@octokit/core

What is @octokit/core?

The @octokit/core package is a core library for GitHub's REST API v3. It provides a simplified interface to interact with GitHub's API, allowing developers to authenticate, send requests, and process responses. This package is part of the Octokit SDK, which is a collection of libraries for working with the GitHub API.

What are @octokit/core's main functionalities?

Authentication

Authenticate with the GitHub API using a personal access token. This is essential for performing actions that require GitHub permissions.

{
  const { Octokit } = require('@octokit/core');
  const octokit = new Octokit({ auth: `personal_access_token` });
}

Send Requests

Send requests to the GitHub API. This example fetches a user's profile information using their username.

{
  const { Octokit } = require('@octokit/core');
  const octokit = new Octokit();
  async function fetchUser() {
    const response = await octokit.request('GET /users/{username}', {
      username: 'octocat'
    });
    console.log(response.data);
  }
  fetchUser();
}

Custom Requests

Create custom requests to perform specific actions, such as creating an issue in a repository. This demonstrates how to use the package to interact with various parts of the GitHub API.

{
  const { Octokit } = require('@octokit/core');
  const octokit = new Octokit();
  async function createIssue(owner, repo, title, body) {
    const response = await octokit.request('POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues', {
      owner,
      repo,
      title,
      body
    });
    console.log(response.data);
  }
  createIssue('octocat', 'Hello-World', 'New issue title', 'Issue body content');
}

Other packages similar to @octokit/core

github

The 'github' package is a Node.js wrapper for the GitHub API. It offers similar functionalities to @octokit/core but is less modular and not as actively maintained. @octokit/core benefits from being part of the larger Octokit SDK, which provides more comprehensive tools and a consistent API design.

node-github

Similar to 'github', 'node-github' is another wrapper for the GitHub API designed for Node.js. It provides access to the GitHub API but lacks the modularity and extensibility of @octokit/core. The Octokit libraries, including @octokit/core, are officially maintained by GitHub, offering better support and integration with GitHub's evolving API.

README

core.js

Extendable client for GitHub's REST & GraphQL APIs

• Usage
  • REST API example
  • GraphQL example
• Options
• Defaults
• Authentication
• Logging
• Hooks
• Plugins
• Build your own Octokit with Plugins and Defaults
• LICENSE

If you need a minimalistic library to utilize GitHub's REST API and GraphQL API which you can extend with plugins as needed, then @octokit/core is a great starting point.

If you don't need the Plugin API then using @octokit/request or @octokit/graphql directly is a good alternative.

Usage

Browsers	Load @octokit/core directly from esm.sh <script type="module"> import { Octokit } from "https://esm.sh/@octokit/core"; </script>
Node	Install with npm install @octokit/core const { Octokit } = require("@octokit/core"); // or: import { Octokit } from "@octokit/core";

REST API example

// Create a personal access token at https://github.com/settings/tokens/new?scopes=repo
const octokit = new Octokit({ auth: `personal-access-token123` });

const response = await octokit.request("GET /orgs/{org}/repos", {
  org: "octokit",
  type: "private",
});

See @octokit/request for full documentation of the .request method.

GraphQL example

const octokit = new Octokit({ auth: `secret123` });

const response = await octokit.graphql(
  `query ($login: String!) {
    organization(login: $login) {
      repositories(privacy: PRIVATE) {
        totalCount
      }
    }
  }`,
  { login: "octokit" },
);

See @octokit/graphql for full documentation of the .graphql method.

Options

name	type	description
options.authStrategy	Function	Defaults to @octokit/auth-token. See Authentication below for examples.
options.auth	String or Object	See Authentication below for examples.
options.baseUrl	String	When using with GitHub Enterprise Server, set options.baseUrl to the root URL of the API. For example, if your GitHub Enterprise Server's hostname is github.acme-inc.com, then set options.baseUrl to https://github.acme-inc.com/api/v3. Example const octokit = new Octokit({ baseUrl: "https://github.acme-inc.com/api/v3", });
options.previews	Array of Strings	Some REST API endpoints require preview headers to be set, or enable additional features. Preview headers can be set on a per-request basis, e.g. octokit.request("POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls", { mediaType: { previews: ["shadow-cat"], }, owner, repo, title: "My pull request", base: "main", head: "my-feature", draft: true, }); You can also set previews globally, by setting the options.previews option on the constructor. Example: const octokit = new Octokit({ previews: ["shadow-cat"], });
options.request	Object	Set a default request timeout (options.request.timeout) or an http(s).Agent e.g. for proxy usage (Node only, options.request.agent). There are more options.request.* options, see @octokit/request options. options.request can also be set on a per-request basis.
options.timeZone	String	Sets the Time-Zone header which defines a timezone according to the list of names from the Olson database. const octokit = new Octokit({ timeZone: "America/Los_Angeles", }); The time zone header will determine the timezone used for generating the timestamp when creating commits. See GitHub's Timezones documentation.
options.userAgent	String	A custom user agent string for your app or library. Example const octokit = new Octokit({ userAgent: "my-app/v1.2.3", });

Defaults

You can create a new Octokit class with customized default options.

const MyOctokit = Octokit.defaults({
  auth: "personal-access-token123",
  baseUrl: "https://github.acme-inc.com/api/v3",
  userAgent: "my-app/v1.2.3",
});
const octokit1 = new MyOctokit();
const octokit2 = new MyOctokit();

