Contents

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Read repository directory entries or a file with its path, type, size, SHA, encoded content and source links. Select a branch, tag or commit with ref.

GET/v1/github/repo/contentsx-api-key

Headers

Get your API key

x-api-keystringrequiredheader

Your ScrapeAtlas customer key. Create one on /account/ and set SCRAPEATLAS_API_KEY.

Query parameters

urlstringrequiredquery

Canonical HTTPS github.com URL of the user, repository or issue required by this route.

max 2048 chars

Examplehttps://github.com/example/repo

pathstringquery

Repository-relative directory or file path.

max 1024 chars

refstringquery

Branch name, tag or commit reference.

min 1 chars · max 200 chars

Response fields

platformstringoptional

Optional.

endpointstringoptional

Optional.

successboolean

Whether retrieval returned usable data.

statusenum

success, partial, failed or challenged.

one of: success, partial

requestIdstring

Request correlation UUID.

sourceUrlstring

Public source URL.

absolute HTTPS URL

fetchedAtstring

UTC fetch time.

Completeness of this bounded response, not complete account enumeration.

coverage.sourceenum

Always included.

one of: public_api, public_html

coverage.completeboolean

Always included.

coverage.warningsstring[]

Always included.

Combined upstream attempts, decoded bytes and elapsed milliseconds.

accounting.upstreamRequestsinteger

Always included.

≥ 0

accounting.responseBytesinteger

Always included.

≥ 0

accounting.durationMsnumber

Always included.

≥ 0

Route-specific compatibility payload. See endpoint description and research coverage notes.

data.typeenum

Always included.

one of: directory, file

data.itemsobject[]nullable

Always included.

data.file.namestring

Always included.

data.file.pathstring

Always included.

data.file.shastring

Always included.

data.file.sizeinteger

Always included.

≥ 0

data.file.typeenum

Always included.

one of: file, dir, symlink, submodule

data.file.html_urlstringnullable

Always included.

data.file.download_urlstringnullable

Always included.

data.file.git_urlstringnullable

Always included.

data.file.encodingstringoptional

Optional.

data.file.contentstringoptional

Optional.

data.file.targetstringoptional

Optional.

data.file.submodule_git_urlstringoptional

Optional.

data.returnedCountinteger

Always included.

≥ 0

data.truncatedboolean

Always included.

HTTP 200 returns the success variant. Check status: partial means usable data with warnings, and failed or challenged requests carry a failure object described in Errors & responses.

Error codes

HTTP	failure.code	Meaning
400	`invalid_request`	Invalid, duplicate or unsupported parameters.
401	`unauthorized`	Invalid worker key.
404	`not_found`	Public source record unavailable; SocialFetch aliases return data.lookupStatus=not_found with HTTP 200.
429	`upstream_rate_limited`	GitHub throttled retrieval.
502	`upstream_error` `upstream_challenged` `unsupported_page`	Source retrieval failed or the source contract changed.
502	`unsafe_redirect` `response_too_large` `payload_too_complex` `request_limit`	A fixed safety or resource boundary was reached.
503	`busy`	All worker slots are occupied.
504	`timeout`	Total deadline expired.

Code example

curl "https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/github/repo/contents?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fexample%2Frepo" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/github/repo/contents?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fexample%2Frepo",
  {
    headers: {
      "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
    }
  }
);

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.status, data);

type Result = {
  status: "success" | "partial" | "failed" | "challenged";
  requestId: string;
  [field: string]: unknown;
};

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/github/repo/contents?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fexample%2Frepo",
  {
    headers: {
      "x-api-key": process.env.SCRAPEATLAS_API_KEY!
    }
  }
);

const data = (await response.json()) as Result;
if (data.status === "failed" || data.status === "challenged") {
  throw new Error(`GitHub request failed: ${data.requestId}`);
}
console.log(data);

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/github/repo/contents",
    headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
    params={
        "url": "https://github.com/example/repo"
    },
    timeout=60,
)
data = response.json()
print(data["status"], data)

package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/github/repo/contents?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fexample%2Frepo", nil)
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")
	resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	var data map[string]interface{}
	json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&data)
	fmt.Println(data["status"], data)
}

import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.HttpClient;
import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
import java.net.http.HttpResponse;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        var client = HttpClient.newHttpClient();
        var request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
            .uri(URI.create("https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/github/repo/contents?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fexample%2Frepo"))
            .GET()
            .header("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")
            .build();
        var response = client.send(request, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
        System.out.println(response.body());
    }
}

Use your sa_live_… customer key at https://api.scrapeatlas.com.

Responses

Successful result. Synthetic example validated against the runtime contract.

{
  "data": {
    "type": "directory",
    "items": [
      {
        "name": "synthetic.txt",
        "path": "synthetic.txt",
        "sha": "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",
        "size": 1,
        "type": "file",
        "html_url": "https://github.com/example/repo",
        "download_url": null,
        "git_url": "https://github.com/example/repo"
      }
    ],
    "file": null,
    "returnedCount": 1,
    "truncated": false
  },
  "platform": "github",
  "endpoint": "/v1/github/repo/contents",
  "success": true,
  "status": "success",
  "requestId": "00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000001",
  "sourceUrl": "https://github.com/example/repo",
  "fetchedAt": "2026-09-17T00:00:00.000Z",
  "coverage": {
    "source": "public_api",
    "complete": true,
    "warnings": []
  },
  "accounting": {
    "upstreamRequests": 1,
    "responseBytes": 403,
    "durationMs": 1
  }
}

Invalid, duplicate or unsupported parameters.

{
  "success": false,
  "status": "failed",
  "requestId": "9d2f1c0a-6b1e-4c7d-9a8e-2f3b4c5d6e7f",
  "failure": {
    "code": "invalid_request",
    "message": "Invalid request: missing, duplicate, unsupported or malformed parameters."
  },
  "accounting": {
    "upstreamRequests": 0,
    "responseBytes": 0,
    "durationMs": 0
  }
}