Notifications

Users receive notifications for conversations in repositories they watch including:

  • Issues and their comments
  • Pull Requests and their comments
  • Comments on any commits

Notifications are also sent for conversations in unwatched repositories when the user is involved including:

  • @mentions
  • Issue assignments
  • Commits the user authors or commits
  • Any discussion in which the user actively participates

All Notification API calls require the notifications or repo API scopes. Doing this will give read-only access to some issue and commit content. You will still need the repo scope to access issues and commits from their respective endpoints.

Notifications come back as "threads". A thread contains information about the current discussion of an issue, pull request, or commit.

Notifications are optimized for polling with the Last-Modified header. If there are no new notifications, you will see a 304 Not Modified response, leaving your current rate limit untouched. There is an X-Poll-Interval header that specifies how often (in seconds) you are allowed to poll. In times of high server load, the time may increase. Please obey the header.

# Add authentication to your requests
curl -I http(s)://[hostname]/api/v3/notifications
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Last-Modified: Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:16:27 GMT
X-Poll-Interval: 60
# Pass the Last-Modified header exactly
curl -I http(s)://[hostname]/api/v3/notifications
   -H "If-Modified-Since: Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:16:27 GMT"
HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified
X-Poll-Interval: 60

Notification reasons

When retrieving responses from the Notifications API, each payload has a key titled reason. These correspond to events that trigger a notification.

Here's a list of potential reasons for receiving a notification:

Reason Name Description
assign You were assigned to the issue.
author You created the thread.
comment You commented on the thread.
invitation You accepted an invitation to contribute to the repository.
manual You subscribed to the thread (via an issue or pull request).
mention You were specifically @mentioned in the content.
review_requested You, or a team you're a member of, were requested to review a pull request.
state_change You changed the thread state (for example, closing an issue or merging a pull request).
subscribed You're watching the repository.
team_mention You were on a team that was mentioned.

Note that the reason is modified on a per-thread basis, and can change, if the reason on a later notification is different.

For example, if you are the author of an issue, subsequent notifications on that issue will have a reason of author. If you're then @mentioned on the same issue, the notifications you fetch thereafter will have a reason of mention. The reason remains as mention, regardless of whether you're ever mentioned again.

List notifications for the authenticated user

List all notifications for the current user, sorted by most recently updated.

GET /notifications

Parameters

Name Type Description
all boolean If true, show notifications marked as read. Default: false
participating boolean If true, only shows notifications in which the user is directly participating or mentioned. Default: false
since string Only show notifications updated after the given time. This is a timestamp in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.
before string Only show notifications updated before the given time. This is a timestamp in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.

Example

The following example uses the since parameter to list notifications that have been updated after the specified time.

curl -u username:token http(s)://[hostname]/api/v3/notifications?since=2014-11-07T08:00:00Z

Response

Status: 200 OK
Link: <https://api.github.com/resource?page=2>; rel="next",
      <https://api.github.com/resource?page=5>; rel="last"

[
  {
    "id": "1",
    "repository": {
      "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://api.github.com/users/octocat",
        "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
        "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers",
        "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
        "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
        "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
        "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
        "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
        "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
        "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
        "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/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://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World",
      "archive_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/{archive_format}{/ref}",
      "assignees_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/assignees{/user}",
      "blobs_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/blobs{/sha}",
      "branches_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/branches{/branch}",
      "collaborators_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/collaborators{/collaborator}",
      "comments_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/comments{/number}",
      "commits_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits{/sha}",
      "compare_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/compare/{base}...{head}",
      "contents_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contents/{+path}",
      "contributors_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contributors",
      "deployments_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/deployments",
      "downloads_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads",
      "events_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/events",
      "forks_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/forks",
      "git_commits_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits{/sha}",
      "git_refs_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs{/sha}",
      "git_tags_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/tags{/sha}",
      "git_url": "git:github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git",
      "issue_comment_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/comments{/number}",
      "issue_events_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/events{/number}",
      "issues_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues{/number}",
      "keys_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/keys{/key_id}",
      "labels_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels{/name}",
      "languages_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/languages",
      "merges_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/merges",
      "milestones_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones{/number}",
      "notifications_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/notifications{?since,all,participating}",
      "pulls_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/pulls{/number}",
      "releases_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/releases{/id}",
      "ssh_url": "git@github.com:octocat/Hello-World.git",
      "stargazers_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/stargazers",
      "statuses_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/statuses/{sha}",
      "subscribers_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscribers",
      "subscription_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscription",
      "tags_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tags",
      "teams_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/teams",
      "trees_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/trees{/sha}"
    },
    "subject": {
      "title": "Greetings",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octokit/octokit.rb/issues/123",
      "latest_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octokit/octokit.rb/issues/comments/123",
      "type": "Issue"
    },
    "reason": "subscribed",
    "unread": true,
    "updated_at": "2014-11-07T22:01:45Z",
    "last_read_at": "2014-11-07T22:01:45Z",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/1"
  }
]

