Edit multiple files in single commit with GitHub API

Question

I'm using the GitHub API in a C# webapp (with Blazor). I want to be able to create a single commit to add, delete, and edit multiple files in a folder in a repository. I know I can send a PUT request to the URL https://api.github.com/repos/[username]/[repository]/contents/[file] with these contents to create a file (and I can also edit a file by adding an SHA hash):

{
    "message": "[Commit message]",
    "content": "[Content encoded in base64]",
    "committer": {
        "name": "[Committer name]",
        "email": "[Committer email]"
    }
}

But this creates one commit for every file change. Is there any way that I can do multiple operations in a single commit (either using the GitHub API or something else)? I would use something like libgit2sharp but I don't want to be cloning the repository to a folder on the filesystem.

Answer 1

Is there any way that I can do multiple operations in a single commit (either using the GitHub API or something else)?

There is the underlying Git Data API that can be used to build up a commit from scratch:

• files are uploaded as blobs using the API
• trees are used to indicate what the repository state should be (update paths to point to the new blobs)
• then create a new commit using the new root tree and additional metadata
• if you can, then update the reference (i.e. the branch) to point to this new commit

Answer 2

You can use the Git Flow with the GitHub API:

1. Create a new branch by creating a ref (e.g. refs/heads/myNewBranch), using the SHA of whichever base branch you want.
2. Make content changes in that branch (create/update or delete files). Be sure to set the branch parameter to your new branch name.
3. Create a pull request using your new branch as the head.
4. Merge the pull request with a merge_method of "squash". This will squash all the commits from individual content change API calls into 1 commit with your commit message of choice.