{"meta":{"title":"Best practices for using the REST API","intro":"Follow these best practices when using GitHub's API.","product":"REST API","breadcrumbs":[{"href":"/en/rest","title":"REST API"},{"href":"/en/rest/using-the-rest-api","title":"Using the REST API"},{"href":"/en/rest/using-the-rest-api/best-practices-for-using-the-rest-api","title":"Best practices"}],"documentType":"article"},"body":"# Best practices for using the REST API\n\nFollow these best practices when using GitHub's API.\n\n## Avoid polling\n\nYou should subscribe to webhook events instead of polling the API for data. This will help your integration stay within the API rate limit. For more information, see [Webhooks documentation](/en/webhooks).\n\nIf you cannot use webhooks and you must poll the API, poll as efficiently as possible to avoid exceeding the rate limit:\n\n* Poll only as often as you need to, on a fixed schedule. If a response includes an `x-poll-interval` header, wait at least that many seconds before you poll the same endpoint again.\n* Make authenticated conditional requests, so that unchanged data does not count against your primary rate limit. For more information, see [Use conditional requests](#use-conditional-requests).\n* Request only the data that you need, and keep responses stable, so that more of your polls return `304 Not Modified`. For more information, see [Make requests that can be cached](#make-requests-that-can-be-cached).\n\n## Make authenticated requests\n\nAuthenticated requests have a higher primary rate limit than unauthenticated requests. To avoid exceeding the rate limit, you should make authenticated requests. For more information, see [Rate limits for the REST API](/en/rest/using-the-rest-api/rate-limits-for-the-rest-api).\n\n## Avoid concurrent requests\n\nTo avoid exceeding secondary rate limits, you should make requests serially instead of concurrently. To achieve this, you can implement a queue system for requests.\n\n## Pause between mutative requests\n\nIf you are making a large number of `POST`, `PATCH`, `PUT`, or `DELETE` requests, wait at least one second between each request. This will help you avoid secondary rate limits.\n\n## Handle rate limit errors appropriately\n\nIf you receive a rate limit error, you should stop making requests temporarily according to these guidelines:\n\n* If the `retry-after` response header is present, you should not retry your request until after that many seconds has elapsed.\n* If the `x-ratelimit-remaining` header is `0`, you should not make another request until after the time specified by the `x-ratelimit-reset` header. The `x-ratelimit-reset` header is in UTC epoch seconds.\n* Otherwise, wait for at least one minute before retrying. If your request continues to fail due to a secondary rate limit, wait for an exponentially increasing amount of time between retries, and throw an error after a specific number of retries.\n\nContinuing to make requests while you are rate limited may result in the banning of your integration.\n\n## Follow redirects\n\nThe GitHub REST API uses HTTP redirection where appropriate. You should assume that any\nrequest may result in a redirection. Receiving an HTTP redirection is not an error, and you should follow the redirect.\n\nA `301` status code indicates permanent redirection. You should repeat your request to the URL specified by the `location` header. Additionally, you should update your code to use this URL for future requests.\n\nA `302` or `307` status code indicates temporary redirection. You should repeat your request to the URL specified by the `location` header. However, you should not update your code to use this URL for future requests.\n\nOther redirection status codes may be used in accordance with HTTP specifications.\n\n## Do not manually parse URLs\n\nMany API endpoints return URL values for fields in the response body. You should not try to parse these URLs or to predict the structure of future URLs. This can cause your integration to break if GitHub changes the structure of the URL in the future. Instead, you should look for a field that contains the information that you need. For example, the endpoint to create an issue returns an `html_url` field with a value like `https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/issues/1347` and a `number` field with a value like `1347`. If you need to know the number of the issue, use the `number` field instead of parsing the `html_url` field.\n\nSimilarly, you should not try to manually construct pagination queries. Instead, you should use the link headers to determine what pages of results you can request. For more information, see [Using pagination in the REST API](/en/rest/using-the-rest-api/using-pagination-in-the-rest-api).\n\n## Use conditional requests\n\nMost endpoints return an `etag` header, and many endpoints return a `last-modified` header. You can use the values of these headers to make conditional `GET` requests. If the response has not changed, you will receive a `304 Not Modified` response. Making a conditional request does not count against your primary rate limit if a `304` response is returned and the request was made while correctly authorized with an `Authorization` header. This makes conditional requests especially useful when you poll an endpoint, because each `304 Not Modified` response is fast and does not use your rate limit.