Search

Download Spec

Look for stuff on GitHub.

Search code
get /search/code

Searches for query terms inside of a file. This method returns up to 100 results per page.

When searching for code, you can get text match metadata for the file content and file path fields when you pass the text-match media type. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see Text match metadata.

For example, if you want to find the definition of the addClass function inside jQuery repository, your query would look something like this:

q=addClass+in:file+language:js+repo:jquery/jquery

This query searches for the keyword addClass within a file's contents. The query limits the search to files where the language is JavaScript in the jquery/jquery repository.

Considerations for code search

Due to the complexity of searching code, there are a few restrictions on how searches are performed:

  • Only the default branch is considered. In most cases, this will be the master branch.
  • Only files smaller than 384 KB are searchable.
  • You must always include at least one search term when searching source code. For example, searching for language:go is not valid, while amazing language:go is.

q

string

required

The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub Enterprise Server. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub Enterprise Server. To learn more about the format of the query, see Constructing a search query. See "Searching code" for a detailed list of qualifiers.

sort

string

Sorts the results of your query. Can only be indexed, which indicates how recently a file has been indexed by the GitHub Enterprise Server search infrastructure. Default: best match

Enum
  • indexed

order

string

Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (desc) or lowest number of matches (asc). This parameter is ignored unless you provide sort.

Default
"desc"
Enum
  • desc
  • asc

per_page

int

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default
30

page

int

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default
1

Response

ExamplesSchema

Response

{
  "total_count": 7,
  "incomplete_results": false,
  "items": [
    {
      "name": "classes.js",
      "path": "src/attributes/classes.js",
      "sha": "d7212f9dee2dcc18f084d7df8f417b80846ded5a",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repositories/167174/contents/src/attributes/classes.js?ref=825ac3773694e0cd23ee74895fd5aeb535b27da4",
      "git_url": "https://api.github.com/repositories/167174/git/blobs/d7212f9dee2dcc18f084d7df8f417b80846ded5a",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/jquery/jquery/blob/825ac3773694e0cd23ee74895fd5aeb535b27da4/src/attributes/classes.js",
      "repository": {
        "id": 167174,
        "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkxNjcxNzQ=",
        "name": "jquery",
        "full_name": "jquery/jquery",
        "owner": {
          "login": "jquery",
          "id": 70142,
          "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjcwMTQy",
          "avatar_url": "https://0.gravatar.com/avatar/6906f317a4733f4379b06c32229ef02f?d=https%3A%2F%2Fidenticons.github.com%2Ff426f04f2f9813718fb806b30e0093de.png",
          "gravatar_id": "",
          "url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery",
          "html_url": "https://github.com/jquery",
          "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/followers",
          "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/following{/other_user}",
          "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/gists{/gist_id}",
          "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
          "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/subscriptions",
          "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/orgs",
          "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/repos",
          "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/events{/privacy}",
          "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/jquery/received_events",
          "type": "Organization",
          "site_admin": false
        },
        "private": false,
        "html_url": "https://github.com/jquery/jquery",
        "description": "jQuery JavaScript Library",
        "fork": false,
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery",
        "forks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/forks",
        "keys_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/keys{/key_id}",
        "collaborators_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/collaborators{/collaborator}",
        "teams_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/teams",
        "hooks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/hooks",
        "issue_events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/issues/events{/number}",
        "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/events",
        "assignees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/assignees{/user}",
        "branches_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/branches{/branch}",
        "tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/tags",
        "blobs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/git/blobs{/sha}",
        "git_tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/git/tags{/sha}",
        "git_refs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/git/refs{/sha}",
        "trees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/git/trees{/sha}",
        "statuses_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/statuses/{sha}",
        "languages_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/languages",
        "stargazers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/stargazers",
        "contributors_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/contributors",
        "subscribers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/subscribers",
        "subscription_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/subscription",
        "commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/commits{/sha}",
        "git_commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/git/commits{/sha}",
        "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/comments{/number}",
        "issue_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/issues/comments/{number}",
        "contents_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/contents/{+path}",
        "compare_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/compare/{base}...{head}",
        "merges_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/merges",
        "archive_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/{archive_format}{/ref}",
        "downloads_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/downloads",
        "issues_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/issues{/number}",
        "pulls_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/pulls{/number}",
        "milestones_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/milestones{/number}",
        "notifications_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/notifications{?since,all,participating}",
        "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/labels{/name}",
        "deployments_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/deployments",
        "releases_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/releases{/id}"
      },
      "score": 1
    }
  ]
}

Search commits
get /search/commits

Find commits via various criteria on the default branch (usually main). This method returns up to 100 results per page.

