GitHub data without a token to rotate
The GitHub Developer Data API returns official GitHub REST data — profiles, repos, issues and more — as clean JSON.
39 active endpoints, on 0, 1, 2 and 3 credit tiers.
- POST/github/v1/user
- POST/github/v1/user_repos
- POST/github/v1/user_followers
- POST/github/v1/user_following
- POST/github/v1/user_gists
- POST/github/v1/repo
- POST/github/v1/repo_issues
- +32 more
What GitHub Developer Data endpoints does ReefAPI ship?
39 live read endpoints. Read-only data API: no writes, no account actions, no dashboard access on the target site.
GitHub Developer Data API
3 of 39 endpoints, ready to run
One repository in GitHub's own shape — stars, forks, language, licence, topics, timestamps and the owner block.
{ "ok": true, "meta": { "api": "github", "endpoint": "repo", "mode": "live", "latency_ms": 549.6, "record_count": 1, "cache_hit": false }, "data": { "id": 3955647, "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkzOTU1NjQ3", "name": "lodash", "private": false, "html_url": "https://github.com/lodash/lodash", "description": "A modern JavaScript utility library delivering modularity, performance, & extras.", "fork": false, "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash", "forks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/forks", "keys_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/keys{/key_id}", "collaborators_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/collaborators{/collaborator}", "teams_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/teams", "hooks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/hooks", "issue_events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/issues/events{/number}", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/events", "assignees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/assignees{/user}", "branches_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/branches{/branch}", "tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/tags", "blobs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/git/blobs{/sha}", "git_tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/git/tags{/sha}", "git_refs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/git/refs{/sha}", "trees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/git/trees{/sha}", "statuses_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/statuses/{sha}", "languages_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/languages", "stargazers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/stargazers", "contributors_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/contributors", "subscribers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/subscribers", "subscription_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/subscription", "commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/commits{/sha}", "git_commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/git/commits{/sha}", "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/comments{/number}", "issue_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/issues/comments{/number}", "contents_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/contents/{+path}", "compare_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/compare/{base}...{head}", "merges_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/merges", "archive_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/{archive_format}{/ref}", "downloads_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/downloads", "issues_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/issues{/number}", "pulls_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/pulls{/number}", "milestones_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/milestones{/number}", "notifications_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/notifications{?since,all,participating}", "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/labels{/name}", "releases_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/releases{/id}", "deployments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/lodash/lodash/deployments", "created_at": "2012-04-07T04:11:46Z", "updated_at": "2026-08-29T09:33:29Z", "pushed_at": "2026-07-03T19:48:01Z", "git_url": "git://github.com/lodash/lodash.git", "ssh_url": "[email protected]:lodash/lodash.git", "clone_url": "https://github.com/lodash/lodash.git", "svn_url": "https://github.com/lodash/lodash", "homepage": "https://lodash.com/", "size": 49920, "stargazers_count": 61282, "watchers_count": 61282, "language": "JavaScript", "has_issues": true, "has_projects": true, "has_downloads": false, "has_wiki": true, "has_pages": false, "has_discussions": true, "forks_count": 7196, "mirror_url": null, "archived": false, "disabled": false, "open_issues_count": 106, "license": { "key": "other", "name": "Other", "spdx_id": "NOASSERTION", "url": null, "node_id": "MDc6TGljZW5zZTA=" }, "allow_forking": true, "is_template": false, "web_commit_signoff_required": true, "has_pull_requests": true, "pull_request_creation_policy": "all", "topics": [ "javascript", "lodash", "modules" ], "visibility": "public", "forks": 7196, "open_issues": 106, "watchers": 61282, "default_branch": "main", "permissions": { "admin": false, "maintain": false, "push": false, "triage": false, "pull": true }, "temp_clone_token": "", "custom_properties": {}, "organization": { "id": 2565403, "node_id": "MDEyOk9yZ2FuaXphdGlvbjI1NjU0MDM=", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://api.github.com/users/lodash", "html_url": "https://github.com/lodash", "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/lodash/followers", "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/lodash/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/lodash/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/lodash/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/lodash/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/lodash/orgs", "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/lodash/repos", "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/lodash/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/lodash/received_events", "type": "Organization", "user_view_type": "public", "site_admin": false }, "network_count": 7196, "subscribers_count": 811 } }
How the GitHub Developer Data API works
GitHub Developer Data is a normal ReefAPI surface — the same four rules that hold for every other engine on the key.
No OAuth app, no request signing, no per-site account. One key covers all 184 engines.
Every route is a POST with a JSON body. Parameters are validated against the published schema before anything is charged.
Credits, not seats. Failed and blocked calls are never charged, and cache hits cost nothing.
One envelope everywhere. meta carries latency_ms, record_count and the endpoint that answered.
Judging whether a dependency is alive
Stars measure a moment years ago. What you want is whether anyone has touched it recently and whether the issues are being answered.
