v68

latestOpenAPI 3.0.3MITraw.githubusercontent.com2026-08-011,21696712.3 MB
repos

Get a commit

Returns the contents of a single commit reference. You must have read access for the repository to use this endpoint.

[!NOTE] If there are more than 300 files in the commit diff and the default JSON media type is requested, the response will include pagination link headers for the remaining files, up to a limit of 3000 files. Each page contains the static commit information, and the only changes are to the file listing.

This endpoint supports the following custom media types. For more information, see "Media types." Pagination query parameters are not supported for these media types.

  • application/vnd.github.diff: Returns the diff of the commit. Larger diffs may time out and return a 5xx status code.
  • application/vnd.github.patch: Returns the patch of the commit. Diffs with binary data will have no patch property. Larger diffs may time out and return a 5xx status code.
  • application/vnd.github.sha: Returns the commit's SHA-1 hash. You can use this endpoint to check if a remote reference's SHA-1 hash is the same as your local reference's SHA-1 hash by providing the local SHA-1 reference as the ETag.

Signature verification object

The response will include a verification object that describes the result of verifying the commit's signature. The following fields are included in the verification object:

NameTypeDescription
verifiedbooleanIndicates whether GitHub considers the signature in this commit to be verified.
reasonstringThe reason for verified value. Possible values and their meanings are enumerated in table below.
signaturestringThe signature that was extracted from the commit.
payloadstringThe value that was signed.
verified_atstringThe date the signature was verified by GitHub.

These are the possible values for reason in the verification object:

ValueDescription
expired_keyThe key that made the signature is expired.
not_signing_keyThe "signing" flag is not among the usage flags in the GPG key that made the signature.
gpgverify_errorThere was an error communicating with the signature verification service.
gpgverify_unavailableThe signature verification service is currently unavailable.
unsignedThe object does not include a signature.
unknown_signature_typeA non-PGP signature was found in the commit.
no_userNo user was associated with the committer email address in the commit.
unverified_emailThe committer email address in the commit was associated with a user, but the email address is not verified on their account.
bad_emailThe committer email address in the commit is not included in the identities of the PGP key that made the signature.
unknown_keyThe key that made the signature has not been registered with any user's account.
malformed_signatureThere was an error parsing the signature.
invalidThe signature could not be cryptographically verified using the key whose key-id was found in the signature.
validNone of the above errors applied, so the signature is considered to be verified.
get/repos/{owner}/{repo}/commits/{ref}

Path parameters

ownerstring required

The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.

repostring required

The name of the repository without the .git extension. The name is not case sensitive.

refstring required

The commit reference. Can be a commit SHA, branch name (heads/BRANCH_NAME), or tag name (tags/TAG_NAME). For more information, see "Git References" in the Git documentation.

Query parameters

pageinteger

The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."

per_pageinteger

The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."

Response

Response

urlstring uri required
shastring required
node_idstring required
html_urlstring uri required
comments_urlstring uri required

Example response

{
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
  "sha": "6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
  "node_id": "MDY6Q29tbWl0NmRjYjA5YjViNTc4NzVmMzM0ZjYxYWViZWQ2OTVlMmU0MTkzZGI1ZQ==",
  "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/commit/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
  "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e/comments",
  "commit": {
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
    "author": {
      "name": "\"Chris Wanstrath\"",
      "email": "\"chris@ozmm.org\"",
      "date": "\"2007-10-29T02:42:39.000-07:00\""
    },
    "committer": {
      "name": "\"Chris Wanstrath\"",
      "email": "\"chris@ozmm.org\"",
      "date": "\"2007-10-29T02:42:39.000-07:00\""
    },
    "message": "Fix all the bugs",
    "tree": {
      "sha": "827efc6d56897b048c772eb4087f854f46256132",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tree/827efc6d56897b048c772eb4087f854f46256132"
    }
  },
  "author": {
    "login": "octocat",
    "id": 1,
    "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=",
    "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
    "gravatar_id": "41d064eb2195891e12d0413f63227ea7",
    "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",
    "starred_at": "\"2020-07-09T00:17:55Z\"",
    "user_view_type": "public"
  },
  "committer": {
    "login": "octocat",
    "id": 1,
    "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=",
    "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
    "gravatar_id": "41d064eb2195891e12d0413f63227ea7",
    "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",
    "starred_at": "\"2020-07-09T00:17:55Z\"",
    "user_view_type": "public"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "sha": "7638417db6d59f3c431d3e1f261cc637155684cd",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits/7638417db6d59f3c431d3e1f261cc637155684cd",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/commit/7638417db6d59f3c431d3e1f261cc637155684cd"
    }
  ],
  "files": [
    {
      "sha": "bbcd538c8e72b8c175046e27cc8f907076331401",
      "filename": "file1.txt",
      "status": "added",
      "additions": 103,
      "deletions": 21,
      "changes": 124,
      "blob_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/blob/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e/file1.txt",
      "raw_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/raw/6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e/file1.txt",
      "contents_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contents/file1.txt?ref=6dcb09b5b57875f334f61aebed695e2e4193db5e",
      "patch": "@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ module Test @@ -1000,7 +1000,7 @@ module Test",
      "previous_filename": "file.txt"
    }
  ]
}