Repo Commits API

The Repo Commits API supports listing, viewing, and comparing commits in a repository.

List commits on a repository

GET /repos/:owner/:repo/commits

A special note on pagination: Due to the way Git works, commits are paginated based on SHA instead of page number. Please follow the link headers as outlined in the pagination overview instead of constructing page links yourself.

Parameters

sha
Optional string - Sha or branch to start listing commits from.
path
Optional string - Only commits containing this file path will be returned.
author
Optional string - GitHub login, name, or email by which to filter by commit author
since
Optional ISO 8601 Date - Only commits after this date will be returned
until
Optional ISO 8601 Date - Only commits before this date will be returned

Response

Status: 200 OK
X-RateLimit-Limit: 5000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 4999
[
  {
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
    "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
    "commit": {
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
      "author": {
        "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
        "email": "support@github.com",
        "date": "2011-04-14T16:00:49Z"
      },
      "committer": {
        "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
        "email": "support@github.com",
        "date": "2011-04-14T16:00:49Z"
      },
      "message": "Fix all the bugs",
      "tree": {
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tree/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
        "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e"
      }
    },
    "author": {
      "login": "octocat",
      "id": 1,
      "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
      "gravatar_id": "somehexcode",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"
    },
    "committer": {
      "login": "octocat",
      "id": 1,
      "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
      "gravatar_id": "somehexcode",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"
    },
    "parents": [
      {
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
        "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e"
      }
    ]
  }
]

Get a single commit

GET /repos/:owner/:repo/commits/:sha

Response

Status: 200 OK
X-RateLimit-Limit: 5000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 4999
{
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
  "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
  "commit": {
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
    "author": {
      "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
      "email": "support@github.com",
      "date": "2011-04-14T16:00:49Z"
    },
    "committer": {
      "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
      "email": "support@github.com",
      "date": "2011-04-14T16:00:49Z"
    },
    "message": "Fix all the bugs",
    "tree": {
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tree/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
      "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e"
    }
  },
  "author": {
    "login": "octocat",
    "id": 1,
    "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
    "gravatar_id": "somehexcode",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"
  },
  "committer": {
    "login": "octocat",
    "id": 1,
    "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
    "gravatar_id": "somehexcode",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
      "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e"
    }
  ],
  "stats": {
    "additions": 104,
    "deletions": 4,
    "total": 108
  },
  "files": [
    {
      "filename": "file1.txt",
      "additions": 10,
      "deletions": 2,
      "changes": 12,
      "status": "modified",
      "raw_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/raw/7ca483543807a51b6079e54ac4cc392bc29ae284/file1.txt",
      "blob_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/blob/7ca483543807a51b6079e54ac4cc392bc29ae284/file1.txt",
      "patch": "@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@\n....."
    }
  ]
}

Note: Diffs with binary data will have no ‘patch’ property. Pass the appropriate media type to fetch diff and patch formats.

Compare two commits

GET /repos/:owner/:repo/compare/:base...:head

Response

{
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/compare/master...topic",
  "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/compare/master...topic",
  "permalink_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/compare/octocat:bbcd538c8e72b8c175046e27cc8f907076331401...octocat:0328041d1152db8ae77652d1618a02e57f745f17",
  "diff_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/compare/master...topic.diff",
  "patch_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/compare/master...topic.patch",
  "base_commit": {
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
    "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
    "commit": {
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
      "author": {
        "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
        "email": "support@github.com",
        "date": "2011-04-14T16:00:49Z"
      },
      "committer": {
        "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
        "email": "support@github.com",
        "date": "2011-04-14T16:00:49Z"
      },
      "message": "Fix all the bugs",
      "tree": {
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tree/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
        "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e"
      }
    },
    "author": {
      "login": "octocat",
      "id": 1,
      "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
      "gravatar_id": "somehexcode",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"
    },
    "committer": {
      "login": "octocat",
      "id": 1,
      "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
      "gravatar_id": "somehexcode",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"
    },
    "parents": [
      {
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
        "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e"
      }
    ]
  },
  "status": "behind",
  "ahead_by": 1,
  "behind_by": 2,
  "total_commits": 1,
  "commits": [
    {
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
      "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
      "commit": {
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
        "author": {
          "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
          "email": "support@github.com",
          "date": "2011-04-14T16:00:49Z"
        },
        "committer": {
          "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
          "email": "support@github.com",
          "date": "2011-04-14T16:00:49Z"
        },
        "message": "Fix all the bugs",
        "tree": {
          "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tree/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
          "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e"
        }
      },
      "author": {
        "login": "octocat",
        "id": 1,
        "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
        "gravatar_id": "somehexcode",
        "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"
      },
      "committer": {
        "login": "octocat",
        "id": 1,
        "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
        "gravatar_id": "somehexcode",
        "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"
      },
      "parents": [
        {
          "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
          "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "files": [
    {
      "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
      "filename": "file1.txt",
      "status": "added",
      "additions": 103,
      "deletions": 21,
      "changes": 124,
      "blob_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/blob/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e/file1.txt",
      "raw_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/raw/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e/file1.txt",
      "patch": "@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ module Test @@ -1000,7 +1000,7 @@ module Test"
    }
  ]
}

Pass the appropriate media type to fetch diff and patch formats.