REST API endpoints for watching - GitHub Enterprise Server 3.17 Docs

About watching

You can use the REST API to subscribe to notifications for activity in a repository. To bookmark a repository instead, see REST API endpoints for starring.

In August 2012, we changed the way watching works on GitHub. Some API client applications may still be using the original "watcher" endpoints for accessing this data. You should now use the "star" endpoints instead. For more information, REST API endpoints for starring and the changelog post.

In responses from the REST API, subscribers_count corresponds to the number of watchers, whereas watchers, watchers_count, and stargazers_count correspond to the number of users that have starred a repository.

List watchers

Lists the people watching the specified repository.

fine_grained_access

works_with_fine_grained_tokens:

permission_set:

"Metadata" repository permissions (read)

allows_public_read_access

Parameters for "List watchers"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
`accept` string Setting to `application/vnd.github+json` is recommended.

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
`owner` string Required The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.
`repo` string Required The name of the repository without the `.git` extension. The name is not case sensitive.

Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
`per_page` integer The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API." Default: `30`
`page` integer The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API." Default: `1`

http_status_code

status_code	Description
`200`	OK

code_samples

request_example

get/repos/{owner}/{repo}/subscribers

curl -L \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/repos/OWNER/REPO/subscribers

Response

Status: 200

[
  {
    "login": "octocat",
    "id": 1,
    "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=",
    "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
    "gravatar_id": "",
    "url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
    "followers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/followers",
    "following_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
    "gists_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
    "starred_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
    "subscriptions_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/subscriptions",
    "organizations_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/orgs",
    "repos_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/repos",
    "events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
    "received_events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/received_events",
    "type": "User",
    "site_admin": false
  }
]

Get a repository subscription

Gets information about whether the authenticated user is subscribed to the repository.

fine_grained_access

no_fine_grained_access

Parameters for "Get a repository subscription"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
`accept` string Setting to `application/vnd.github+json` is recommended.

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
`owner` string Required The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.
`repo` string Required The name of the repository without the `.git` extension. The name is not case sensitive.

http_status_code

status_code	Description
`200`	if you subscribe to the repository
`403`	Forbidden
`404`	Not Found if you don't subscribe to the repository

code_samples

request_example

get/repos/{owner}/{repo}/subscription

curl -L \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/repos/OWNER/REPO/subscription

if you subscribe to the repository

Status: 200

{
  "subscribed": true,
  "ignored": false,
  "reason": null,
  "created_at": "2012-10-06T21:34:12Z",
  "url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/example/subscription",
  "repository_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/example"
}

Set a repository subscription

If you would like to watch a repository, set subscribed to true. If you would like to ignore notifications made within a repository, set ignored to true. If you would like to stop watching a repository, delete the repository's subscription completely.

fine_grained_access

no_fine_grained_access

Parameters for "Set a repository subscription"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
`accept` string Setting to `application/vnd.github+json` is recommended.

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
`owner` string Required The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.
`repo` string Required The name of the repository without the `.git` extension. The name is not case sensitive.

Body parameters
Name, Type, Description
`subscribed` boolean Determines if notifications should be received from this repository.
`ignored` boolean Determines if all notifications should be blocked from this repository.

http_status_code

status_code	Description
`200`	OK

code_samples

request_example

put/repos/{owner}/{repo}/subscription

curl -L \
  -X PUT \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/repos/OWNER/REPO/subscription \
  -d '{"subscribed":true,"ignored":false}'

Response

Status: 200

{
  "subscribed": true,
  "ignored": false,
  "reason": null,
  "created_at": "2012-10-06T21:34:12Z",
  "url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/example/subscription",
  "repository_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/example"
}

Delete a repository subscription

This endpoint should only be used to stop watching a repository. To control whether or not you wish to receive notifications from a repository, set the repository's subscription manually.

fine_grained_access

no_fine_grained_access

Parameters for "Delete a repository subscription"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
`accept` string Setting to `application/vnd.github+json` is recommended.