If you pass additional options to your new constructor, the options will be merged shallowly.

const MyOctokit = Octokit.defaults({
  foo: {
    opt1: 1,
  },
});
const octokit = new MyOctokit({
  foo: {
    opt2: 1,
  },
});
// options will be { foo: { opt2: 1 }}

If you need a deep or conditional merge, you can pass a function instead.

const MyOctokit = Octokit.defaults((options) => {
  return {
    foo: Object.assign({}, options.foo, { opt1: 1 }),
  };
});
const octokit = new MyOctokit({
  foo: { opt2: 1 },
});
// options will be { foo: { opt1: 1, opt2: 1 }}

Be careful about mutating the options object in the Octokit.defaults callback, as it can have unforeseen consequences.

Authentication

Authentication is optional for some REST API endpoints accessing public data, but is required for GraphQL queries. Using authentication also increases your API rate limit.

By default, Octokit authenticates using the token authentication strategy. Pass in a token using options.auth. It can be a personal access token, an OAuth token, an installation access token or a JSON Web Token for GitHub App authentication. The Authorization header will be set according to the type of token.

import { Octokit } from "@octokit/core";

const octokit = new Octokit({
  auth: "mypersonalaccesstoken123",
});

const { data } = await octokit.request("/user");

To use a different authentication strategy, set options.authStrategy. A list of authentication strategies is available at octokit/authentication-strategies.js.

Example

import { Octokit } from "@octokit/core";
import { createAppAuth } from "@octokit/auth-app";

const appOctokit = new Octokit({
  authStrategy: createAppAuth,
  auth: {
    appId: 123,
    privateKey: process.env.PRIVATE_KEY,
  },
});

const { data } = await appOctokit.request("/app");

The .auth() method returned by the current authentication strategy can be accessed at octokit.auth(). Example

const { token } = await appOctokit.auth({
  type: "installation",
  installationId: 123,
});

Logging

There are four built-in log methods

1. octokit.log.debug(message[, additionalInfo])
2. octokit.log.info(message[, additionalInfo])
3. octokit.log.warn(message[, additionalInfo])
4. octokit.log.error(message[, additionalInfo])

They can be configured using the log client option. By default, octokit.log.debug() and octokit.log.info() are no-ops, while the other two call console.warn() and console.error() respectively.

This is useful if you build reusable plugins.

If you would like to make the log level configurable using an environment variable or external option, we recommend the console-log-level package. Example

const octokit = new Octokit({
  log: require("console-log-level")({ level: "info" }),
});

Hooks

You can customize Octokit's request lifecycle with hooks.

octokit.hook.before("request", async (options) => {
  validate(options);
});
octokit.hook.after("request", async (response, options) => {
  console.log(`${options.method} ${options.url}: ${response.status}`);
});
octokit.hook.error("request", async (error, options) => {
  if (error.status === 304) {
    return findInCache(error.response.headers.etag);
  }

  throw error;
});
octokit.hook.wrap("request", async (request, options) => {
  // add logic before, after, catch errors or replace the request altogether
  return request(options);
});

See before-after-hook for more documentation on hooks.

Plugins

Octokit’s functionality can be extended using plugins. The Octokit.plugin() method accepts a plugin (or many) and returns a new constructor.

A plugin is a function which gets two arguments:

1. the current instance
2. the options passed to the constructor.

In order to extend octokit's API, the plugin must return an object with the new methods. Please refrain from adding methods directly to the octokit instance, especialy if you depend on keys that do not exist in @octokit/core, such as octokit.rest.

// index.js
const { Octokit } = require("@octokit/core")
const MyOctokit = Octokit.plugin(
  require("./lib/my-plugin"),
  require("octokit-plugin-example")
);

const octokit = new MyOctokit({ greeting: "Moin moin" });
octokit.helloWorld(); // logs "Moin moin, world!"
octokit.request("GET /"); // logs "GET / - 200 in 123ms"

// lib/my-plugin.js
module.exports = (octokit, options = { greeting: "Hello" }) => {
  // hook into the request lifecycle
  octokit.hook.wrap("request", async (request, options) => {
    const time = Date.now();
    const response = await request(options);
    console.log(
      `${options.method} ${options.url} – ${response.status} in ${Date.now() -
        time}ms`
    );
    return response;
  });

  // add a custom method
  return {
    helloWorld: () => console.log(`${options.greeting}, world!`);
  }
};

Build your own Octokit with Plugins and Defaults

You can build your own Octokit class with preset default options and plugins. In fact, this is mostly how the @octokit/<context> modules work, such as @octokit/action:

const { Octokit } = require("@octokit/core");
const MyActionOctokit = Octokit.plugin(
  require("@octokit/plugin-paginate-rest").paginateRest,
  require("@octokit/plugin-throttling").throttling,
  require("@octokit/plugin-retry").retry,
).defaults({
  throttle: {
    onAbuseLimit: (retryAfter, options) => {
      /* ... */
    },
    onRateLimit: (retryAfter, options) => {
      /* ... */
    },
  },
  authStrategy: require("@octokit/auth-action").createActionAuth,
  userAgent: `my-octokit-action/v1.2.3`,
});

const octokit = new MyActionOctokit();
const installations = await octokit.paginate("GET /app/installations");

LICENSE

MIT