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This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2021-06-09. 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. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Article version: Enterprise Server 2.21
Article version: Enterprise Server 2.21

Git database

The Git Database API enables you to read and write raw Git objects to your Git database on GitHub Enterprise Server and to list and update Git references (branch heads and tags).

In this article

The Git Database API gives you access to read and write raw Git objects to your Git database on GitHub Enterprise Server and to list and update your references (branch heads and tags). For more information about using the Git Database API, see "Getting started with the Git data API."

Blobs

A Git blob (binary large object) is the object type used to store the contents of each file in a repository. The file's SHA-1 hash is computed and stored in the blob object. These endpoints allow you to read and write blob objects to your Git database on GitHub Enterprise Server. Blobs leverage these custom media types. You can read more about the use of media types in the API here.

Custom media types for blobs

These are the supported media types for blobs.

application/json
application/vnd.github.VERSION.raw

For more information, see "Media types."

post /repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/blobs

Parameters

Name Type In Description
accept string header

Setting to application/vnd.github.v3+json is recommended.
owner string path
repo string path
content string body

Required. The new blob's content.
encoding string body

The encoding used for content. Currently, "utf-8" and "base64" are supported.

Default: utf-8

Code samples

Shell
curl \
  -X POST \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  http(s)://{hostname}/api/v3/repos/octocat/hello-world/git/blobs \
  -d '{"content":"content"}'
JavaScript (@octokit/core.js)
await octokit.request('POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/blobs', {
  owner: 'octocat',
  repo: 'hello-world',
  content: 'content'
})

Response

Status: 201 Created
{
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/example/git/blobs/3a0f86fb8db8eea7ccbb9a95f325ddbedfb25e15",
  "sha": "3a0f86fb8db8eea7ccbb9a95f325ddbedfb25e15"
}

Forbidden

Status: 403 Forbidden

Resource not found

Status: 404 Not Found

Conflict

Status: 409 Conflict

Validation failed

Status: 422 Unprocessable Entity

Notes

Get a blob

The content in the response will always be Base64 encoded.

Note: This API supports blobs up to 100 megabytes in size.

get /repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/blobs/{file_sha}

Parameters

Name Type In Description
accept string header

Setting to application/vnd.github.v3+json is recommended.
owner string path
repo string path
file_sha string path

Code samples

Shell
curl \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  http(s)://{hostname}/api/v3/repos/octocat/hello-world/git/blobs/FILE_SHA
JavaScript (@octokit/core.js)
await octokit.request('GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/blobs/{file_sha}', {
  owner: 'octocat',
  repo: 'hello-world',
  file_sha: 'file_sha'
})

Response

Status: 200 OK
{
  "content": "Q29udGVudCBvZiB0aGUgYmxvYg==",
  "encoding": "base64",
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/example/git/blobs/3a0f86fb8db8eea7ccbb9a95f325ddbedfb25e15",
  "sha": "3a0f86fb8db8eea7ccbb9a95f325ddbedfb25e15",
  "size": 19,
  "node_id": "Q29udGVudCBvZiB0aGUgYmxvYg=="
}

Forbidden

Status: 403 Forbidden

Resource not found

Status: 404 Not Found

Validation failed

Status: 422 Unprocessable Entity

Notes

Commits

A Git commit is a snapshot of the hierarchy (Git tree) and the contents of the files (Git blob) in a Git repository. These endpoints allow you to read and write commit objects to your Git database on GitHub Enterprise Server.

Create a commit

Creates a new Git commit object.

Signature verification object

The response will include a verification object that describes the result of verifying the commit's signature. The following fields are included in the verification object:

NameTypeDescription
verifiedbooleanIndicates whether GitHub considers the signature in this commit to be verified.
reasonstringThe reason for verified value. Possible values and their meanings are enumerated in table below.
signaturestringThe signature that was extracted from the commit.
payloadstringThe value that was signed.