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
`owner` string Required The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.
`repo` string Required The name of the repository without the `.git` extension. The name is not case sensitive.

http_status_code

status_code	Description
`204`	No Content

code_samples

request_example

delete/repos/{owner}/{repo}/subscription

curl -L \
  -X DELETE \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/repos/OWNER/REPO/subscription

Response

Status: 204

List repositories watched by the authenticated user

Lists repositories the authenticated user is watching.

fine_grained_access

works_with_fine_grained_tokens:

permission_set:

"Watching" user permissions (read)

allows_public_read_access

Parameters for "List repositories watched by the authenticated user"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
`accept` string Setting to `application/vnd.github+json` is recommended.

Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
`per_page` integer The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API." Default: `30`
`page` integer The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API." Default: `1`

http_status_code

status_code	Description
`200`	OK
`304`	Not modified
`401`	Requires authentication
`403`	Forbidden

code_samples

request_example

get/user/subscriptions

curl -L \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/user/subscriptions

Response

Status: 200

[
  {
    "id": 1296269,
    "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkxMjk2MjY5",
    "name": "Hello-World",
    "full_name": "octocat/Hello-World",
    "owner": {
      "login": "octocat",
      "id": 1,
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=",
      "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
      "gravatar_id": "",
      "url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
      "followers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/followers",
      "following_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
      "gists_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
      "starred_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
      "subscriptions_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/subscriptions",
      "organizations_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/orgs",
      "repos_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/repos",
      "events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
      "received_events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/received_events",
      "type": "User",
      "site_admin": false
    },
    "private": false,
    "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World",
    "description": "This your first repo!",
    "fork": false,
    "url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World",
    "archive_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/{archive_format}{/ref}",
    "assignees_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/assignees{/user}",
    "blobs_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/blobs{/sha}",
    "branches_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/branches{/branch}",
    "collaborators_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/collaborators{/collaborator}",
    "comments_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/comments{/number}",
    "commits_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits{/sha}",
    "compare_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/compare/{base}...{head}",
    "contents_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contents/{+path}",
    "contributors_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contributors",
    "deployments_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/deployments",
    "downloads_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads",
    "events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/events",
    "forks_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/forks",
    "git_commits_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits{/sha}",
    "git_refs_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs{/sha}",
    "git_tags_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/tags{/sha}",
    "git_url": "git:github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git",
    "issue_comment_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/comments{/number}",
    "issue_events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/events{/number}",
    "issues_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues{/number}",
    "keys_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/keys{/key_id}",
    "labels_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels{/name}",
    "languages_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/languages",
    "merges_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/merges",
    "milestones_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones{/number}",
    "notifications_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/notifications{?since,all,participating}",
    "pulls_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/pulls{/number}",
    "releases_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/releases{/id}",
    "ssh_url": "git@github.com:octocat/Hello-World.git",
    "stargazers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/stargazers",
    "statuses_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/statuses/{sha}",
    "subscribers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscribers",
    "subscription_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscription",
    "tags_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tags",
    "teams_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/teams",
    "trees_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/trees{/sha}",
    "clone_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git",
    "mirror_url": "git:git.example.com/octocat/Hello-World",
    "hooks_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/hooks",
    "svn_url": "https://svn.github.com/octocat/Hello-World",
    "homepage": "https://github.com",
    "language": null,
    "forks_count": 9,
    "stargazers_count": 80,
    "watchers_count": 80,
    "size": 108,
    "default_branch": "master",
    "open_issues_count": 0,
    "is_template": false,
    "topics": [
      "octocat",
      "atom",
      "electron",
      "api"
    ],
    "has_issues": true,
    "has_projects": true,
    "has_wiki": true,
    "has_pages": false,
    "has_downloads": true,
    "has_discussions": false,
    "archived": false,
    "disabled": false,
    "visibility": "public",
    "pushed_at": "2011-01-26T19:06:43Z",
    "created_at": "2011-01-26T19:01:12Z",
    "updated_at": "2011-01-26T19:14:43Z",
    "permissions": {
      "admin": false,
      "push": false,
      "pull": true
    },
    "security_and_analysis": {
      "advanced_security": {
        "status": "enabled"
      },
      "secret_scanning": {
        "status": "enabled"
      },
      "secret_scanning_push_protection": {
        "status": "disabled"
      },
      "secret_scanning_non_provider_patterns": {
        "status": "disabled"
      }
    }
  }
]

List repositories watched by a user

Lists repositories a user is watching.

fine_grained_access

works_with_fine_grained_tokens:

permission_set:

"Watching" user permissions (read)

allows_public_read_access

Parameters for "List repositories watched by a user"

Headers
Name, Type, Description
`accept` string Setting to `application/vnd.github+json` is recommended.

