octokit

What is octokit?

The octokit npm package is a comprehensive toolkit for interacting with the GitHub API. It allows developers to perform a wide range of actions such as managing repositories, issues, pull requests, and more. Octokit is designed to be flexible and powerful, making it easier to integrate GitHub functionalities into applications.

What are octokit's main functionalities?

Repository Management

This feature allows you to manage repositories, including creating new ones. The code sample demonstrates how to create a new repository for the authenticated user.

const { Octokit } = require('@octokit/rest');
const octokit = new Octokit({ auth: 'your-token-here' });

async function createRepo() {
  const response = await octokit.repos.createForAuthenticatedUser({
    name: 'new-repo',
    private: false
  });
  console.log(response.data);
}

createRepo();

Issue Management

This feature allows you to manage issues, including creating new ones. The code sample demonstrates how to create a new issue in a specified repository.

const { Octokit } = require('@octokit/rest');
const octokit = new Octokit({ auth: 'your-token-here' });

async function createIssue() {
  const response = await octokit.issues.create({
    owner: 'your-username',
    repo: 'your-repo',
    title: 'New Issue',
    body: 'Issue description here'
  });
  console.log(response.data);
}

createIssue();

Pull Request Management

This feature allows you to manage pull requests, including creating new ones. The code sample demonstrates how to create a new pull request in a specified repository.

const { Octokit } = require('@octokit/rest');
const octokit = new Octokit({ auth: 'your-token-here' });

async function createPullRequest() {
  const response = await octokit.pulls.create({
    owner: 'your-username',
    repo: 'your-repo',
    title: 'New Pull Request',
    head: 'branch-name',
    base: 'main',
    body: 'Pull request description here'
  });
  console.log(response.data);
}

createPullRequest();

Other packages similar to octokit

node-github

The node-github package is another library for interacting with the GitHub API. It offers similar functionalities to octokit, such as managing repositories, issues, and pull requests. However, octokit is generally more up-to-date and better maintained.

github-api

The github-api package provides a simple interface for interacting with the GitHub API. While it offers similar functionalities to octokit, it is less comprehensive and may lack some of the advanced features and flexibility that octokit provides.

gh.js

The gh.js package is a lightweight library for interacting with the GitHub API. It is designed to be simple and easy to use, but it may not offer the same level of functionality and customization as octokit.

README

octokit.js

The all-batteries-included GitHub SDK for Browsers, Node.js, and Deno.

The octokit package integrates the three main Octokit libraries

1. API client (REST API requests, GraphQL API queries, Authentication)
2. App client (GitHub App & installations, Webhooks, OAuth)
3. Action client (Pre-authenticated API client for single repository)

Table of contents

• octokit.js
  • Features
  • Usage
  • Octokit API Client
    • Constructor options
    • Authentication
    • Proxy Servers (Node.js only)
      • Fetch missing
    • REST API
      • octokit.rest endpoint methods
      • octokit.request()
      • Pagination
      • Media Type formats
      • Request error handling
    • GraphQL API queries
      • Pagination
      • Schema previews
  • App client
    • GitHub App
    • Webhooks
    • OAuth
    • App Server
    • OAuth for browser apps
  • Action client
  • LICENSE

Features

• Complete. All features of GitHub's platform APIs are covered.
• Prescriptive. All recommended best practices are implemented.
• Universal. Works in all modern browsers, Node.js, and Deno.
• Tested. All libraries have a 100% test coverage.
• Typed. All libraries have extensive TypeScript declarations.
• Decomposable. Use only the code you need. You can build your own Octokit in only a few lines of code or use the underlying static methods. Make your own tradeoff between functionality and bundle size.
• Extendable. A feature missing? Add functionalities with plugins, hook into the request or webhook lifecycle or implement your own authentication strategy.

Usage

Browsers	Load octokit directly from esm.sh <script type="module"> import { Octokit, App } from "https://esm.sh/octokit"; </script>
Deno	Load octokit directly from esm.sh import { Octokit, App } from "https://esm.sh/octokit?dts";
Node 12+	Install with npm/pnpm install octokit, or yarn add octokit import { Octokit, App } from "octokit";
Node 10 and below	Install with npm/pnpm install octokit, or yarn add octokit const { Octokit, App } = require("octokit");

Octokit API Client

standalone minimal Octokit: @octokit/core.