These are the possible values for reason in the verification object:

ValueDescription
expired_keyThe key that made the signature is expired.
not_signing_keyThe "signing" flag is not among the usage flags in the GPG key that made the signature.
gpgverify_errorThere was an error communicating with the signature verification service.
gpgverify_unavailableThe signature verification service is currently unavailable.
unsignedThe object does not include a signature.
unknown_signature_typeA non-PGP signature was found in the commit.
no_userNo user was associated with the committer email address in the commit.
unverified_emailThe committer email address in the commit was associated with a user, but the email address is not verified on her/his account.
bad_emailThe committer email address in the commit is not included in the identities of the PGP key that made the signature.
unknown_keyThe key that made the signature has not been registered with any user's account.
malformed_signatureThere was an error parsing the signature.
invalidThe signature could not be cryptographically verified using the key whose key-id was found in the signature.
validNone of the above errors applied, so the signature is considered to be verified.
post /repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/commits

Parameters

Name Type In Description
accept string header

Setting to application/vnd.github.v3+json is recommended.
owner string path
repo string path
message string body

Required. The commit message
tree string body

Required. The SHA of the tree object this commit points to
parents array of strings body

The SHAs of the commits that were the parents of this commit. If omitted or empty, the commit will be written as a root commit. For a single parent, an array of one SHA should be provided; for a merge commit, an array of more than one should be provided.
author object body

Information about the author of the commit. By default, the author will be the authenticated user and the current date. See the author and committer object below for details.
Properties of the author object
name (string)

Required. The name of the author (or committer) of the commit
email (string)

Required. The email of the author (or committer) of the commit
date (string)

Indicates when this commit was authored (or committed). This is a timestamp in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.
committer object body

Information about the person who is making the commit. By default, committer will use the information set in author. See the author and committer object below for details.
Properties of the committer object
name (string)

The name of the author (or committer) of the commit
email (string)

The email of the author (or committer) of the commit
date (string)

Indicates when this commit was authored (or committed). This is a timestamp in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.
signature string body

The PGP signature of the commit. GitHub adds the signature to the gpgsig header of the created commit. For a commit signature to be verifiable by Git or GitHub, it must be an ASCII-armored detached PGP signature over the string commit as it would be written to the object database. To pass a signature parameter, you need to first manually create a valid PGP signature, which can be complicated. You may find it easier to use the command line to create signed commits.

Code samples

Shell
curl \
  -X POST \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  http(s)://{hostname}/api/v3/repos/octocat/hello-world/git/commits \
  -d '{"message":"message","tree":"tree"}'
JavaScript (@octokit/core.js)
await octokit.request('POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/commits', {
  owner: 'octocat',
  repo: 'hello-world',
  message: 'message',
  tree: 'tree'
})

Response

Status: 201 Created
{
  "sha": "7638417db6d59f3c431d3e1f261cc637155684cd",
  "node_id": "MDY6Q29tbWl0NzYzODQxN2RiNmQ1OWYzYzQzMWQzZTFmMjYxY2M2MzcxNTU2ODRjZA==",
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/7638417db6d59f3c431d3e1f261cc637155684cd",
  "author": {
    "date": "2014-11-07T22:01:45Z",
    "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
    "email": "octocat@github.com"
  },
  "committer": {
    "date": "2014-11-07T22:01:45Z",
    "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
    "email": "octocat@github.com"
  },
  "message": "my commit message",
  "tree": {
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/trees/827efc6d56897b048c772eb4087f854f46256132",
    "sha": "827efc6d56897b048c772eb4087f854f46256132"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/7d1b31e74ee336d15cbd21741bc88a537ed063a0",
      "sha": "7d1b31e74ee336d15cbd21741bc88a537ed063a0",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/commit/7d1b31e74ee336d15cbd21741bc88a537ed063a0"
    }
  ],
  "verification": {
    "verified": false,
    "reason": "unsigned",
    "signature": null,
    "payload": null
  },
  "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/commit/7638417db6d59f3c431d3e1f261cc637155684cd"
}

Resource not found

Status: 404 Not Found

Validation failed

Status: 422 Unprocessable Entity

Notes

Get a commit

Gets a Git commit object.

Signature verification object

The response will include a verification object that describes the result of verifying the commit's signature. The following fields are included in the verification object:

NameTypeDescription
verifiedbooleanIndicates whether GitHub considers the signature in this commit to be verified.
reasonstringThe reason for verified value. Possible values and their meanings are enumerated in table below.
signaturestringThe signature that was extracted from the commit.
payloadstringThe value that was signed.