{"owner": "lodash", "repo": "lodash"}Stars, forks, open issue count, licence and the last-push timestamp in one response.
{"owner": "lodash", "repo": "lodash", "since": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z"}Commits since a date, with the real author on each. A hundred commits came back in about a second.
No token to create, store, rotate or leak. For a service that reads public repository data on behalf of many users, that is the whole operational difference.
curl -X POST https://api.reefapi.com/github/v1/repo \
-H "x-api-key: $REEF_KEY" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{"owner":"facebook","repo":"react"}'{
"ok": true,
"data": { … },
"meta": {
"api": "github",
"endpoint": "repo",
"mode": "live",
"latency_ms": …,
"record_count": …
},
"error": null
}Which GitHub count means what
GitHub's repository payload carries the same number under three names, and the true watcher count under a fourth, which is why star and watcher figures get swapped in so many dashboards. This engine passes the official payload through unchanged, so the confusion is inherited and worth pinning down. Every figure below was measured on 2026-08-27.
| Field | What it actually counts | Measured 2026-08-27 |
|---|---|---|
| stargazers_count | Stars | 247,904 on the React repository |
| watchers_count | Stars again, despite the name. It is not watchers | 247,904, identical to stargazers_count |
| watchers | Stars a third time | 247,904 |
| subscribers_count | The real watcher count, the accounts receiving notifications | 6,601, about 2.7% of the star count |
| forks_count, forks, network_count | Forks, under three names | 51,254 in all three |
| open_issues_count and open_issues | Open issues plus open pull requests, counted together | 1,273 |
| license | An object with key, name, spdx_id, url, node_id. An unrecognized license is key "other", spdx_id "NOASSERTION", url null | React returned mit / MIT; torvalds/linux returned other / NOASSERTION |
| default_branch | Per repository, and not always main | React "main"; torvalds/linux "master" |
| node_id | Base64 of "010:Repository<id>" | MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkxMDI3MDI1MA== decodes to 010:Repository10270250 |
| full_name | Follows renames and transfers, so it can differ from the owner/repo you sent | Asking for facebook/react returned full_name "react/react", id 10270250 |
| parent and source | Present only when fork is true, absent otherwise | gaearon/react returned both, pointing at react/react |
repo_languages returns byte counts per language, and an empty object {} when a repository holds no code: github/gitignore returned {} while torvalds/linux returned 1,451,242,427 bytes of C. An empty object there is a valid answer, not a failure.
What you get, and what a keyless read cannot do
Measured across repository, commit and search endpoints. The last row is the boundary.
Fields are returned as GitHub names them rather than renamed into a house style. Anything already written against their API keeps working, and their documentation stays the reference for what a field means.
Repositories, users, followers, gists, issues, pull requests, commits, releases, contributors, languages, branches, tags and search are all covered. It is the read surface of the API rather than the three calls a wrapper usually stops at.
Reading public repository data at any volume normally means creating a token, storing it, rotating it and keeping it out of logs — and a personal token carries far more authority than a read needs. Here the credential is your ReefAPI key, which you already have, and the rate limit is ours to manage.
Branch, path, author and time window are all parameters, so 'has anyone touched the parser since March' is one call rather than a hundred commits fetched and filtered on your side.
This reads what an anonymous visitor can see. Private repositories, anything that needs your identity, and every write operation are outside it by design — an API that could act as you would be a much larger thing to trust, and it is not what this is.
What people build with GitHub Developer Data
The jobs this data is most often used for.
endpoints
credits per call
Developer-analytics tools call user and user_repos to profile a developer's activity and stack.
Technical recruiters use user_repos and repo_contributors to find and evaluate open-source talent.
OSS-intelligence products use repo_issues and repo_commits to track a project's health and velocity.
What GitHub Developer Data data costs
The cheapest call here is 0 credits, so $15/mo (Pro) buys 10,000 of them — $1.50 per 1,000 credits. Credits roll over and never expire, and failed or blocked calls are not charged.
Full pricing →- 1,000 free credits on signup, no card
- One key, all 184 APIs, one credit pool
- Failed and blocked calls are never charged
- Credits roll over and never expire
Call it in two lines
Sign up, get 1,000 credits and one key that works on every engine. Then this is the whole protocol.
curl -X POST https://api.reefapi.com/github/v1/repo \
-H "x-api-key: $REEF_KEY" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{"owner":"facebook","repo":"react"}'import requests
r = requests.post(
"https://api.reefapi.com/github/v1/repo",
headers={"x-api-key": REEF_KEY},
json={
"owner": "facebook",
"repo": "react"
},
)
print(r.json()["data"])Have a question? We got answers.
The questions people actually ask before wiring up GitHub Developer Data.
