curl -X DELETE '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",
  "sha": "example-sha"
}'

# DELETE /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

> Delete a file

## 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 DELETE '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",
  "sha": "example-sha"
}'

## 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. |
| sha | body | string | Yes | The blob SHA of the file being deleted. |
| branch | body | string | No | The branch name. Default: the repository’s default branch |
| committer | body | object | No | object containing information about the committer. |
| author | body | object | No | object containing information about the 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

DELETE

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

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

GitHub API

Delete a file

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
→ 337 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 DELETE '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",  "sha": "example-sha"}'

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.
sha	body	string	Yes	The blob SHA of the file being deleted.
branch	body	string	No	The branch name. Default: the repository’s default branch
committer	body	object	No	object containing information about the committer.
author	body	object	No	object containing information about the author.

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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