Path parameters
Name, Type, Description
`username` string Required The handle for the GitHub user account.

Query parameters
Name, Type, Description
`per_page` integer The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API." Default: `30`
`page` integer The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API." Default: `1`

http_status_code

status_code	Description
`200`	OK

code_samples

request_example

get/users/{username}/subscriptions

curl -L \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  http(s)://HOSTNAME/api/v3/users/USERNAME/subscriptions

Response

Status: 200

[
  {
    "id": 1296269,
    "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkxMjk2MjY5",
    "name": "Hello-World",
    "full_name": "octocat/Hello-World",
    "owner": {
      "login": "octocat",
      "id": 1,
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=",
      "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
      "gravatar_id": "",
      "url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
      "followers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/followers",
      "following_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
      "gists_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
      "starred_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
      "subscriptions_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/subscriptions",
      "organizations_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/orgs",
      "repos_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/repos",
      "events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
      "received_events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/users/octocat/received_events",
      "type": "User",
      "site_admin": false
    },
    "private": false,
    "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World",
    "description": "This your first repo!",
    "fork": false,
    "url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World",
    "archive_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/{archive_format}{/ref}",
    "assignees_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/assignees{/user}",
    "blobs_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/blobs{/sha}",
    "branches_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/branches{/branch}",
    "collaborators_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/collaborators{/collaborator}",
    "comments_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/comments{/number}",
    "commits_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits{/sha}",
    "compare_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/compare/{base}...{head}",
    "contents_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contents/{+path}",
    "contributors_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contributors",
    "deployments_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/deployments",
    "downloads_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads",
    "events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/events",
    "forks_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/forks",
    "git_commits_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits{/sha}",
    "git_refs_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs{/sha}",
    "git_tags_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/tags{/sha}",
    "git_url": "git:github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git",
    "issue_comment_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/comments{/number}",
    "issue_events_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/events{/number}",
    "issues_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues{/number}",
    "keys_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/keys{/key_id}",
    "labels_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels{/name}",
    "languages_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/languages",
    "merges_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/merges",
    "milestones_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones{/number}",
    "notifications_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/notifications{?since,all,participating}",
    "pulls_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/pulls{/number}",
    "releases_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/releases{/id}",
    "ssh_url": "git@github.com:octocat/Hello-World.git",
    "stargazers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/stargazers",
    "statuses_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/statuses/{sha}",
    "subscribers_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscribers",
    "subscription_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscription",
    "tags_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tags",
    "teams_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/teams",
    "trees_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/trees{/sha}",
    "clone_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git",
    "mirror_url": "git:git.example.com/octocat/Hello-World",
    "hooks_url": "https://HOSTNAME/repos/octocat/Hello-World/hooks",
    "svn_url": "https://svn.github.com/octocat/Hello-World",
    "homepage": "https://github.com",
    "language": null,
    "forks_count": 9,
    "stargazers_count": 80,
    "watchers_count": 80,
    "size": 108,
    "default_branch": "master",
    "open_issues_count": 0,
    "is_template": false,
    "topics": [
      "octocat",
      "atom",
      "electron",
      "api"
    ],
    "has_issues": true,
    "has_projects": true,
    "has_wiki": true,
    "has_pages": false,
    "has_downloads": true,
    "has_discussions": false,
    "archived": false,
    "disabled": false,
    "visibility": "public",
    "pushed_at": "2011-01-26T19:06:43Z",
    "created_at": "2011-01-26T19:01:12Z",
    "updated_at": "2011-01-26T19:14:43Z",
    "permissions": {
      "admin": false,
      "push": false,
      "pull": true
    },
    "security_and_analysis": {
      "advanced_security": {
        "status": "enabled"
      },
      "secret_scanning": {
        "status": "enabled"
      },
      "secret_scanning_push_protection": {
        "status": "disabled"
      },
      "secret_scanning_non_provider_patterns": {
        "status": "disabled"
      }
    }
  }
]