---
title: "Create a GitHub license"
method: POST
path: "/setup/api/start"
tags: ["enterprise-admin"]
---

# Create a GitHub license

`POST /setup/api/start`

When you boot a GitHub instance for the first time, you can use the following endpoint to upload a license.

Note that you need to `POST` to [`/setup/api/configure`](https://docs.github.com/enterprise-server@3.6/rest/enterprise-admin/management-console#start-a-configuration-process) to start the actual configuration process.

When using this endpoint, your GitHub instance must have a password set. This can be accomplished two ways:

1.  If you're working directly with the API before accessing the web interface, you must pass in the password parameter to set your password.
2.  If you set up your instance via the web interface before accessing the API, your calls to this endpoint do not need the password parameter.

**Note:** The request body for this operation must be submitted as `multipart/form-data` data. You can can reference the license file by prefixing the filename with the `@` symbol using `curl`. For more information, see the [`curl` documentation](https://curl.se/docs/manpage.html#-F).

## Response `202`

Response

## Other responses

- `401` — Unauthorized

---

[API](https://skmtc.net/github/apis/github-v3-rest-api-5.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.net/github/apis/github-v3-rest-api-5/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-staging.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/github/github-v3-rest-api-5/versions/50ae54440071/schema)