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List matching references

GET
/repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/matching-refs/{ref}

Returns an array of references from your Git database that match the supplied name. 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 exist in the repository, but existing refs start with :ref, they will be returned as an array.

When you use this endpoint without providing a :ref, it will return an array of all the references from your Git database, including notes and stashes if they exist on the server. Anything in the namespace is returned, not just heads and tags.

[!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”.

If you request matching references for a branch named feature but the branch feature doesn’t exist, the response can still include other matching head refs that start with the word feature, such as featureA and featureB.

API method documentation

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

Response

Media type application/json
Array<object>
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/feature-a",
"node_id": "MDM6UmVmcmVmcy9oZWFkcy9mZWF0dXJlLWE=",
"url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs/heads/feature-a",
"object": {
"type": "commit",
"sha": "aa218f56b14c9653891f9e74264a383fa43fefbd",
"url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/aa218f56b14c9653891f9e74264a383fa43fefbd"
}
},
{
"ref": "refs/heads/feature-b",
"node_id": "MDM6UmVmcmVmcy9oZWFkcy9mZWF0dXJlLWI=",
"url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs/heads/feature-b",
"object": {
"type": "commit",
"sha": "612077ae6dffb4d2fbd8ce0cccaa58893b07b5ac",
"url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits/612077ae6dffb4d2fbd8ce0cccaa58893b07b5ac"
}
}
]
Link
string
Example
<https://api.github.com/resource?page=2>; rel="next", <https://api.github.com/resource?page=5>; rel="last"

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"
}