user"

Status codeDescription
204

No Content

304

Not modified

401

Requires authentication

403

Forbidden

404

Resource not found

Code samples for "Star a repository for the authenticated user"

put/user/starred/{owner}/{repo}
curl -L \ -X PUT \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/user/starred/OWNER/REPO

Response

Status: 204

Unstar a repository for the authenticated user

Unstar a repository that the authenticated user has previously starred.

Parameters for "Unstar a repository for the authenticated user"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
accept string

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

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
owner string Required

The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

repo string Required

The name of the repository without the .git extension. The name is not case sensitive.

HTTP response status codes for "Unstar a repository for the authenticated user"

Status codeDescription
204

No Content

304

Not modified

401

Requires authentication

403

Forbidden

404

Resource not found

Code samples for "Unstar a repository for the authenticated user"

delete/user/starred/{owner}/{repo}
curl -L \ -X DELETE \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/user/starred/OWNER/REPO

Response

Status: 204

List repositories starred by a user

Works with GitHub Apps

Lists repositories a user has starred.

You can also find out when stars were created by passing the following custom media type via the Accept header: application/vnd.github.star+json.

Parameters for "List repositories starred by a user"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
accept string

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

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
username string Required

The handle for the GitHub user account.

Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
sort string

The property to sort the results by. created means when the repository was starred. updated means when the repository was last pushed to.

Default: created

Can be one of: created, updated

direction string

The direction to sort the results by.

Default: desc

Can be one of: asc, desc

per_page integer

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default: 30

page integer

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

HTTP response status codes for "List repositories starred by a user"

Status codeDescription
200

OK

Code samples for "List repositories starred by a user"

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

Default response

Status: 200
[ { "id": 1296269, "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkxMjk2MjY5", "name": "Hello-World", "full_name": "octocat/Hello-World", "owner": { "login": "octocat", "id": 1, "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=", "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat", "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat", "followers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/followers", "following_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/orgs", "repos_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/repos", "events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/received_events", "type": "User", "site_admin": false }, "private": false, "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World", "description": "This your first repo!", "fork": false, "url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World", "archive_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/{archive_format}{/ref}", "assignees_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/assignees{/user}", "blobs_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/blobs{/sha}", "branches_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/branches{/branch}", "collaborators_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/collaborators{/collaborator}", "comments_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/comments{/number}", "commits_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits{/sha}", "compare_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/compare/{base}...{head}", "contents_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contents/{+path}", "contributors_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contributors", "deployments_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/deployments", "downloads_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads", "events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/events", "forks_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/forks", "git_commits_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits{/sha}", "git_refs_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs{/sha}", "git_tags_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/tags{/sha}", "git_url": "git:github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git", "issue_comment_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/comments{/number}", "issue_events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/events{/number}", "issues_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues{/number}", "keys_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/keys{/key_id}", "labels_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels{/name}", "languages_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/languages", "merges_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/merges", "milestones_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones{/number}", "notifications_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/notifications{?since,all,participating}", "pulls_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/pulls{/number}", "releases_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/releases{/id}", "ssh_url": "git@github.com:octocat/Hello-World.git", "stargazers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/stargazers", "statuses_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/statuses/{sha}", "subscribers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscribers", "subscription_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscription", "tags_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tags", "teams_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/teams", "trees_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/trees{/sha}", "clone_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git", "mirror_url": "git:git.example.com/octocat/Hello-World", "hooks_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/hooks", "svn_url": "https://svn.github.com/octocat/Hello-World", "homepage": "https://github.com", "language": null, "forks_count": 9, "stargazers_count": 80, "watchers_count": 80, "size": 108, "default_branch": "master", "open_issues_count": 0, "is_template": true, "topics": [ "octocat", "atom", "electron", "api" ], "has_issues": true, "has_projects": true, "has_wiki": true, "has_pages": false, "has_downloads": true, "archived": false, "disabled": false, "visibility": "public", "pushed_at": "2011-01-26T19:06:43Z", "created_at": "2011-01-26T19:01:12Z", "updated_at": "2011-01-26T19:14:43Z", "permissions": { "admin": false, "push": false, "pull": true }, "allow_rebase_merge": true, "template_repository": null, "temp_clone_token": "ABTLWHOULUVAXGTRYU7OC2876QJ2O", "allow_squash_merge": true, "allow_auto_merge": false, "delete_branch_on_merge": true, "allow_merge_commit": true, "subscribers_count": 42, "network_count": 0, "license": { "key": "mit", "name": "MIT License", "url": "https://HOSTNAME/licenses/mit", "spdx_id": "MIT", "node_id": "MDc6TGljZW5zZW1pdA==", "html_url": "https://github.com/licenses/mit" }, "forks": 1, "open_issues": 1, "watchers": 1 } ]