The Octokit client can be used to send requests to GitHub's REST API and queries to GitHub's GraphQL API.

Example: Get the username for the authenticated user.

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

// Compare: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/reference/users#get-the-authenticated-user
const {
  data: { login },
} = await octokit.rest.users.getAuthenticated();
console.log("Hello, %s", login);

Constructor options

The most commonly used options are

name	type	description
userAgent	String	Setting a user agent is required for all requests sent to GitHub's Platform APIs. The user agent defaults to something like this: octokit.js/v1.2.3 Node.js/v8.9.4 (macOS High Sierra; x64). It is recommend to set your own user agent, which will prepend the default one. const octokit = new Octokit({ userAgent: "my-app/v1.2.3", });
authStrategy	Function	Defaults to @octokit/auth-token. See Authentication below.
auth	String or Object	Set to a personal access token unless you changed the authStrategy option. See Authentication below.
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", });

Advanced options

name	type	description
request	Object	request.signal: Use an AbortController instance to cancel a request. abort-controller is an implementation for Node. request.fetch: Replacement for built-in fetch method. Node only request.timeout sets a request timeout, defaults to 0 The request option can also be set on a per-request basis.
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.
throttle	Object	Octokit implements request throttling using @octokit/plugin-throttling By default, requests are retried once and warnings are logged in case of hitting a rate or secondary rate limit. { onRateLimit: (retryAfter, options, octokit) => { octokit.log.warn( `Request quota exhausted for request ${options.method} ${options.url}` ); if (options.request.retryCount === 0) { // only retries once octokit.log.info(`Retrying after ${retryAfter} seconds!`); return true; } }, onSecondaryRateLimit: (retryAfter, options, octokit) => { octokit.log.warn( `SecondaryRateLimit detected for request ${options.method} ${options.url}` ); if (options.request.retryCount === 0) { // only retries once octokit.log.info(`Retrying after ${retryAfter} seconds!`); return true; } }, }; To opt-out of this feature: new Octokit({ throttle: { enabled: false } }); Throttling in a cluster is supported using a Redis backend. See @octokit/plugin-throttling Clustering
retry	Object	Octokit implements request retries using @octokit/plugin-retry To opt-out of this feature: new Octokit({ retry: { enabled: false } });

Authentication

By default, the Octokit API client supports authentication using a static token.

There are different means of authentication that are supported by GitHub, that are described in detail at octokit/authentication-strategies.js. You can set each of them as the authStrategy constructor option, and pass the strategy options as the auth constructor option.

For example, in order to authenticate as a GitHub App Installation:

import { createAppAuth } from "@octokit/auth-app";
const octokit = new Octokit({
  authStrategy: createAppAuth,
  auth: {
    appId: 1,
    privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...",
    installationId: 123,
  },
});

// authenticates as app based on request URLs
const {
  data: { slug },
} = await octokit.rest.apps.getAuthenticated();

// creates an installation access token as needed
// assumes that installationId 123 belongs to @octocat, otherwise the request will fail
await octokit.rest.issues.create({
  owner: "octocat",
  repo: "hello-world",
  title: "Hello world from " + slug,
});

You can use the App or OAuthApp SDKs which provide APIs and internal wiring to cover most use cases.

For example, to implement the above using App

const app = new App({ appId, privateKey });
const { data: slug } = await app.octokit.rest.apps.getAuthenticated();
const octokit = await app.getInstallationOctokit(123);
await octokit.rest.issues.create({
  owner: "octocat",
  repo: "hello-world",
  title: "Hello world from " + slug,
});

Learn more about how authentication strategies work or how to create your own.

Proxy Servers (Node.js only)

By default, the Octokit API client does not make use of the standard proxy server environment variables. To add support for proxy servers you will need to provide an https client that supports them such as undici.ProxyAgent().

