Note: The syntax below applies to non-code search. For more information on code search syntax, see "Understanding GitHub Code Search syntax."
Query for values greater or less than another value
You can use >, >=, <, and <= to search for values that are greater than, greater than or equal to, less than, and less than or equal to another value.
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
>n | cats stars:>1000 matches repositories with the word "cats" that have more than 1000 stars. |
>=n | cats topics:>=5 matches repositories with the word "cats" that have 5 or more topics. |
<n | cats size:<10000 matches code with the word "cats" in files that are smaller than 10 KB. |
<=n | cats stars:<=50 matches repositories with the word "cats" that have 50 or fewer stars. |
You can also use range queries to search for values that are greater than or equal to, or less than or equal to, another value.
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
n..* | cats stars:10..* is equivalent to stars:>=10 and matches repositories with the word "cats" that have 10 or more stars. |
*..n | cats stars:*..10 is equivalent to stars:<=10 and matches repositories with the word "cats" that have 10 or fewer stars. |
Query for values between a range
You can use the range syntax n..n to search for values within a range, where the first number N is the lowest value and the second is the highest value.
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
n..n | cats stars:10..50 matches repositories with the word "cats" that have between 10 and 50 stars. |
Query for dates
You can search for dates that are earlier or later than another date, or that fall within a range of dates, by using >, >=, <, <=, and range queries. Date formatting must follow the ISO8601 standard, which is YYYY-MM-DD (year-month-day).
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
>YYYY-MM-DD | cats created:>2016-04-29 matches issues with the word "cats" that were created after April 29, 2016. |
>=YYYY-MM-DD | cats created:>=2017-04-01 matches issues with the word "cats" that were created on or after April 1, 2017. |
<YYYY-MM-DD | cats pushed:<2012-07-05 matches repositories with the word "cats" that were pushed to before July 5, 2012. |
<=YYYY-MM-DD | cats created:<=2012-07-04 matches issues with the word "cats" that were created on or before July 4, 2012. |
YYYY-MM-DD..YYYY-MM-DD | cats pushed:2016-04-30..2016-07-04 matches repositories with the word "cats" that were pushed to between the end of April and July of 2016. |
YYYY-MM-DD..* | cats created:2012-04-30..* matches issues created on or after April 30th, 2012 containing the word "cats." |
*..YYYY-MM-DD | cats created:*..2012-07-04 matches issues created on or before July 4th, 2012 containing the word "cats." |
You can also add optional time information THH:MM:SS+00:00 after the date, to search by the hour, minute, and second. That's T, followed by HH:MM:SS (hour-minutes-seconds), and a UTC offset (+00:00).
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS+00:00 | cats created:2017-01-01T01:00:00+07:00..2017-03-01T15:30:15+07:00 matches issues created between January 1, 2017 at 1 a.m. with a UTC offset of 07:00 and March 1, 2017 at 3 p.m. with a UTC offset of 07:00. |
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ | cats created:2016-03-21T14:11:00Z..2016-04-07T20:45:00Z matches issues created between March 21, 2016 at 2:11pm and April 7, 2016 at 8:45pm. |
Exclude results that match a qualifier
You can narrow down search results by excluding one or more subsets. To exclude all results that are matched by a qualifier, prefix the search qualifier with a hyphen (-).
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
-QUALIFIER | cats stars:>10 -language:javascript matches repositories with the word "cats" that have more than 10 stars but are not written in JavaScript. |
-QUALIFIER | mentions:defunkt -org:github matches issues mentioning @defunkt that are not in repositories in the GitHub organization. |
Exclude results with specific keywords
You can exclude results containing a certain word, using the NOT syntax. The NOT operator can only be used for string keywords. It does not work for numerals or dates.
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
NOT | hello NOT world matches repositories that have the word "hello" but not the word "world." |
Use quotation marks for queries with whitespace
If your search query contains whitespace, you will need to surround it with quotation marks. For example:
- cats NOT "hello world" matches repositories with the word "cats" but not the words "hello world."
- build label:"bug fix" matches issues with the word "build" that have the label "bug fix."
Queries with usernames
If your search query contains a qualifier that requires a username, such as user, actor, or assignee, you can use any GitHub username to specify a specific person, @me to specify the current user, or @copilot to specify Copilot.
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
QUALIFIER:USERNAME | author:nat matches commits authored by @nat |
QUALIFIER:@me | is:issue assignee:@me matches issues assigned to the person viewing the results |
QUALIFIER:@copilot | is:pr reviewed-by:@copilot matches pull requests reviewed by Copilot. For more information, see see "Using GitHub Copilot code review." |
You can only use @me or @copilot with a qualifier, and not as a search term, such as @me main.workflow.