DEV Community

Chris Achinga
Chris Achinga

Posted on • Originally published at chrisdevcode.hashnode.dev on

GitHub REST API

Most of us use GitHub services frequently if not on a daily basis.

If you are a student, GitHub offers student packages with great tools and freebies you could use. Check my article on Github's Developer Pack for students.

In this article, I will take you through using GitHub REST API to display your repos on your portfolio website. I will use postman to test the API.

GitHub REST API Documentation.

Playing With The API

I'll use postman to show you what the API can offer for your own personal use. For this, I'll be using the endpoint to fetch a user's repositories.

https://api.github.com/users/{github_username}
https://api.github.com/users/{github_username}/repos
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Postman Screenshot

Postman Screenshot

Using the GitHub User endpoint: 

https://api.github.com/users/{github_username}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

i.e:

https://api.github.com/users/achingachris
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

This returns GitHub user details:

{
    "login": "",
    "id": ,
    "node_id": "",
    "avatar_url": "",
    "gravatar_id": "",
    "url": "",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/achingachris",
    "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/followers",
    "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/following{/other_user}",
    "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/gists{/gist_id}",
    "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
    "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/subscriptions",
    "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/orgs",
    "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/repos",
    "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/events{/privacy}",
    "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/received_events",
    "type": "User",
    "site_admin": false,
    "name": "chrisdevcode",
    "company": null,
    "blog": "",
    "location": "Kenya",
    "email": null,
    "hireable": null,
    "bio": "React | Next | Node | C#(dotnet)\r\n\r\nTech Community Lover",
    "twitter_username": null,
    "public_repos": 211,
    "public_gists": 15,
    "followers": 91,
    "following": 117,
    "created_at": "2019-04-29T22:17:15Z",
    "updated_at": "2021-07-15T06:56:22Z"
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

You could use this to display:

  1. Public respos and gists
  2. Date you created your GitHub account
  3. GitHub bio
  4. Number of people you follow and followers too.

Using the GitHub User Repos endpoint: 

https://api.github.com/users/{github_username}/repos
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

i.e:

https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/repos
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The results returned:

PS - It also returns the user details plus all the repos:

{
        "id": 300814209,
        "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkzMDA4MTQyMDk=",
        "name": "AI-ML-Bootcamp",
        "full_name": "achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp",
        "private": false,
        "owner": {
            "login": "achingachris",
            "id": 50122165,
            "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjUwMTIyMTY1",
            "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/50122165?v=4",
            "gravatar_id": "",
            "url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris",
            "html_url": "https://github.com/achingachris",
            "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/followers",
            "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/following{/other_user}",
            "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/gists{/gist_id}",
            "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
            "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/subscriptions",
            "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/orgs",
            "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/repos",
            "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/events{/privacy}",
            "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/achingachris/received_events",
            "type": "User",
            "site_admin": false
        },
        "html_url": "https://github.com/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp",
        "description": "Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Bootcamp - Strathmore University",
        "fork": false,
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp",
        "forks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/forks",
        "keys_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/keys{/key_id}",
        "collaborators_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/collaborators{/collaborator}",
        "teams_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/teams",
        "hooks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/hooks",
        "issue_events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/issues/events{/number}",
        "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/events",
        "assignees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/assignees{/user}",
        "branches_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/branches{/branch}",
        "tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/tags",
        "blobs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/git/blobs{/sha}",
        "git_tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/git/tags{/sha}",
        "git_refs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/git/refs{/sha}",
        "trees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/git/trees{/sha}",
        "statuses_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/statuses/{sha}",
        "languages_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/languages",
        "stargazers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/stargazers",
        "contributors_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/contributors",
        "subscribers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/subscribers",
        "subscription_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/subscription",
        "commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/commits{/sha}",
        "git_commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/git/commits{/sha}",
        "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/comments{/number}",
        "issue_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/issues/comments{/number}",
        "contents_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/contents/{+path}",
        "compare_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/compare/{base}...{head}",
        "merges_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/merges",
        "archive_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/{archive_format}{/ref}",
        "downloads_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/downloads",
        "issues_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/issues{/number}",
        "pulls_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/pulls{/number}",
        "milestones_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/milestones{/number}",
        "notifications_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/notifications{?since,all,participating}",
        "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/labels{/name}",
        "releases_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/releases{/id}",
        "deployments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp/deployments",
        "created_at": "2020-10-03T06:39:03Z",
        "updated_at": "2020-10-07T19:30:57Z",
        "pushed_at": "2020-10-07T19:30:54Z",
        "git_url": "git://github.com/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp.git",
        "ssh_url": "git@github.com:achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp.git",
        "clone_url": "https://github.com/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp.git",
        "svn_url": "https://github.com/achingachris/AI-ML-Bootcamp",
        "homepage": "",
        "size": 140,
        "stargazers_count": 1,
        "watchers_count": 1,
        "language": "Jupyter Notebook",
        "has_issues": true,
        "has_projects": true,
        "has_downloads": true,
        "has_wiki": true,
        "has_pages": false,
        "forks_count": 0,
        "mirror_url": null,
        "archived": false,
        "disabled": false,
        "open_issues_count": 0,
        "license": {
            "key": "mit",
            "name": "MIT License",
            "spdx_id": "MIT",
            "url": "https://api.github.com/licenses/mit",
            "node_id": "MDc6TGljZW5zZTEz"
        },
        "forks": 0,
        "open_issues": 0,
        "watchers": 1,
        "default_branch": "main"
    },
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

From this, you could use this to show your GitHub repos' details with much ease.

To explore more on using the GitHub REST API for Users, visit:

https://docs.github.com/en/rest/reference/users

Next Step

Check out my Blog for a tutorial on using the GitHub API in a NEXTJS app.

Top comments (2)

Collapse
 
hasanelsherbiny profile image
Hasan Elsherbiny •

thanks for this amazing article
if anyone interested or don't know what is API can have a look here

Collapse
 
bigdata_integrator profile image
Madhav Vinod •

I think you can use your expert skills to improve the other members also, Make use of other communities also. community.bizdata360.com/, this is one of a kind.

Read next

peter_truchly_4fce0874fd5 profile image

Old-School Graphics in C# / .Net 8, Part 2: Fireworks and Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX, SSE)

Peter Truchly -

nozibul_islam_113b1d5334f profile image

Decoding Software Quality: A Deep Dive into Errors, Faults, Bugs, Defects, and Failures.

Nozibul Islam -

jwilliamsr profile image

Deploying AI Projects Through a Jenkins Pipeline

Jesse Williams -

arycodes0 profile image

"From Clueless to Clicks: My Hilarious First Steps with React"

Aryam Michel -