Get a free key →Does watchers_count mean the number of watchers?▾
No, and this is GitHub's own long-standing quirk rather than something this API introduces. Measured on 2026-08-27, the React repository returned stargazers_count 247,904, watchers_count 247,904 and watchers 247,904, three names for the star count. The number of accounts actually watching the repository is subscribers_count, which was 6,601. If a chart shows identical star and watcher lines, this is why.
Why does full_name come back different from the owner and repo I sent?▾
Because GitHub follows renames and transfers, and so does this engine. Asking for owner facebook and repo react on 2026-08-27 returned full_name "react/react" with owner login "react" and id 10270250: the same repository, at its current location. The numeric id is the stable identifier across a move; full_name and html_url are not. Read full_name back from the response rather than assuming the string you sent.
Are pull requests included in repo_issues?▾
Yes. GitHub treats every pull request as an issue, so repo_issues returns both, and open_issues_count counts both as well. The way to tell them apart is the pull_request key, which exists only on PR rows: on one measured page of facebook/react, 7 of 8 rows carried it, along with a draft boolean. Filter those rows out if you want issues only, and expect your count to be smaller than open_issues_count says.
What is different about a fork?▾
fork is true and two extra objects appear: parent, the repository it was forked from, and source, the root of the fork network. Measured on gaearon/react, both pointed at react/react. Neither key is present at all on a non-fork, so check for existence rather than for null. A fork's own counts are its own: that fork reported 87 stars and 26 forks, nothing inherited from the 247,904-star parent.
Why does repo_stargazers return only a handful of users for a popular repository?▾
GitHub restricted the full stargazer list to repository admins and collaborators on 2026-06-30, so these rows are rebuilt from the repository's public event stream, which GitHub caps at roughly 300 events and 90 days. meta says so explicitly, with coverage "recent_only" and events_scanned. On React that meant the three returned rows had starred_at timestamps inside the previous hour, against an authoritative meta.stargazer_count of 247,904. Use meta.stargazer_count for the total and treat the rows as a recent-activity feed.
How do I read a README or a file, and why is it base64?▾
repo_readme and repo_contents return GitHub's content metadata, which encodes the file body rather than inlining it: content is base64 with encoding set to "base64", plus name, path, sha, size in bytes and download_url. React's README measured 5,317 bytes. Decode content yourself, or fetch download_url for the raw file. Pointing repo_contents at a directory returns a list of entries with name, path, type and size instead of a single file object.
What rate limit applies, and how do I see what is left?▾
Every response carries GitHub's own limit in meta: rate_limit, rate_limit_remaining, rate_limit_used, rate_limit_reset as a unix timestamp, and rate_limit_resource. Authenticated calls measured on 2026-08-27 showed rate_limit 5000 against the core resource. Search is metered separately by GitHub under its own resource, and is additionally capped at the first 1,000 results per query however you page, so a search reporting a large total_count will still stop handing you rows at 1,000.
How does pagination work across the list actions?▾
Every list action takes page (1-based) and per_page (1 to 100, default 100), and meta answers with has_more, next_page and an opaque next_cursor. The cursor is the more reliable of the two for long or fast-changing lists, and is passed straight back in the cursor parameter. The search_ actions ignore cursor entirely and page by number only. repo, org, user, repo_languages and repo_readme return a single object and take no pagination at all.
What is the GitHub Developer Data API?▾
GitHub Developer Data API is a ReefAPI endpoint group for github developer data It returns live JSON through POST requests under /github/v1.
Is the GitHub Developer Data API free to try?▾
Yes. ReefAPI starts with 1,000 free credits, no card required. GitHub Developer Data calls use the same shared credit balance as every other ReefAPI engine.
Do I need a GitHub Developer Data login or account?▾
No login to GitHub Developer Data is needed for the API response. You call ReefAPI with your x-api-key header, and the playground can run live examples before you create a production key.
How fresh is the GitHub Developer Data data?▾
The page example is captured from a live user call, and production requests fetch live data through ReefAPI rather than a static sample.
How many credits does the GitHub Developer Data API use?▾
GitHub Developer Data actions currently cost 1-3 credits per successful call. Failed or blocked calls are free, and all APIs draw from one credit pool.
Can I call GitHub Developer Data from an AI assistant or MCP client?▾
Yes. Connect ReefAPI once through MCP and your assistant can call github actions with the same key, credit pool and JSON envelope used by normal REST requests.
18 Developer Tools APIs on the same key
One key, one credit pool, one response envelope. If you are pulling GitHub Developer Data, you are one call away from the rest of the category — no second contract, no second integration.
Need something this API does not do?
Name the endpoint, the field, or a source we do not carry yet. We ship new APIs every week and you would be first to get the key. Real people read every message and reply the same day.
Try it on your own data before you pay anything
The call above is the real endpoint, not a recording. A free key gives you 1,000 credits, the other 183 APIs, and the same envelope everywhere.
Endpoints, parameters and credit costs on this page are read from the live catalog and cannot drift from what the API accepts. Field notes were captured on 2026-08-30.