REST API endpoints for repository contents

Use the REST API to create, modify, and delete Base64 encoded content in a repository.

Note

Most endpoints use Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN> and Accept: application/vnd.github+json headers, plus X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2026-03-10. Curl examples below omit these standard headers for brevity.

Get repository content

GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents/{path}

Gets the contents of a file or directory in a repository. Specify the file path or directory with the path parameter. If you omit the path parameter, you will receive the contents of the repository's root directory.
This endpoint supports the following custom media types. For more information, see "Media types."

application/vnd.github.raw+json: Returns the raw file contents for files and symlinks.
application/vnd.github.html+json: Returns the file contents in HTML. Markup languages are rendered to HTML using GitHub's open-source Markup library.
application/vnd.github.object+json: Returns the contents in a consistent object format regardless of the content type. For example, instead of an array of objects for a directory, the response will be an object with an entries attribute containing the array of objects.

If the content is a directory: The response will be an array of objects, one object for each item in the directory.
If the content is a symlink and the symlink's target is a normal file in the repository, then the API responds with the content of the file. Otherwise, the API responds with an object describing the symlink itself.
If the content is a submodule, the submodule_git_url field identifies the location of the submodule repository, and the sha identifies a specific commit within the submodule repository. Git uses the given URL when cloning the submodule repository, and checks out the submodule at that specific commit. If the submodule repository is not hosted on github.com, the Git URLs (git_url and _links["git"]) and the github.com URLs (html_url and _links["html"]) will have null values.
Notes:

To get a repository's contents recursively, you can recursively get the tree.
This API has an upper limit of 1,000 files for a directory. If you need to retrieve
more files, use the Git Trees API.
Download URLs expire and are meant to be used just once. To ensure the download URL does not expire, please use the contents API to obtain a fresh download URL for each download.
If the requested file's size is:

1 MB or smaller: All features of this endpoint are supported.
Between 1-100 MB: Only the raw or object custom media types are supported. Both will work as normal, except that when using the object media type, the content field will be an empty
string and the encoding field will be "none". To get the contents of these larger files, use the raw media type.
Greater than 100 MB: This endpoint is not supported.

Parameters

Headers

Path and query parameters

HTTP response status codes

Code examples

Content is a file using the object media type

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/PATH \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.object"

Response schema (Status: 200):

Content is a directory using the object media type

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/PATH \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.object"

Response schema (Status: 200):

Content is a file

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/PATH

Response schema (Status: 200):

Content is a directory

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/PATH

Response schema (Status: 200):

Content is a symlink

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/PATH

Response schema (Status: 200):

Content is a submodule

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/PATH

Response schema (Status: 200):

Create or update file contents

PUT /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents/{path}

Creates a new file or replaces an existing file in a repository.
Note

If you use this endpoint and the "Delete a file" endpoint in parallel, the concurrent requests will conflict and you will receive errors. You must use these endpoints serially instead.

OAuth app tokens and personal access tokens (classic) need the repo scope to use this endpoint. The workflow scope is also required in order to modify files in the .github/workflows directory.

Parameters

Headers

Path and query parameters

Body parameters

HTTP response status codes

Code examples

Example for creating a file

Request:

curl -L \
  -X PUT \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/PATH \
  -d '{
  "message": "my commit message",
  "committer": {
    "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
    "email": "octocat@github.com"
  },
  "content": "bXkgbmV3IGZpbGUgY29udGVudHM="
}'

Response schema (Status: 201):

Example for updating a file

Request:

curl -L \
  -X PUT \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/PATH \
  -d '{
  "message": "a new commit message",
  "committer": {
    "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
    "email": "octocat@github.com"
  },
  "content": "bXkgdXBkYXRlZCBmaWxlIGNvbnRlbnRz",
  "sha": "95b966ae1c166bd92f8ae7d1c313e738c731dfc3"
}'

Response schema (Status: 200):

Delete a file

DELETE /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents/{path}

Deletes a file in a repository.
You can provide an additional committer parameter, which is an object containing information about the committer. Or, you can provide an author parameter, which is an object containing information about the author.
The author section is optional and is filled in with the committer information if omitted. If the committer information is omitted, the authenticated user's information is used.
You must provide values for both name and email, whether you choose to use author or committer. Otherwise, you'll receive a 422 status code.
Note

If you use this endpoint and the "Create or update file contents" endpoint in parallel, the concurrent requests will conflict and you will receive errors. You must use these endpoints serially instead.

Parameters

Headers

Path and query parameters

Body parameters

HTTP response status codes

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X DELETE \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/PATH \
  -d '{
  "message": "my commit message",
  "committer": {
    "name": "Monalisa Octocat",
    "email": "octocat@github.com"
  },
  "sha": "329688480d39049927147c162b9d2deaf885005f"
}'

Response schema (Status: 200):

Same response schema as Create or update file contents.

Get a repository README

GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/readme

Gets the preferred README for a repository.
This endpoint supports the following custom media types. For more information, see "Media types."

application/vnd.github.raw+json: Returns the raw file contents. This is the default if you do not specify a media type.
application/vnd.github.html+json: Returns the README in HTML. Markup languages are rendered to HTML using GitHub's open-source Markup library.

Parameters

Headers

Path and query parameters

HTTP response status codes

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/readme

Response schema (Status: 200):

Get a repository README for a directory

GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/readme/{dir}

Gets the README from a repository directory.
This endpoint supports the following custom media types. For more information, see "Media types."

application/vnd.github.raw+json: Returns the raw file contents. This is the default if you do not specify a media type.
application/vnd.github.html+json: Returns the README in HTML. Markup languages are rendered to HTML using GitHub's open-source Markup library.

Parameters

Headers

Path and query parameters

HTTP response status codes

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/readme/DIR

Response schema (Status: 200):

Same response schema as Get a repository README.

Download a repository archive (tar)

GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/tarball/{ref}

Gets a redirect URL to download a tar archive for a repository. If you omit :ref, the repository’s default branch (usually
main) will be used. Please make sure your HTTP framework is configured to follow redirects or you will need to use
the Location header to make a second GET request.
Note

For private repositories, these links are temporary and expire after five minutes.

Parameters

Headers

Path and query parameters

HTTP response status codes

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/tarball/REF

Response schema (Status: 302):

Download a repository archive (zip)

GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/zipball/{ref}

Gets a redirect URL to download a zip archive for a repository. If you omit :ref, the repository’s default branch (usually
main) will be used. Please make sure your HTTP framework is configured to follow redirects or you will need to use
the Location header to make a second GET request.
Note

For private repositories, these links are temporary and expire after five minutes. If the repository is empty, you will receive a 404 when you follow the redirect.

Parameters

Headers

Path and query parameters

HTTP response status codes

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/zipball/REF

Response schema (Status: 302):