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Labels

Use the REST API to manage labels for repositories, issues and pull requests.

About labels

You can use the REST API to manage labels for a repository and add or remove labels to issues and pull requests. Every pull request is an issue, but not every issue is a pull request. For this reason, "shared" actions for both features, like managing assignees, labels, and milestones, are provided within the Issues endpoints.

List labels for an issue

Works with GitHub Apps

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
acceptstring

Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
ownerstringRequired

The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

repostringRequired

The name of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

issue_numberintegerRequired

The number that identifies the issue.

Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
per_pageinteger

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default: 30

pageinteger

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

Status codeDescription
200

OK

301

Moved permanently

404

Resource not found

410

Gone

Code samples

get/repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{issue_number}/labels
curl \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/repos/OWNER/REPO/issues/ISSUE_NUMBER/labels

Response

Status: 200
[ { "id": 208045946, "node_id": "MDU6TGFiZWwyMDgwNDU5NDY=", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels/bug", "name": "bug", "description": "Something isn't working", "color": "f29513", "default": true }, { "id": 208045947, "node_id": "MDU6TGFiZWwyMDgwNDU5NDc=", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels/enhancement", "name": "enhancement", "description": "New feature or request", "color": "a2eeef", "default": false } ]

Add labels to an issue

Works with GitHub Apps

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
acceptstring

Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
ownerstringRequired

The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

repostringRequired

The name of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

issue_numberintegerRequired

The number that identifies the issue.

Body parameters
Name, Type, Description
labelsarray of strings

The names of the labels to add to the issue's existing labels. You can pass an empty array to remove all labels. Alternatively, you can pass a single label as a string or an array of labels directly, but GitHub recommends passing an object with the labels key. You can also replace all of the labels for an issue. For more information, see "Set labels for an issue."

HTTP response status codes

Status codeDescription
200

OK

301

Moved permanently

404

Resource not found

410

Gone

422

Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

Code samples

post/repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{issue_number}/labels
curl \ -X POST \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/repos/OWNER/REPO/issues/ISSUE_NUMBER/labels \ -d '{"labels":["bug","enhancement"]}'

Response

Status: 200
[ { "id": 208045946, "node_id": "MDU6TGFiZWwyMDgwNDU5NDY=", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels/bug", "name": "bug", "description": "Something isn't working", "color": "f29513", "default": true }, { "id": 208045947, "node_id": "MDU6TGFiZWwyMDgwNDU5NDc=", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels/enhancement", "name": "enhancement", "description": "New feature or request", "color": "a2eeef", "default": false } ]

Set labels for an issue

Works with GitHub Apps

Removes any previous labels and sets the new labels for an issue.

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
acceptstring

Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
ownerstringRequired

The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

repostringRequired

The name of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

issue_numberintegerRequired

The number that identifies the issue.

Body parameters
Name, Type, Description
labelsarray of strings

The names of the labels to set for the issue. The labels you set replace any existing labels. You can pass an empty array to remove all labels. Alternatively, you can pass a single label as a string or an array of labels directly, but GitHub recommends passing an object with the labels key. You can also add labels to the existing labels for an issue. For more information, see "Add labels to an issue."

HTTP response status codes

Status codeDescription
200

OK

301

Moved permanently

404

Resource not found

410

Gone

422

Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

Code samples

put/repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{issue_number}/labels
curl \ -X PUT \ -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \ http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/repos/OWNER/REPO/issues/ISSUE_NUMBER/labels \ -d '{"labels":["bug","enhancement"]}'

Response

Status: 200
[ { "id": 208045946, "node_id": "MDU6TGFiZWwyMDgwNDU5NDY=", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels/bug", "name": "bug", "description": "Something isn't working", "color": "f29513", "default": true }, { "id": 208045947, "node_id": "MDU6TGFiZWwyMDgwNDU5NDc=", "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels/enhancement", "name": "enhancement", "description": "New feature or request", "color": "a2eeef", "default": false } ]

Remove all labels from an issue

Works with GitHub Apps

Parameters

Headers
Name, Type, Description
acceptstring

Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
ownerstringRequired

The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

repostringRequired

The name of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

issue_numberintegerRequired

The number that identifies the issue.

HTTP response status codes

Status codeDescription