curl -X POST 'https://api.github.com/agents/repos/example-owner/example-repo/tasks' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Accept: application/vnd.github+json' \
  -H 'X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2026-03-10' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "prompt": "example-prompt"
}'

# POST /agents/repos/{owner}/{repo}/tasks (GitHub API)
Base URL: https://api.github.com
Auth: Authorization; GitHub token; required.
Request formats: application/json.
Last verified: 2026-10-20

> Start a task

## Critical Gotchas
* GitHub recommends an `Accept: application/vnd.github+json` header and an explicit `X-GitHub-Api-Version` header.
* Fine-grained tokens only authorize repositories and permissions selected when the token is created.

## cURL
curl -X POST 'https://api.github.com/agents/repos/example-owner/example-repo/tasks' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Accept: application/vnd.github+json' \
  -H 'X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2026-03-10' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "prompt": "example-prompt"
}'

## Parameters
| Name | In | Type | Required | Description |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| owner | path | string | Yes | The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive. |
| repo | path | string | Yes | The name of the repository. The name is not case sensitive. |
| prompt | body | string | Yes | The user's prompt for the agent |
| model | body | string | No | The model to use for this task. The allowed models may change over time and d... |
| custom_agent | body | string | No | Optional identifier for a custom agent to use for this task. Use the custom a... |
| create_pull_request | body | boolean | No | Whether to create a PR. |
| base_ref | body | string | No | Base ref for new branch/PR |
| head_ref | body | string | No | Head ref for existing branch/PR. If provided with `base_ref`, the agent looks... |

## Response example
{"id":"string","url":"string"}

---
Need an API key? Get one at https://github.com/settings/tokens

POST

POST /agents/repos/{owner}/{repo}/tasks — GitHub API

GitHub token (required); https://api.github.com

GitHub API

Start a task

Base URL: https://api.github.com
Auth: Authorization: Bearer <GITHUB_API_KEY>
Last verified: 2026-10-20 · upstream hash matched

Actions Try in browser→

Agents: curl -H "Accept: text/markdown" this URL
→ 364 tokens · Vary: Accept

Critical gotchas

GitHub recommends an Accept: application/vnd.github+json header and an explicit X-GitHub-Api-Version header.

Fine-grained tokens only authorize repositories and permissions selected when the token is created.

cURL

curl -X POST 'https://api.github.com/agents/repos/example-owner/example-repo/tasks' \  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN" \  -H 'Accept: application/vnd.github+json' \  -H 'X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2026-03-10' \  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \  -d '{  "prompt": "example-prompt"}'

Parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Description
owner	path	string	Yes	The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.
repo	path	string	Yes	The name of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.
prompt	body	string	Yes	The user's prompt for the agent
model	body	string	No	The model to use for this task. The allowed models may change over time and depend on the user's GitHub Copilot plan and organization policies. Currently supported values: `claude-sonnet-4.6`, `claude-opus-4.6`, `gpt-5.2-codex`, `gpt-5.3-codex`, `gpt-5.4`, `claude-sonnet-4.5`, `claude-opus-4.5`
custom_agent	body	string	No	Optional identifier for a custom agent to use for this task. Use the custom agent's filename without the extension - for example, for a `.github/agents/performance-optimizer.agent.md` custom agent, use `performance-optimizer`.
create_pull_request	body	boolean	No	Whether to create a PR.
base_ref	body	string	No	Base ref for new branch/PR
head_ref	body	string	No	Head ref for existing branch/PR. If provided with `base_ref`, the agent looks up open PR context for `head_ref` targeting `base_ref` and commits to `head_ref` instead of creating a new branch.

Response 200 OK

{
  "id": "string",
  "url": "string",
  "html_url": "string",
  "name": "string",
  "creator": {
    "id": 0
  },
  "creator_type": "user",
  "user_collaborators": [
    {
      "id": 0
    }
  ],
  "owner": {
    "id": 0
  },
  "repository": {
    "id": 0
  },
  "state": "queued",
  "session_count": 0,
  "artifacts": [
    {
      "provider": "github",
      "type": "pull",
      "data": {
        "id": 0,
        "global_id": "string"
      }
    }
  ],
  "archived_at": "2026-09-03T00:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-09-03T00:00:00Z",
  "created_at": "2026-09-03T00:00:00Z",
  "custom_agent": {
    "id": "string"
  }
}

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