GitHub Media Types

Custom media types are used in the API to let consumers choose the format of the data they wish to receive. This is done by adding one or more of the following types to the Accept header when you make a request. Media types are specific to resources, allowing them to change independently and support formats that other resources don’t.

All GitHub media types look like this:

application/vnd.github[.version].param[+json]

The most basic media types the API supports are:

application/json
application/vnd.github+json

Neither of these specify a version, so you will always get the latest JSON representation of resources. If you’re building an application and care about the stability of the API, specify a version like so:

application/vnd.github.beta+json

If you’re specifying a property (such as full/raw/etc defined below), put the version before the property:

application/vnd.github.beta.raw+json

You can check the current version through every response’s headers. Look for the X-GitHub-Media-Type header:

$ curl https://api.github.com/users/technoweenie -I
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-GitHub-Media-Type: github.beta

$ curl https://api.github.com/users/technoweenie -I \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.full+json"
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-GitHub-Media-Type: github.beta; param=full; format=json

$ curl https://api.github.com/users/technoweenie -I \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.full+json"
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-GitHub-Media-Type: github.v3; param=full; format=json

API v3 media type and the future

Ultimately, we aim for a version-less, Hypermedia-driven API. Before we get there, we expect a few changes. As we roll out these changes, certain methods will support the API v3 media type:

application/vnd.github.v3

We’ll clearly mark those methods that publicly support the v3 media type.

NOTE: Using the v3 media type for methods other than those marked may yield unexpected results.

Comment Body Properties

The body of a comment can be written in GitHub Flavored Markdown. Issues, Issue Comments, Pull Request Comments, and Gist Comments all accept these same media types:

Raw

application/vnd.github.VERSION.raw+json

Return the raw markdown body. Response will include body. This is the default if you do not pass any specific media type.

Text

application/vnd.github.VERSION.text+json

Return a text only representation of the markdown body. Response will include body_text.

Html

application/vnd.github.VERSION.html+json

Return html rendered from the body’s markdown. Response will include body_html.

Full

application/vnd.github.VERSION.full+json

Return raw, text and html representations. Response will include body, body_text, and body_html:

Git Blob Properties

The following media types are allowed when getting a blob:

JSON

application/vnd.github.VERSION+json
application/json

Return JSON representation of the blob with content as a base64 encoded string. This is the default if nothing is passed.

Raw

application/vnd.github.VERSION.raw

Return the raw blob data.

Commits, Commit comparison, and Pull Requests

The Commit, Commit Comparison, and Pull Request resources support diff and patch formats:

diff

application/vnd.github.VERSION.diff

patch

application/vnd.github.VERSION.patch