github-java-client

A small Java library for talking to GitHub/GitHub Enterprise and interacting with projects.

It supports authentication via simple access tokens, JWT endpoints and GitHub Apps (via private key).

It is also very light on GitHub, doing as few requests as necessary.

This library is maintained by @spotify/gjc-maintainers. If you have any questions, issues or need a review, please tag this team in the relevant PR/issue.

Getting Started

You can find this library in maven central repository.

Include the latest version of github-client into your project:

In Maven:

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.spotify</groupId>
  <artifactId>github-client</artifactId>
  <version>version</version>
</dependency>

Authenticating

Simple access token

final GitHubClient githubClient = GitHubClient.create(URI.create("https://api.github.com/"), "my-access-token");

Private key

To authenticate as a GitHub App, you must provide a private key and the App ID, together with the API URL.

final GitHubClient githubClient =
  GitHubClient.create(
    URI.create("https://api.github.com/"),
    new File("/path-to-the/private-key.pem"),
    APP_ID);

Then, you can scope the client for a specific Installation ID, to do the operations at the installation level. The client will manage the generation of JWT tokens, as well as requesting and caching the installation tokens from GitHub.

final GitHubClient scopedClient = GitHubClient.scopeForInstallationId(githubClient, INSTALLATION_ID);

It is also possible to provide the installation to the root client.

Refer to GitHub App Authentication Guide for more information.

Usage

This library attempts to mirror the structure of GitHub API endpoints. As an example, to get details of a Commit, there is the GET /repos/:owner/:repo/commits API call, under the repos API. Therefore, the getCommit method lives in the RepositoryClient.

final RepositoryClient repositoryClient = githubClient.createRepositoryClient("my-org", "my-repo");
log.info(repositoryClient.getCommit("sha").get().htmlUrl());

Another example of the mirrored structure is that some of the APIs are nested under a parent API. For example, endpoints related to check runs or issues are nested under the Repository client:

final ChecksClient checksClient = repositoryClient.createChecksApiClient();
checksClient.createCheckRun(CHECK_RUN_REQUEST);

final IssueClient issueClient = repositoryClient.createIssueClient();
issueClient.createComment(ISSUE_ID, "comment body")
  .thenAccept(comment -> log.info("created comment " + comment.htmlUrl()));

And endpoints related to teams and memberships are nested under the Organisation client:

final TeamClient teamClient = organisationClient.createTeamClient();
    teamClient.getMembership("username");

Supported Java versions

This library is written and published with Java version 11. In our CI workflows, we execute automated tests with the Java LTS versions 11, 17 and 21. Due to Java's backward compatibility, this library can definitely be used in all the tested versions.

Contributing

This project uses Maven. To run the tests locally, just run:

mvn clean verify

If you are a maintainer, you can release a new version by just triggering the workflow prepare-release through the web UI.

• Select whether the new release should be a major, minor or patch release
• Trigger the release preparation on the master branch
• Pushes of this workflow will trigger runs of the maven-release workflow, which in turn will trigger the github-release workflow with the automatically created tag

Notes about maturity

This module was created after existing libraries were evaluated and dismissed, and we found that we were writing similar code in multiple projects. As such, it at least initially only contains enough functionality for our internal requirements which reflects that we were working on build system integration with the GitHub pull requests. It has been widely used for 4+ years. It's important to notice that it does not cover all GitHub v3 API. Adding missing endpoints should be very straightforward. Pull Requests are welcome.

Code of conduct

This project adheres to the Open Code of Conduct. By participating, you are expected to honor this code.