When searching for commits, you can get text match metadata for the message field when you provide the text-match media type. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see Text match metadata.

For example, if you want to find commits related to CSS in the octocat/Spoon-Knife repository. Your query would look something like this:

q=repo:octocat/Spoon-Knife+css

q

string

required

The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub Enterprise Server. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub Enterprise Server. To learn more about the format of the query, see Constructing a search query. See "Searching commits" for a detailed list of qualifiers.

sort

string

Sorts the results of your query by author-date or committer-date. Default: best match

Enum
  • author-date
  • committer-date

order

string

Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (desc) or lowest number of matches (asc). This parameter is ignored unless you provide sort.

Default
"desc"
Enum
  • desc
  • asc

per_page

int

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default
30

page

int

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default
1

Response

ExamplesSchema

Response

{
  "total_count": 1,
  "incomplete_results": false,
  "items": [
    {
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f",
      "sha": "bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commit/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f",
      "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f/comments",
      "commit": {
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/commits/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f",
        "author": {
          "date": "2014-02-04T14:38:36-08:00",
          "name": "The Octocat",
          "email": "octocat@nowhere.com"
        },
        "committer": {
          "date": "2014-02-12T15:18:55-08:00",
          "name": "The Octocat",
          "email": "octocat@nowhere.com"
        },
        "message": "Create styles.css and updated README",
        "tree": {
          "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/trees/a639e96f9038797fba6e0469f94a4b0cc459fa68",
          "sha": "a639e96f9038797fba6e0469f94a4b0cc459fa68"
        },
        "comment_count": 8
      },
      "author": {
        "login": "octocat",
        "id": 583231,
        "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==",
        "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/583231?v=3",
        "gravatar_id": "",
        "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat",
        "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
        "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers",
        "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
        "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
        "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
        "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
        "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
        "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
        "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
        "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events",
        "type": "User",
        "site_admin": false
      },
      "committer": {},
      "parents": [
        {
          "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits/a30c19e3f13765a3b48829788bc1cb8b4e95cee4",
          "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commit/a30c19e3f13765a3b48829788bc1cb8b4e95cee4",
          "sha": "a30c19e3f13765a3b48829788bc1cb8b4e95cee4"
        }
      ],
      "repository": {
        "id": 1300192,
        "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkxMzAwMTky",
        "name": "Spoon-Knife",
        "full_name": "octocat/Spoon-Knife",
        "owner": {
          "login": "octocat",
          "id": 583231,
          "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==",
          "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/583231?v=3",
          "gravatar_id": "",
          "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat",
          "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
          "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers",
          "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
          "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
          "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
          "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
          "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
          "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
          "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
          "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events",
          "type": "User",
          "site_admin": false
        },
        "private": false,
        "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife",
        "description": "This repo is for demonstration purposes only.",
        "fork": false,
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife",
        "forks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/forks",
        "keys_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/keys{/key_id}",
        "collaborators_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/collaborators{/collaborator}",
        "teams_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/teams",
        "hooks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/hooks",
        "issue_events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/issues/events{/number}",
        "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/events",
        "assignees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/assignees{/user}",
        "branches_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/branches{/branch}",
        "tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/tags",
        "blobs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/blobs{/sha}",
        "git_tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/tags{/sha}",
        "git_refs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/refs{/sha}",
        "trees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/trees{/sha}",
        "statuses_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/statuses/{sha}",
        "languages_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/languages",
        "stargazers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/stargazers",
        "contributors_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/contributors",
        "subscribers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/subscribers",
        "subscription_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/subscription",
        "commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits{/sha}",
        "git_commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/commits{/sha}",
        "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/comments{/number}",
        "issue_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/issues/comments{/number}",
        "contents_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/contents/{+path}",
        "compare_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/compare/{base}...{head}",
        "merges_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/merges",
        "archive_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/{archive_format}{/ref}",
        "downloads_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/downloads",
        "issues_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/issues{/number}",
        "pulls_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/pulls{/number}",
        "milestones_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/milestones{/number}",
        "notifications_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/notifications{?since,all,participating}",
        "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/labels{/name}",
        "releases_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/releases{/id}",
        "deployments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/deployments"
      },
      "score": 1,
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ=="
    }
  ]
}

Search issues and pull requests
get /search/issues

Find issues by state and keyword. This method returns up to 100 results per page.

