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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-30T14:45:19+00:00

Seems like it’s missing from the Repos docs for v1, v2, and v3…how do

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Seems like it’s missing from the “Repos” docs for v1, v2, and v3…how do I create a branch using the Github API?

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  1. Editorial Team

    The V3 API mentions branches in its reference page

    The ref in the URL must be formatted as heads/branch, not just branch.
    For example, the call to get the data for a branch named sc/featureA would be:

    GET /repos/:user/:repo/git/refs/heads/sc/featureA

    Create a Reference

    POST /repos/:user/:repo/git/refs

    Parameters

    ref

    String of the name of the fully qualified reference (ie: refs/heads/master). If it doesn’t start with ‘refs’ and have at least two slashes, it will be rejected.

    sha

    String of the SHA1 value to set this reference to

    So it should be possible to create a new branch, by naming a new ‘/heads‘ in the ref parameter.

    Potherca points out to a working test, using the service of www.hurl.it (which makes HTTP requests)

    • Find the revision you want to branch from.
      Either on Github itself or by doing a GET request from Hurl:

      https://api.github.com/repos/<AUTHOR>/<REPO>/git/refs/heads

    • Copy the revision hash

    • Do a POST request from Hurl to https://api.github.com/repos/<AUTHOR>/<REPO>/git/refs with the following as the POST body :

        {
      "ref": "refs/heads/<NEW-BRANCH-NAME>",
      "sha": "<HASH-TO-BRANCH-FROM>"
  }

      (obviously replacing the <NEW-BRANCH-NAME> with the name your want the new branch to have and the <HASH-TO-BRANCH-FROM> with, you know, the hash of the revision you want to branch from)

      You will need to use HTTP basic and fill in your Github credentials to access the Github API.

    • Press the Send button and your branch will be created!

    In 2022, you can also use gh api

    gh api \
  --method POST \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  /repos/OWNER/REPO/git/refs \
  -f ref='refs/heads/featureA'
 -f sha='aa218f56b14c9653891f9e74264a383fa43fefbd'
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