Search commits

The Commit Search API is currently available for developers to preview. During the preview period, the APIs may change without advance notice. Please see the blog post for full details.

To access the API you must provide a custom media type in the Accept header:

  application/vnd.github.cloak-preview

Find commits via various criteria. This method returns up to 100 results per page.

GET /search/commits

Considerations for commit search

Only the default branch is considered. In most cases, this will be the master branch.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
`q`	`string`	Required. The search terms.
`sort`	`string`	The sort field. Can be `author-date` or `committer-date`. Default: results are sorted by best match.
`order`	`string`	The sort order if `sort` parameter is provided. One of `asc` or `desc`. Default: `desc`

The q search term can also contain any combination of the supported commit search qualifiers as described by the in-browser commit search documentation and search syntax documentation:

author Matches commits authored by a user (based on email settings).
committer Matches commits committed by a user (based on email settings).
author-name Matches commits by author name.
committer-name Matches commits by committer name.
author-email Matches commits by author email.
committer-email Matches commits by committer email.
author-date Matches commits by author date range.
committer-date Matches commits by committer date range.
merge true filters to merge commits, false filters out merge commits.
hash Matches commits by hash.
parent Matches commits that have a particular parent.
tree Matches commits by tree hash.
is Matches public or private repositories.
user, org, or repo Limits searches to a specific user, organization, or repository.

Example

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

curl -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.cloak-preview" \
https://api.github.com/search/commits?q=repo:octocat/Spoon-Knife+css

Status: 200 OK
Link: <https://api.github.com/resource?page=2>; rel="next",
      <https://api.github.com/resource?page=5>; rel="last"
X-RateLimit-Limit: 20
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 19

{
  "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": {
        "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
      },
      "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": 4.9971514
    }
  ]
}

Highlighting code search results

When searching for commits, you can get text match metadata for the message field. See the section on text match metadata for full details.