These are the possible values for reason in the verification object:

ValueDescription
expired_keyThe key that made the signature is expired.
not_signing_keyThe "signing" flag is not among the usage flags in the GPG key that made the signature.
gpgverify_errorThere was an error communicating with the signature verification service.
gpgverify_unavailableThe signature verification service is currently unavailable.
unsignedThe object does not include a signature.
unknown_signature_typeA non-PGP signature was found in the commit.
no_userNo user was associated with the committer email address in the commit.
unverified_emailThe committer email address in the commit was associated with a user, but the email address is not verified on her/his account.
bad_emailThe committer email address in the commit is not included in the identities of the PGP key that made the signature.
unknown_keyThe key that made the signature has not been registered with any user's account.
malformed_signatureThere was an error parsing the signature.
invalidThe signature could not be cryptographically verified using the key whose key-id was found in the signature.
validNone of the above errors applied, so the signature is considered to be verified.
get /repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/commits/{commit_sha}

Parameters

Name Type In Description
accept string header

Setting to application/vnd.github.v3+json is recommended.
owner string path
repo string path
commit_sha string path

commit_sha parameter

Code samples

Shell
curl \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  http(s)://{hostname}/api/v3/repos/octocat/hello-world/git/commits/COMMIT_SHA
JavaScript (@octokit/core.js)
await octokit.request('GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/commits/{commit_sha}', {
  owner: 'octocat',
  repo: 'hello-world',
  commit_sha: 'commit_sha'
})

Response

Status: 200 OK
{
  "sha": "7638417db6d59f3c431d3e1f261cc637155684cd",
  "node_id": "MDY6Q29tbWl0NmRjYjA5YjViNTc4NzVmMzM0ZjYxYWViZWQ2OTVlMmU0MTkzZGI1ZQ==",
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/7638417db6d59f3c431d3e1f261cc637155684cd",
  "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/commit/7638417db6d59f3c431d3e1f261cc637155684cd",
  "author": {
    "date": "2014-11-07T22:01:45Z",
    "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
    "email": "octocat@github.com"
  },
  "committer": {
    "date": "2014-11-07T22:01:45Z",
    "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
    "email": "octocat@github.com"
  },
  "message": "added readme, because im a good github citizen",
  "tree": {
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/trees/691272480426f78a0138979dd3ce63b77f706feb",
    "sha": "691272480426f78a0138979dd3ce63b77f706feb"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/1acc419d4d6a9ce985db7be48c6349a0475975b5",
      "sha": "1acc419d4d6a9ce985db7be48c6349a0475975b5",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/commit/7638417db6d59f3c431d3e1f261cc637155684cd"
    }
  ],
  "verification": {
    "verified": false,
    "reason": "unsigned",
    "signature": null,
    "payload": null
  }
}

Resource not found

Status: 404 Not Found

Notes

References

A Git reference (git ref) is just a file that contains a Git commit SHA-1 hash. When referring to a Git commit, you can use the Git reference, which is an easy-to-remember name, rather than the hash. The Git reference can be rewritten to point to a new commit. A branch is just a Git reference that stores the new Git commit hash. These endpoints allow you to read and write references to your Git database on GitHub Enterprise Server.

List matching references

Returns an array of references from your Git database that match the supplied name. The :ref in the URL must be formatted as heads/<branch name> for branches and tags/<tag name> for tags. If the :ref doesn't exist in the repository, but existing refs start with :ref, they will be returned as an array.

When you use this endpoint without providing a :ref, it will return an array of all the references from your Git database, including notes and stashes if they exist on the server. Anything in the namespace is returned, not just heads and tags.

Note: You need to explicitly request a pull request to trigger a test merge commit, which checks the mergeability of pull requests. For more information, see "Checking mergeability of pull requests".

If you request matching references for a branch named feature but the branch feature doesn't exist, the response can still include other matching head refs that start with the word feature, such as featureA and featureB.

get /repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/matching-refs/{ref}

Parameters

Name Type In Description
accept string header

Setting to application/vnd.github.v3+json is recommended.
owner string path
repo string path
ref string path

ref parameter
per_page integer query

Results per page (max 100)

Default: 30
page integer query

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

Code samples

Shell
curl \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  http(s)://{hostname}/api/v3/repos/octocat/hello-world/git/matching-refs/REF
JavaScript (@octokit/core.js)
await octokit.request('GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/matching-refs/{ref}', {
  owner: 'octocat',
  repo: 'hello-world',
  ref: 'ref'
})

Response

Status: 200 OK
[
  {
    "ref": "refs/heads/feature-a",
    "node_id": "MDM6UmVmcmVmcy9oZWFkcy9mZWF0dXJlLWE=",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs/heads/feature-a",
    "object": {
      "type": "commit",
      "sha": "aa218f56b14c9653891f9e74264a383fa43fefbd",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/aa218f56b14c9653891f9e74264a383fa43fefbd"
    }
  },
  {
    "ref": "refs/heads/feature-b",
    "node_id": "MDM6UmVmcmVmcy9oZWFkcy9mZWF0dXJlLWI=",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs/heads/feature-b",
    "object": {
      "type":