List repository notifications for the authenticated user

List all notifications for the current user.

GET /repos/:owner/:repo/notifications

Parameters

Name Type Description
all boolean If true, show notifications marked as read. Default: false
participating boolean If true, only shows notifications in which the user is directly participating or mentioned. Default: false
since string Only show notifications updated after the given time. This is a timestamp in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.
before string Only show notifications updated before the given time. This is a timestamp in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.

Response

Status: 200 OK
Link: <https://api.github.com/resource?page=2>; rel="next",
      <https://api.github.com/resource?page=5>; rel="last"

[
  {
    "id": "1",
    "repository": {
      "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://api.github.com/users/octocat",
        "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
        "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers",
        "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
        "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
        "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
        "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
        "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
        "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
        "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
        "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/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://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World",
      "archive_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/{archive_format}{/ref}",
      "assignees_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/assignees{/user}",
      "blobs_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/blobs{/sha}",
      "branches_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/branches{/branch}",
      "collaborators_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/collaborators{/collaborator}",
      "comments_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/comments{/number}",
      "commits_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits{/sha}",
      "compare_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/compare/{base}...{head}",
      "contents_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contents/{+path}",
      "contributors_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contributors",
      "deployments_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/deployments",
      "downloads_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads",
      "events_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/events",
      "forks_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/forks",
      "git_commits_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits{/sha}",
      "git_refs_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs{/sha}",
      "git_tags_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/tags{/sha}",
      "git_url": "git:github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git",
      "issue_comment_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/comments{/number}",
      "issue_events_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/events{/number}",
      "issues_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues{/number}",
      "keys_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/keys{/key_id}",
      "labels_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels{/name}",
      "languages_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/languages",
      "merges_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/merges",
      "milestones_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones{/number}",
      "notifications_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/notifications{?since,all,participating}",
      "pulls_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/pulls{/number}",
      "releases_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/releases{/id}",
      "ssh_url": "git@github.com:octocat/Hello-World.git",
      "stargazers_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/stargazers",
      "statuses_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/statuses/{sha}",
      "subscribers_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscribers",
      "subscription_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscription",
      "tags_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tags",
      "teams_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/teams",
      "trees_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/trees{/sha}"
    },
    "subject": {
      "title": "Greetings",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octokit/octokit.rb/issues/123",
      "latest_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octokit/octokit.rb/issues/comments/123",
      "type": "Issue"
    },
    "reason": "subscribed",
    "unread": true,
    "updated_at": "2014-11-07T22:01:45Z",
    "last_read_at": "2014-11-07T22:01:45Z",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/1"
  }
]

Mark notifications as read

Marks all notifications as "read" removes it from the default view on GitHub Enterprise. If the number of notifications is too large to complete in one request, you will receive a 202 Accepted status and GitHub will run an asynchronous process to mark notifications as "read." To check whether any "unread" notifications remain, you can use the List notifications for the authenticated user endpoint and pass the query parameter all=false.

PUT /notifications

Parameters

Name Type Description
last_read_at string Describes the last point that notifications were checked. Anything updated since this time will not be marked as read. If you omit this parameter, all notifications are marked as read. This is a timestamp in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ. Default: The current timestamp.

Response

Status: 205 Reset Content

Mark repository notifications as read

Marks all notifications in a repository as "read" removes them from the default view on GitHub Enterprise. If the number of notifications is too large to complete in one request, you will receive a 202 Accepted status and GitHub will run an asynchronous process to mark notifications as "read." To check whether any "unread" notifications remain, you can use the List repository notifications for the authenticated user endpoint and pass the query parameter all=false.

