# Search commits

From **GitHub v3 REST API**.

`GET /search/commits`

Find commits via various criteria on the default branch (usually `master`). This method returns up to 100 results [per page](https://docs.github.com/enterprise-server@3.0/rest/overview/resources-in-the-rest-api#pagination).

When searching for commits, you can get text match metadata for the **message** field when you provide the `text-match` media type. For more details about how to receive highlighted search results, see [Text match
metadata](https://docs.github.com/enterprise-server@3.0/rest/reference/search#text-match-metadata).

For example, if you want to find commits related to CSS in the [octocat/Spoon-Knife](https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife) repository. Your query would look something like this:

`q=repo:octocat/Spoon-Knife+css`

## Parameters

### `q`

- Location: query
- Required: true
- Type: `string`

The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as GitHub.com. To learn more about the format of the query, see [Constructing a search query](https://docs.github.com/enterprise-server@3.0/rest/reference/search#constructing-a-search-query). See "[Searching commits](https://docs.github.com/articles/searching-commits/)" for a detailed list of qualifiers.

### `sort`

- Location: query
- Required: false
- Type: `string`
- Allowed values: `"author-date"`, `"committer-date"`

Sorts the results of your query by `author-date` or `committer-date`. Default: [best match](https://docs.github.com/enterprise-server@3.0/rest/reference/search#ranking-search-results)

### `order`

- Location: query
- Required: false
- Type: `string`
- Default: `desc`
- Allowed values: `"desc"`, `"asc"`

Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (`desc`) or lowest number of matches (`asc`). This parameter is ignored unless you provide `sort`.

### `per_page`

- Location: query
- Required: false
- Type: `integer`
- Default: `30`

Results per page (max 100)

### `page`

- Location: query
- Required: false
- Type: `integer`
- Default: `1`

Page number of the results to fetch.

## Responses

### `200`

Response

### `application/json`

- Type: `object`

```json
{
  "incomplete_results": false,
  "items": [
    {
      "author": {
        "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/583231?v=3",
        "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
        "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}",
        "gravatar_id": "",
        "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
        "id": 583231,
        "login": "octocat",
        "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==",
        "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
        "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events",
        "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
        "site_admin": false,
        "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
        "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
        "type": "User",
        "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"
      },
      "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f/comments",
      "commit": {
        "author": {
          "date": "2014-02-04T14:38:36-08:00",
          "email": "octocat@nowhere.com",
          "name": "The Octocat"
        },
        "comment_count": 8,
        "committer": {
          "date": "2014-02-12T15:18:55-08:00",
          "email": "octocat@nowhere.com",
          "name": "The Octocat"
        },
        "message": "Create styles.css and updated README",
        "tree": {
          "sha": "a639e96f9038797fba6e0469f94a4b0cc459fa68",
          "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/trees/a639e96f9038797fba6e0469f94a4b0cc459fa68"
        },
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/commits/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f"
      },
      "committer": {},
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commit/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f",
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==",
      "parents": [
        {
          "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commit/a30c19e3f13765a3b48829788bc1cb8b4e95cee4",
          "sha": "a30c19e3f13765a3b48829788bc1cb8b4e95cee4",
          "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits/a30c19e3f13765a3b48829788bc1cb8b4e95cee4"
        }
      ],
      "repository": {
        "archive_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/{archive_format}{/ref}",
        "assignees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/assignees{/user}",
        "blobs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/blobs{/sha}",
        "branches_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/branches{/branch}",
        "collaborators_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/collaborators{/collaborator}",
        "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/comments{/number}",
        "commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits{/sha}",
        "compare_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/compare/{base}...{head}",
        "contents_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/contents/{+path}",
        "contributors_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/contributors",
        "deployments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/deployments",
        "description": "This repo is for demonstration purposes only.",
        "downloads_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/downloads",
        "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/events",
        "fork": false,
        "forks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/forks",
        "full_name": "octocat/Spoon-Knife",
        "git_commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/commits{/sha}",
        "git_refs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/refs{/sha}",
        "git_tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/tags{/sha}",
        "hooks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/hooks",
        "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife",
        "id": 1300192,
        "issue_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/issues/comments{/number}",
        "issue_events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/issues/events{/number}",
        "issues_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/issues{/number}",
        "keys_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/keys{/key_id}",
        "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/labels{/name}",
        "languages_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/languages",
        "merges_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/merges",
        "milestones_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/milestones{/number}",
        "name": "Spoon-Knife",
        "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkxMzAwMTky",
        "notifications_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/notifications{?since,all,participating}",
        "owner": {
          "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/583231?v=3",
          "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
          "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}",
          "gravatar_id": "",
          "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
          "id": 583231,
          "login": "octocat",
          "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==",
          "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
          "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events",
          "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
          "site_admin": false,
          "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
          "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
          "type": "User",
          "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"
        },
        "private": false,
        "pulls_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/pulls{/number}",
        "releases_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/releases{/id}",
        "stargazers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/stargazers",
        "statuses_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/statuses/{sha}",
        "subscribers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/subscribers",
        "subscription_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/subscription",
        "tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/tags",
        "teams_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/teams",
        "trees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/git/trees{/sha}",
        "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife"
      },
      "score": 1,
      "sha": "bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commits/bb4cc8d3b2e14b3af5df699876dd4ff3acd00b7f"
    }
  ],
  "total_count": 1
}
```

```json
{"properties":{"incomplete_results":{"type":"boolean"},"items":{"items":{"$ref":"#/components/schemas/commit-search-result-item"},"type":"array"},"total_count":{"type":"integer"}},"required":["total_count","incomplete_results","items"],"type":"object"}
```

### `304`

Not modified

## Request examples

### cURL

```shell
curl --request GET \
  --url {protocol}://{hostname}/api/v3/search/commits
```