For example, this would use a ProxyAgent to make requests through a proxy server:

import { fetch as undiciFetch, ProxyAgent } from 'undici';

const myFetch = (url, options) => {
  return undiciFetch(url, {
    ...options,
    dispatcher: new ProxyAgent(<your_proxy_url>)
  })
}

const octokit = new Octokit({
  request: {
     fetch: myFetch
  },
});

If you are writing a module that uses Octokit and is designed to be used by other people, you should ensure that consumers can provide an alternative agent for your Octokit or as a parameter to specific calls such as:

import { fetch as undiciFetch, ProxyAgent } from 'undici';

const myFetch = (url, options) => {
  return undiciFetch(url, {
    ...options,
    dispatcher: new ProxyAgent(<your_proxy_url>)
  })
}

octokit.rest.repos.get({
  owner,
  repo,
  request: {
    fetch: myFetch
  },
});

Fetch missing

If you get the following error:

fetch is not set. Please pass a fetch implementation as new Octokit({ request: { fetch }}).

It probably means you are trying to run Octokit with an unsupported version of NodeJS. Octokit requires Node 18 or higher, which includes a native fetch API.

To bypass this problem you can provide your own fetch implementation (or a built-in version like node-fetch) like this:

import fetch from "node-fetch";

const octokit = new Octokit({
  request: {
    fetch: fetch,
  },
});

REST API

There are two ways of using the GitHub REST API, the octokit.rest.* endpoint methods and octokit.request. Both act the same way, the octokit.rest.* methods are just added for convenience, they use octokit.request internally.

For example

await octokit.rest.issues.create({
  owner: "octocat",
  repo: "hello-world",
  title: "Hello, world!",
  body: "I created this issue using Octokit!",
});

Is the same as

await octokit.request("POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues", {
  owner: "octocat",
  repo: "hello-world",
  title: "Hello, world!",
  body: "I created this issue using Octokit!",
});

In both cases a given request is authenticated, retried, and throttled transparently by the octokit instance which also manages the accept and user-agent headers as needed.

octokit.request can be used to send requests to other domains by passing a full URL and to send requests to endpoints that are not (yet) documented in GitHub's REST API documentation.

octokit.rest endpoint methods

Every GitHub REST API endpoint has an associated octokit.rest endpoint method for better code readability and developer convenience. See @octokit/plugin-rest-endpoint-methods for full details.

Example: Create an issue

await octokit.rest.issues.create({
  owner: "octocat",
  repo: "hello-world",
  title: "Hello, world!",
  body: "I created this issue using Octokit!",
});

The octokit.rest endpoint methods are generated automatically from GitHub's OpenAPI specification. We track operation ID and parameter name changes in order to implement deprecation warnings and reduce the frequency of breaking changes.

Under the covers, every endpoint method is just octokit.request with defaults set, so it supports the same parameters as well as the .endpoint() API.

octokit.request()

You can call the GitHub REST API directly using octokit.request. The request API matches GitHub's REST API documentation 1:1 so anything you see there, you can call using request. See @octokit/request for all the details.

Example: Create an issue

The octokit.request API call corresponding to that issue creation documentation looks like this:

// https://docs.github.com/en/rest/reference/issues#create-an-issue
await octokit.request("POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues", {
  owner: "octocat",
  repo: "hello-world",
  title: "Hello, world!",
  body: "I created this issue using Octokit!",
});

The 1st argument is the REST API route as listed in GitHub's API documentation. The 2nd argument is an object with all parameters, independent of whether they are used in the path, query, or body.

Pagination

All REST API endpoints that paginate return the first 30 items by default. If you want to retrieve all items, you can use the pagination API. The pagination API expects the REST API route as first argument, but you can also pass any of the octokit.rest.*.list* methods for convenience and better code readability.