\n\nIn the following examples, replace `YOUR-TOKEN` with your access token.\n\nTo make a conditional request with an `etag`:\n\n1. Make a request and save the value of the `etag` header from the response.\n\n   ```shell\n   curl --include --header \"Authorization: Bearer YOUR-TOKEN\" https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/pulls\n   ```\n\n   The response includes an `etag` header:\n\n   ```text\n   HTTP/2 200\n   etag: \"644b5b0155e6404a9cc4bd9d8b1ae730\"\n   ```\n\n2. On your next request to the same URL, send the saved value in the `if-none-match` header.\n\n   ```shell\n   curl --include --header \"Authorization: Bearer YOUR-TOKEN\" --header 'if-none-match: \"644b5b0155e6404a9cc4bd9d8b1ae730\"' https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/pulls\n   ```\n\n   If the data has not changed, you will receive a `304 Not Modified` response, which does not count against your primary rate limit:\n\n   ```text\n   HTTP/2 304\n   ```\n\nYou can also use the `last-modified` header. For example, if a previous request returned a `last-modified` header value of `Wed, 25 Oct 2023 19:17:59 GMT`, you can use the `if-modified-since` header in a future request:\n\n```shell\ncurl --include --header \"Authorization: Bearer YOUR-TOKEN\" --header 'if-modified-since: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 19:17:59 GMT' https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife\n```\n\nConditional requests for unsafe methods, such as `POST`, `PUT`, `PATCH`, and `DELETE` are not supported unless otherwise noted in the documentation for a specific endpoint.\n\n## Make requests that can be cached\n\nA conditional request only saves you time and rate limit if the endpoint returns `304 Not Modified`. The endpoint returns `304` when the representation that you requested has not changed since you saved its `etag` or `last-modified` value; unrelated response headers, such as the date, can still differ. To make `304` responses more likely when you poll, keep your requests stable and specific.\n\nRequest only the data that you need. A smaller, more specific response changes less often, so it returns `304 Not Modified` more often. For example, to check the pull requests for one branch, filter the list by that branch instead of listing every pull request and searching the results yourself. Replace `HEAD-OWNER` with the account that owns the head branch; for a pull request from a fork, this is the account that owns the fork. Replace `BRANCH-NAME` with the name of the branch, and URL-encode it if it contains special characters such as `#` or `&`:\n\n```shell\ncurl --include --header \"Authorization: Bearer YOUR-TOKEN\" \"https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Spoon-Knife/pulls?head=HEAD-OWNER:BRANCH-NAME\"\n```\n\nIf you page through a list, use a stable sort order. Some parameters, such as `sort=updated`, reorder the list whenever an item changes. When an item moves to a new position, the items between its old and new positions shift onto different pages, so pages that you already fetched can return new data instead of `304 Not Modified`. A stable order, such as the default, stops updates to existing items from reordering the list, although adding or removing items can still shift entries onto other pages.\n\nUse the same parameters every time you poll the same data. A different page size, page number, or filter produces a different response with a different `etag`.\n\n## Do not ignore errors\n\nYou should not ignore repeated `4xx` and `5xx` error codes. Instead, you should ensure that you are correctly interacting with the API. For example, if an endpoint requests a string and you are passing it a numeric value, you will receive a validation error. Similarly, attempting to access an unauthorized or nonexistent endpoint will result in a `4xx` error.\n\nIf you are polling and a resource repeatedly returns a `404 Not Found` response, do not keep requesting it on every poll. First, make sure that the `404` is not caused by authentication or authorization. GitHub returns a `404 Not Found` response instead of a `403 Forbidden` response for some private resources when your credentials do not grant access, so a `404` does not always mean that the resource is absent. For more information, see [Troubleshooting the REST API](/en/rest/using-the-rest-api/troubleshooting-the-rest-api#404-not-found-for-an-existing-resource). Once you have confirmed that your credentials are correct, wait much longer before you check again, or check again only when you have a reason to believe that the resource now exists. Repeatedly requesting a missing resource wastes your rate limit and can trigger a secondary rate limit.\n\nIntentionally ignoring repeated validation errors may result in the suspension of your app for abuse.\n\n## Further reading\n\n* [Best practices for using webhooks](/en/webhooks/using-webhooks/best-practices-for-using-webhooks)\n* [Best practices for creating a GitHub App](/en/apps/creating-github-apps/about-creating-github-apps/best-practices-for-creating-a-github-app)"}