About OpenAPI descriptions
OpenAPI is a standard specification for describing REST APIs. OpenAPI descriptions allow both humans and machines to discover the capabilities of an API without needing to first read documentation or understand the implementation. GitHub has made its REST API publicly available as an OpenAPI 3.0 compliant document.
Getting the GitHub OpenAPI description
You can find the description in the open source REST API OpenAPI Description repository.
We provide the description in two formats. The bundled version works for most cases, as it includes OpenAPI components for reuse and readability. If your tooling does not support inline references to components, we also provide a fully dereferenced version.
Using the GitHub OpenAPI description
There are many uses for an OpenAPI description. For example, you could:
- Generate your own API client.
- Validate and test a GitHub REST API integration.
- Explore and interact with the GitHub REST API using third-party tools, such as Insomnia or Postman.
For example, GitHub uses the REST OpenAPI description to generate the GitHub REST API reference documentation.