Get a reference

GET

/repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/ref/{ref}

Returns a single reference from your Git database. The :ref in the URL must be formatted as heads/<branch name> for branches and tags/<tag name> for tags. If the :ref doesn’t match an existing ref, a 404 is returned.

[!NOTE] You need to explicitly request a pull request to trigger a test merge commit, which checks the mergeability of pull requests. For more information, see “Checking mergeability of pull requests”.

API method documentation

Parameters

Path Parameters

owner

required

string

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

repo

required

string

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

ref

required

string

The Git reference. For more information, see “Git References” in the Git documentation.

Example

heads/feature-a

Responses

200

Response

Media type application/json

Git Reference

Git references within a repository

object

ref

required

string

node_id

required

string

url

required

string format: uri

object

required

object

type

required

string

sha

required

SHA for the reference

string

>= 40 characters <= 40 characters

url

required

string format: uri

Examples

Example default

{
  "ref": "refs/heads/featureA",
  "node_id": "MDM6UmVmcmVmcy9oZWFkcy9mZWF0dXJlQQ==",
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs/heads/featureA",
  "object": {
    "type": "commit",
    "sha": "aa218f56b14c9653891f9e74264a383fa43fefbd",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/aa218f56b14c9653891f9e74264a383fa43fefbd"
  }
}

404

Resource not found

Media type application/json

Basic Error

Basic Error

object

message

string

documentation_url

string

url

string

status

string

Example ^generated

{
  "message": "example",
  "documentation_url": "example",
  "url": "example",
  "status": "example"
}

409

Conflict

Media type application/json

Basic Error

Basic Error

object

message

string

documentation_url

string

url

string

status

string

Example ^generated

{
  "message": "example",
  "documentation_url": "example",
  "url": "example",
  "status": "example"
}