When searching for issues, you can get text match metadata for the issue title, issue body, and issue comment body fields when you pass the text-match media type. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see Text match metadata.

For example, if you want to find the oldest unresolved Python bugs on Windows. Your query might look something like this.

q=windows+label:bug+language:python+state:open&sort=created&order=asc

This query searches for the keyword windows, within any open issue that is labeled as bug. The search runs across repositories whose primary language is Python. The results are sorted by creation date in ascending order, which means the oldest issues appear first in the search results.

Note: For user-to-server GitHub App requests, you can't retrieve a combination of issues and pull requests in a single query. Requests that don't include the is:issue or is:pull-request qualifier will receive an HTTP 422 Unprocessable Entity response. To get results for both issues and pull requests, you must send separate queries for issues and pull requests. For more information about the is qualifier, see "Searching only issues or pull requests."

q

string

required

The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub Enterprise Server. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub Enterprise Server. To learn more about the format of the query, see Constructing a search query. See "Searching issues and pull requests" for a detailed list of qualifiers.

sort

string

Sorts the results of your query by the number of comments, reactions, reactions-+1, reactions--1, reactions-smile, reactions-thinking_face, reactions-heart, reactions-tada, or interactions. You can also sort results by how recently the items were created or updated, Default: best match

Enum
  • comments
  • reactions
  • reactions-+1
  • reactions--1
  • reactions-smile
  • reactions-thinking_face
  • reactions-heart
  • reactions-tada
  • interactions
  • created
  • updated

order

string

Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (desc) or lowest number of matches (asc). This parameter is ignored unless you provide sort.

Default
"desc"
Enum
  • desc
  • asc

per_page

int

The number of results per page (max 100).

Default
30

page

int

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default
1

Response

ExamplesSchema

Response

{
  "total_count": 280,
  "incomplete_results": false,
  "items": [
    {
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/issues/132",
      "repository_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit",
      "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/issues/132/labels{/name}",
      "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/issues/132/comments",
      "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/issues/132/events",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/issues/132",
      "id": 35802,
      "node_id": "MDU6SXNzdWUzNTgwMg==",
      "number": 132,
      "title": "Line Number Indexes Beyond 20 Not Displayed",
      "user": {
        "login": "Nick3C",
        "id": 90254,
        "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjkwMjU0",
        "avatar_url": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/934442aadfe3b2f4630510de416c5718?d=https://a248.e.akamai.net/assets.github.com%2Fimages%2Fgravatars%2Fgravatar-user-420.png",
        "gravatar_id": "",
        "url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C",
        "html_url": "https://github.com/Nick3C",
        "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/followers",
        "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/following{/other_user}",
        "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/gists{/gist_id}",
        "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
        "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/subscriptions",
        "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/orgs",
        "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/repos",
        "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/events{/privacy}",
        "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/Nick3C/received_events",
        "type": "User",
        "site_admin": true
      },
      "labels": [
        {
          "id": 4,
          "node_id": "MDU6TGFiZWw0",
          "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/batterseapower/pinyin-toolkit/labels/bug",
          "name": "bug",
          "color": "ff0000"
        }
      ],
      "state": "open",
      "assignee": null,
      "milestone": {
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones/1",
        "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/milestones/v1.0",
        "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones/1/labels",
        "id": 1002604,
        "node_id": "MDk6TWlsZXN0b25lMTAwMjYwNA==",
        "number": 1,
        "state": "open",
        "title": "v1.0",
        "description": "Tracking milestone for version 1.0",
        "creator": {
          "login": "octocat",
          "id": 1,
          "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=",
          "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
          "gravatar_id": "",
          "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat",
          "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
          "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers",
          "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
          "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
          "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
          "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
          "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
          "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
          "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
          "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events",
          "type": "User",
          "site_admin": false
        },
        "open_issues": 4,
        "closed_issues": 8,
        "created_at": "2011-04-10T20:09:31Z",
        "updated_at": "2014-03-03T18:58:10Z",
        "closed_at": "2013-02-12T13:22:01Z",
        "due_on": "2012-10-09T23:39:01Z"
      },
      "comments": 15,
      "created_at": "2009-07-12T20:10:41Z",
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