Example: iterate through all issues in a repository

const iterator = octokit.paginate.iterator(octokit.rest.issues.listForRepo, {
  owner: "octocat",
  repo: "hello-world",
  per_page: 100,
});

// iterate through each response
for await (const { data: issues } of iterator) {
  for (const issue of issues) {
    console.log("Issue #%d: %s", issue.number, issue.title);
  }
}

Using the async iterator is the most memory efficient way to iterate through all items. But you can also retrieve all items in a single call

const issues = await octokit.paginate(octokit.rest.issues.listForRepo, {
  owner: "octocat",
  repo: "hello-world",
  per_page: 100,
});

Media Type formats

Media type formats can be set using mediaType: { format } on every request.

Example: retrieve the raw content of a package.json file

const { data } = await octokit.rest.repos.getContent({
  mediaType: {
    format: "raw",
  },
  owner: "octocat",
  repo: "hello-world",
  path: "package.json",
});
console.log("package name: %s", JSON.parse(data).name);

Learn more about Media type formats.

Request error handling

Standalone module: @octokit/request-error

For request error handling, import RequestError and use try...catch statement.

import { RequestError } from "octokit";

try {
  // your code here that sends at least one Octokit request
  await octokit.request("GET /");
} catch (error) {
  // Octokit errors are instances of RequestError, so they always have an `error.status` property containing the HTTP response code.
  if (error instanceof RequestError) {
    // handle Octokit error
    // error.message; // Oops
    // error.status; // 500
    // error.request; // { method, url, headers, body }
    // error.response; // { url, status, headers, data }
  } else {
    // handle all other errors
    throw error;
  }
}

GraphQL API queries

Octokit also supports GitHub's GraphQL API directly -- you can use the same queries shown in the documentation and available in the GraphQL explorer in your calls with octokit.graphql.

Example: get the login of the authenticated user

const {
  viewer: { login },
} = await octokit.graphql(`{
  viewer {
    login
  }
}`);

Variables can be passed as 2nd argument

const { lastIssues } = await octokit.graphql(
  `
    query lastIssues($owner: String!, $repo: String!, $num: Int = 3) {
      repository(owner: $owner, name: $repo) {
        issues(last: $num) {
          edges {
            node {
              title
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  `,
  {
    owner: "octokit",
    repo: "graphql.js",
  },
);

Pagination

GitHub's GraphQL API returns a maximum of 100 items. If you want to retrieve all items, you can use the pagination API.

Example: get all issues

const { allIssues } = await octokit.graphql.paginate(
  `
    query allIssues($owner: String!, $repo: String!, $num: Int = 10, $cursor: String) {
      repository(owner: $owner, name: $repo) {
        issues(first: $num, after: $cursor) {
          edges {
            node {
              title
            }
          }
          pageInfo {
            hasNextPage
            endCursor
          }
        }
      }
    }
  `,
  {
    owner: "octokit",
    repo: "graphql.js",
  },
);

Learn more about GitHub's GraphQL Pagination usage.

Schema previews

Previews can be enabled using the {mediaType: previews: [] } option.

Example: create a label

await octokit.graphql(
  `mutation createLabel($repositoryId:ID!,name:String!,color:String!) {
  createLabel(input:{repositoryId:$repositoryId,name:$name}) {
    label: {
      id
    }
  }
}`,
  {
    repositoryId: 1,
    name: "important",
    color: "cc0000",
    mediaType: {
      previews: ["bane"],
    },
  },
);

Learn more about GitHub's GraphQL schema previews

App client

The App client combines features for GitHub Apps, Webhooks, and OAuth

GitHub App

Standalone module: @octokit/app

For integrators, GitHub Apps are a means of authentication and authorization. A GitHub app can be registered on a GitHub user or organization account. A GitHub App registration defines a set of permissions and webhooks events it wants to receive and provides a set of credentials in return. Users can grant access to repositories by installing them.

Some API endpoints require the GitHub app to authenticate as itself using a JSON Web Token (JWT). For requests affecting an installation, an installation access token has to be created using the app's credentials and the installation ID.

The App client takes care of all that for you.

