Sample - GitHub REST API
GET/search/code

Search code

Searches for query terms inside of a file. This method returns up to 100 results per page.

When searching for code, you can get text match metadata for the file content and file path fields when you pass the text-match media type. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see Text match metadata.

For example, if you want to find the definition of the addClass function inside jQuery repository, your query would look something like this:

q=addClass+in:file+language:js+repo:jquery/jquery

This query searches for the keyword addClass within a file's contents. The query limits the search to files where the language is JavaScript in the jquery/jquery repository.

Considerations for code search:

Due to the complexity of searching code, there are a few restrictions on how searches are performed:

  • Only the default branch is considered. In most cases, this will be the master branch.
  • Only files smaller than 384 KB are searchable.
  • You must always include at least one search term when searching source code. For example, searching for language:go is not valid, while amazing language:go is.

This endpoint requires you to authenticate and limits you to 10 requests per minute.

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

5 parameters
qstringrequired
The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub. To learn more about the format of the query, see [Constructing a search query](https://docs.github.com/rest/search/search#constructing-a-search-query). See "[Searching code](https://docs.github.com/search-github/searching-on-github/searching-code)" for a detailed list of qualifiers.
sortstringoptional
**This field is closing down.** Sorts the results of your query. Can only be `indexed`, which indicates how recently a file has been indexed by the GitHub search infrastructure. Default: [best match](https://docs.github.com/rest/search/search#ranking-search-results)
Allowed:indexed
orderstringoptional
**This field is closing down.** Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (`desc`) or lowest number of matches (`asc`). This parameter is ignored unless you provide `sort`.
Allowed:descascDefault:desc
per_pageintegeroptional
The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "[Using pagination in the REST API](https://docs.github.com/rest/using-the-rest-api/using-pagination-in-the-rest-api)."
Default:30
pageintegeroptional
The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "[Using pagination in the REST API](https://docs.github.com/rest/using-the-rest-api/using-pagination-in-the-rest-api)."
Default:1

5 status codes
200Response
total_countintegerrequired
incomplete_resultsbooleanrequired
itemsarray<CodeSearchResultItem>required
304Not modified
403Forbidden
messagestringoptional
documentation_urlstringoptional
urlstringoptional
statusstringoptional
422Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.
messagestringrequired
documentation_urlstringrequired
errorsarray<object>optional
503Service unavailable
codestringoptional
messagestringoptional
documentation_urlstringoptional

Error handling

A 403 is returned: Forbidden. A 422 is returned: Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed. A 503 is returned: Service unavailable.

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