GET/repos/{owner}/{repo}/readme

Get a repository README

Gets the preferred README for a repository.

This endpoint supports the following custom media types. For more information, see "Media types."

application/vnd.github.raw+json: Returns the raw file contents. This is the default if you do not specify a media type.
application/vnd.github.html+json: Returns the README in HTML. Markup languages are rendered to HTML using GitHub's open-source Markup library.

RetriesRetries up to 2×, 500ms backoff, 30s timeout.

3 parameters

ownerstringrequired

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

repostringrequired

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

refstringoptional

The name of the commit/branch/tag. Default: the repository’s default branch.

4 status codes

200Response

typestringrequired

Allowed:file

encodingstringrequired

sizeintegerrequired

namestringrequired

pathstringrequired

contentstringrequired

shastringrequired

urlstringrequired

git_urlstringrequired

html_urlstringrequired

download_urlstringrequired

_linksobjectrequired

targetstringoptional

submodule_git_urlstringoptional

304Not modified

404Resource not found

messagestringoptional

documentation_urlstringoptional

urlstringoptional

statusstringoptional

422Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

messagestringrequired

documentation_urlstringrequired

errorsarray<object>optional

Error handling

A 404 is returned: Resource not found. A 422 is returned: Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

import { Client } from "acme-sdk";

const client = new Client({
  baseUrl: "https://api.acme.com",
  auth: { bearer: process.env.API_TOKEN },
  retry: {
    maxAttempts: 3,
    retryOn: [
      408,
      425,
      429,
      500,
      502,
      503,
      504,
    ],
    backoffMs: 500,
    maxBackoffMs: 8000,
  },
  timeoutMs: 30000,
});

const result = await client.readme.list({
  owner: "octocat",
  repo: "hello-world",
  ref: "main",
});

{
  "type": "file",
  "encoding": "base64",
  "size": 5362,
  "name": "README.md",
  "path": "README.md",
  "content": "encoded content ...",
  "sha": "3d21ec53a331a6f037a91c368710b99387d012c1",
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octokit/octokit.rb/contents/README.md",
  "git_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octokit/octokit.rb/git/blobs/3d21ec53a331a6f037a91c368710b99387d012c1",
  "html_url": "https://github.com/octokit/octokit.rb/blob/master/README.md",
  "download_url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/octokit/octokit.rb/master/README.md",
  "_links": {
    "git": "https://api.github.com/repos/octokit/octokit.rb/git/blobs/3d21ec53a331a6f037a91c368710b99387d012c1",
    "self": "https://api.github.com/repos/octokit/octokit.rb/contents/README.md",
    "html": "https://github.com/octokit/octokit.rb/blob/master/README.md"
  }
}

Request

Response

Errors