Example: Dispatch a repository event in every repository the app is installed on

import { App } from "octokit";

const app = new App({ appId, privateKey });

for await (const { octokit, repository } of app.eachRepository.iterator()) {
  // https://docs.github.com/en/rest/reference/repos#create-a-repository-dispatch-event
  await octokit.rest.repos.createDispatchEvent({
    owner: repository.owner.login,
    repo: repository.name,
    event_type: "my_event",
    client_payload: {
      foo: "bar",
    },
  });
  console.log("Event dispatched for %s", repository.full_name);
}

Example: Get an octokit instance authenticated as an installation

const octokit = await app.getInstallationOctokit(123);

Learn more about apps.

Webhooks

Standalone module: @octokit/webhooks

When installing an app, events that the app registration requests will be sent as requests to the webhook URL set in the app's registration.

Webhook event requests are signed using the webhook secret, which is also part of the app's registration. You must verify that secret before handling the request payload.

The app.webhooks.* APIs provide methods to receiving, verifying, and handling webhook events.

Example: create a comment on new issues

import { createServer } from "node:http";
import { App, createNodeMiddleware } from "octokit";

const app = new App({
  appId,
  privateKey,
  webhooks: { secret },
});

app.webhooks.on("issues.opened", ({ octokit, payload }) => {
  return octokit.rest.issues.createComment({
    owner: payload.repository.owner.login,
    repo: payload.repository.name,
    issue_number: payload.issue.number,
    body: "Hello, World!",
  });
});

// Your app can now receive webhook events at `/api/github/webhooks`
createServer(createNodeMiddleware(app)).listen(3000);

For serverless environments, you can explicitly verify and receive an event

await app.webhooks.verifyAndReceive({
  id: request.headers["x-github-delivery"],
  name: request.headers["x-github-event"],
  signature: request.headers["x-hub-signature-256"],
  payload: request.body,
});

Learn more about GitHub webhooks.

OAuth

Standalone module: @octokit/oauth-app

Both OAuth Apps and GitHub Apps support authenticating GitHub users using OAuth, see Authorizing OAuth Apps and Identifying and authorizing users for GitHub Apps.

There are some differences:

• Only OAuth Apps support scopes. GitHub apps have permissions, and access is granted via installations of the app on repositories.
• Only GitHub Apps support expiring user tokens
• Only GitHub Apps support creating a scoped token to reduce the permissions and repository access

App is for GitHub Apps. If you need OAuth App-specific functionality, use OAuthApp instead.

Example: Watch a repository when a user logs in using the OAuth web flow

import { createServer } from "node:http";
import { App, createNodeMiddleware } from "octokit";

const app = new App({
  oauth: { clientId, clientSecret },
});

app.oauth.on("token.created", async ({ token, octokit }) => {
  await octokit.rest.activity.setRepoSubscription({
    owner: "octocat",
    repo: "hello-world",
    subscribed: true,
  });
});

// Your app can receive the OAuth redirect at /api/github/oauth/callback
// Users can initiate the OAuth web flow by opening /api/oauth/login
createServer(createNodeMiddleware(app)).listen(3000);

For serverless environments, you can explicitly exchange the code from the OAuth web flow redirect for an access token. app.oauth.createToken() returns an authentication object and emits the "token.created" event.

const { token } = await app.oauth.createToken({
  code: request.query.code,
});

Example: create a token using the device flow.

const { token } = await app.oauth.createToken({
  async onVerification(verification) {
    await sendMessageToUser(
      request.body.phoneNumber,
      `Your code is ${verification.user_code}. Enter it at ${verification.verification_uri}`,
    );
  },
});

Example: Create an OAuth App Server with default scopes

import { createServer } from "node:http";
import { OAuthApp, createNodeMiddleware } from "octokit";

const app = new OAuthApp({
  clientId,
  clientSecret,
  defaultScopes: ["repo", "gist"],
});

app.oauth.on("token", async ({ token, octokit }) => {
  await octokit.rest.gists.create({
    description: "I created this gist using Octokit!",
    public: true,
    files: {
      "example.js": `/* some code here */`,
    },
  });
});

// Your app can receive the OAuth redirect at /api/github/oauth/callback
// Users can initiate the OAuth web flow by opening /api/oauth/login
createServer(createNodeMiddleware(app)).listen(3000);

App Server

After registering your GitHub app, you need to create and deploy a server which can retrieve the webhook event requests from GitHub as well as accept redirects from the OAuth user web flow.

