curl -X PUT 'https://api.github.com/repos/example-owner/example-repo/contents/example-path' \
  -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 '{
  "message": "example-message",
  "content": "example-content"
}'

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

> Create or update file contents

## 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 PUT 'https://api.github.com/repos/example-owner/example-repo/contents/example-path' \
  -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 '{
  "message": "example-message",
  "content": "example-content"
}'

## 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 without the `.git` extension. The name is not case... |
| path | path | string | Yes | path parameter |
| message | body | string | Yes | The commit message. |
| content | body | string | Yes | The new file content, using Base64 encoding. |
| sha | body | string | No | **Required if you are updating a file**. The blob SHA of the file being repla... |
| branch | body | string | No | The branch name. Default: the repository’s default branch. |
| committer | body | object | No | The person that committed the file. Default: the authenticated user. |
Other params: author

## Response example
{"content":{"name":"string","path":"string"},"commit":{"sha":"string","node_id":"string"}}

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

PUT

PUT /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents/{path} — GitHub API

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

GitHub API

Create or update file contents

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
→ 359 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 PUT 'https://api.github.com/repos/example-owner/example-repo/contents/example-path' \  -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 '{  "message": "example-message",  "content": "example-content"}'

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 without the `.git` extension. The name is not case sensitive.
path	path	string	Yes	path parameter
message	body	string	Yes	The commit message.
content	body	string	Yes	The new file content, using Base64 encoding.
sha	body	string	No	Required if you are updating a file. The blob SHA of the file being replaced.
branch	body	string	No	The branch name. Default: the repository’s default branch.
committer	body	object	No	The person that committed the file. Default: the authenticated user.
author	body	object	No	The author of the file. Default: The `committer` or the authenticated user if you omit `committer`.

Response 200 OK

{
  "content": {
    "name": "string",
    "path": "string",
    "sha": "string",
    "size": 0,
    "url": "string",
    "html_url": "string",
    "git_url": "string",
    "download_url": "string",
    "type": "string",
    "_links": {
      "self": "string",
      "git": "string",
      "html": "string"
    }
  },
  "commit": {
    "sha": "string",
    "node_id": "string",
    "url": "string",
    "html_url": "string",
    "author": {
      "date": "string",
      "name": "string",
      "email": "string"
    },
    "committer": {
      "date": "string",
      "name": "string",
      "email": "string"
    },
    "message": "string",
    "tree": {
      "url": "string",
      "sha": "string"
    },
    "parents": [
      {
        "url": "string",
        "html_url": "string",
        "sha": "string"
      }
    ],
    "verification": {
      "verified": true,
      "reason": "string",
      "signature": "string",
      "payload": "string",
      "verified_at": "string"
    }
  }
}

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