Repo Downloads API

The downloads API is for package downloads only. If you want to get source tarballs you should use this instead.

List downloads for a repository

GET /repos/:owner/:repo/downloads

Response

Status: 200 OK
X-RateLimit-Limit: 5000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 4999
[
  {
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads/1",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads/new_file.jpg",
    "id": 1,
    "name": "new_file.jpg",
    "description": "Description of your download",
    "size": 1024,
    "download_count": 40,
    "content_type": ".jpg"
  }
]

Get a single download

GET /repos/:owner/:repo/downloads/:id

Response

Status: 200 OK
X-RateLimit-Limit: 5000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 4999
{
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads/1",
  "html_url": "https://github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads/new_file.jpg",
  "id": 1,
  "name": "new_file.jpg",
  "description": "Description of your download",
  "size": 1024,
  "download_count": 40,
  "content_type": ".jpg"
}

Create a new download (Part 1: Create the resource)

Creating a new download is a two step process. You must first create a new download resource.

POST /repos/:owner/:repo/downloads

Input

name
Required string
size
Required number - Size of file in bytes.
description
Optional string
content_type
Optional string 
{
  "name": "new_file.jpg",
  "size": 114034,
  "description": "Latest release",
  "content_type": "text/plain"
}

Response

Status: 201 Created
Location: https://api.github.com/user/repo/downloads/1
X-RateLimit-Limit: 5000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 4999
{
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads/1",
  "html_url": "https://github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads/new_file.jpg",
  "id": 1,
  "name": "new_file.jpg",
  "description": "Description of your download",
  "size": 1024,
  "download_count": 40,
  "content_type": ".jpg",
  "policy": "ewogICAg...",
  "signature": "mwnFDC...",
  "bucket": "github",
  "accesskeyid": "1ABCDEFG...",
  "path": "downloads/octocat/Hello-World/new_file.jpg",
  "acl": "public-read",
  "expirationdate": "2011-04-14T16:00:49Z",
  "prefix": "downloads/octocat/Hello-World/",
  "mime_type": "image/jpeg",
  "redirect": false,
  "s3_url": "https://github.s3.amazonaws.com/"
}

Create a new download (Part 2: Upload file to s3)

Now that you have created the download resource, you can use the information in the response to upload your file to s3. This can be done with a POST to the s3_url you got in the create response. Here is a brief example using curl:

curl \
-F "key=downloads/octocat/Hello-World/new_file.jpg" \
-F "acl=public-read" \
-F "success_action_status=201" \
-F "Filename=new_file.jpg" \
-F "AWSAccessKeyId=1ABCDEF..." \
-F "Policy=ewogIC..." \
-F "Signature=mwnF..." \
-F "Content-Type=image/jpeg" \
-F "file=@new_file.jpg" \
https://github.s3.amazonaws.com/

NOTES

The order in which you pass these fields matters! Follow the order shown above exactly. All parameters shown are required and if you excluded or modify them your upload will fail because the values are hashed and signed by the policy.

key
Value of path field in the response.
acl
Value of acl field in the response.
success_action_status
201, or whatever you want to get back.
Filename
Value of name field in the response.
AWSAccessKeyId
Value of accesskeyid field in the response.
Policy
Value of policy field in the response.
Signature
Value of signature field in the response.
Content-Type
Value of mime_type field in the response.
file
Local file. Example assumes the file existing in the directory where you are running the curl command. Yes, the @ matters.

More information about using the REST API to interact with s3 can be found here.

Delete a download

DELETE /repos/:owner/:repo/downloads/:id

Response

Status: 204 No Content
X-RateLimit-Limit: 5000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 4999