The simplest way to create such a server is to use createNodeMiddleware(), it works with both, Node's http.createServer() method as well as an Express middleware.

The default routes that the middleware exposes are

Route	Route Description
POST /api/github/webhooks	Endpoint to receive GitHub Webhook Event requests
GET /api/github/oauth/login	Redirects to GitHub's authorization endpoint. Accepts optional ?state and ?scopes query parameters. ?scopes is a comma-separated list of supported OAuth scope names
GET /api/github/oauth/callback	The client's redirect endpoint. This is where the token event gets triggered
POST /api/github/oauth/token	Exchange an authorization code for an OAuth Access token. If successful, the token event gets triggered.
GET /api/github/oauth/token	Check if token is valid. Must authenticate using token in Authorization header. Uses GitHub's POST /applications/{client_id}/token endpoint
PATCH /api/github/oauth/token	Resets a token (invalidates current one, returns new token). Must authenticate using token in Authorization header. Uses GitHub's PATCH /applications/{client_id}/token endpoint.
PATCH /api/github/oauth/refresh-token	Refreshes an expiring token (invalidates current one, returns new access token and refresh token). Must authenticate using token in Authorization header. Uses GitHub's POST https://github.com/login/oauth/access_token OAuth endpoint.
POST /api/github/oauth/token/scoped	Creates a scoped token (does not invalidate the current one). Must authenticate using token in Authorization header. Uses GitHub's POST /applications/{client_id}/token/scoped endpoint.
DELETE /api/github/oauth/token	Invalidates current token, basically the equivalent of a logout. Must authenticate using token in Authorization header.
DELETE /api/github/oauth/grant	Revokes the user's grant, basically the equivalent of an uninstall. must authenticate using token in Authorization header.

Example: create a GitHub server with express

import express from "express";
import { App, createNodeMiddleware } from "octokit";

const expressApp = express();
const octokitApp = new App({
  appId,
  privateKey,
  webhooks: { secret },
  oauth: { clientId, clientSecret },
});

expressApp.use(createNodeMiddleware(app));

expressApp.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:3000`);
});

OAuth for browser apps

You must not expose your app's client secret to the user, so you cannot use the App constructor. Instead, you have to create a server using the App constructor which exposes the /api/github/oauth/* routes, through which you can safely implement an OAuth login for apps running in a web browser.

If you set (User) Authorization callback URL to your own app, than you need to read out the ?code=...&state=... query parameters, compare the state parameter to the value returned by app.oauthLoginUrl() earlier to protect against forgery attacks, then exchange the code for an OAuth Authorization token.

If you run an app server as described above, the default route to do that is POST /api/github/oauth/token.

Once you successfully retrieved the token, it is also recommended to remove the ?code=...&state=... query parameters from the browser's URL

const code = new URL(location.href).searchParams.get("code");
if (code) {
  // remove ?code=... from URL
  const path =
    location.pathname +
    location.search.replace(/\b(code|state)=\w+/g, "").replace(/[?&]+$/, "");
  history.replaceState({}, "", path);

  // exchange the code for a token with your backend.
  // If you use https://github.com/octokit/oauth-app.js
  // the exchange would look something like this
  const response = await fetch("/api/github/oauth/token", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "content-type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({ code }),
  });
  const { token } = await response.json();
  // `token` is the OAuth Access Token that can be use

  const { Octokit } = await import("https://esm.sh/@octokit/core");
  const octokit = new Octokit({ auth: token });

  const {
    data: { login },
  } = await octokit.request("GET /user");
  alert("Hi there, " + login);
}

🚧 We are working on @octokit/auth-oauth-user-client to provide a simple API for all methods related to OAuth user tokens.

The plan is to add an new GET /api/github/oauth/octokit.js route to the node middleware which will return a JavaScript file that can be imported into an HTML file. It will make a pre-authenticated octokit Instance available.

Action client

standalone module: @octokit/action

🚧 A fully fledged Action client is pending. You can use @actions/github for the time being

LICENSE

MIT