PUT /repos/:owner/:repo/notifications

Parameters

Name Type Description
last_read_at string Describes the last point that notifications were checked. Anything updated since this time will not be marked as read. If you omit this parameter, all notifications are marked as read. This is a timestamp in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ. Default: The current timestamp.

Response

Status: 205 Reset Content

Get a thread

GET /notifications/threads/:thread_id

Response

Status: 200 OK

{
  "id": "1",
  "repository": {
    "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://api.github.com/users/octocat",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
      "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers",
      "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
      "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
      "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
      "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
      "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
      "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
      "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
      "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/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://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World",
    "archive_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/{archive_format}{/ref}",
    "assignees_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/assignees{/user}",
    "blobs_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/blobs{/sha}",
    "branches_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/branches{/branch}",
    "collaborators_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/collaborators{/collaborator}",
    "comments_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/comments{/number}",
    "commits_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits{/sha}",
    "compare_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/compare/{base}...{head}",
    "contents_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contents/{+path}",
    "contributors_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contributors",
    "deployments_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/deployments",
    "downloads_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads",
    "events_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/events",
    "forks_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/forks",
    "git_commits_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits{/sha}",
    "git_refs_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs{/sha}",
    "git_tags_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/tags{/sha}",
    "git_url": "git:github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git",
    "issue_comment_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/comments{/number}",
    "issue_events_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/events{/number}",
    "issues_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues{/number}",
    "keys_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/keys{/key_id}",
    "labels_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels{/name}",
    "languages_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/languages",
    "merges_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/merges",
    "milestones_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones{/number}",
    "notifications_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/notifications{?since,all,participating}",
    "pulls_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/pulls{/number}",
    "releases_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/releases{/id}",
    "ssh_url": "git@github.com:octocat/Hello-World.git",
    "stargazers_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/stargazers",
    "statuses_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/statuses/{sha}",
    "subscribers_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscribers",
    "subscription_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscription",
    "tags_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tags",
    "teams_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/teams",
    "trees_url": "http://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/trees{/sha}"
  },
  "subject": {
    "title": "Greetings",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octokit/octokit.rb/issues/123",
    "latest_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octokit/octokit.rb/issues/comments/123",
    "type": "Issue"
  },
  "reason": "subscribed",
  "unread": true,
  "updated_at": "2014-11-07T22:01:45Z",
  "last_read_at": "2014-11-07T22:01:45Z",
  "url": "https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/1"
}

Mark a thread as read

PATCH /notifications/threads/:thread_id

Response

Status: 205 Reset Content

Get a thread subscription for the authenticated user

This checks to see if the current user is subscribed to a thread. You can also get a repository subscription.

Note that subscriptions are only generated if a user is participating in a conversation--for example, they've replied to the thread, were @mentioned, or manually subscribe to a thread.

GET /notifications/threads/:thread_id/subscription

Response

Status: 200 OK

{
  "subscribed": true,
  "ignored": false,
  "reason": null,
  "created_at": "2012-10-06T21:34:12Z",
  "url": "https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/1/subscription",
  "thread_url": "https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/1"
}

Set a thread subscription

If you are watching a repository, you receive notifications for all threads by default. Use this endpoint to ignore future notifications for threads until you comment on the thread or get an @mention.

You can also use this endpoint to subscribe to threads that you are currently not receiving notifications for or to subscribed to threads that you have previously ignored.

Unsubscribing from a conversation in a repository that you are not watching is functionally equivalent to the Delete a thread subscription endpoint.

PUT /notifications/threads/:thread_id/subscription

Parameters

Name Type Description
ignored boolean Unsubscribes and subscribes you to a conversation. Set ignored to true to block all notifications from this thread. Default: false

Response

Status: 200 OK

{
  "subscribed": true,
  "ignored": false,
  "reason": null,
  "created_at": "2012-10-06T21:34:12Z",
  "url": "https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/1/subscription",
  "thread_url": "https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/1"
}

Delete a thread subscription

Mutes all future notifications for a conversation until you comment on the thread or get an @mention. If you are watching the repository of the thread, you will still receive notifications. To ignore future notifications for a repository you are watching, use the Set a thread subscription endpoint and set ignore to true.

DELETE /notifications/threads/:thread_id/subscription

Response

Status: 204 No Content