GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents on a directory returns a JSON array of entries, while a file path returns one object with type file and base64-encoded content (encoding: base64).

GitHub REST API · GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents · HTTP 200

Status: ✅ verified:server:prod · first seen 2026-10-31 · last confirmed 2026-10-31 · 1 confirmation from 1 vantage

What to do

  1. No client-side fix known (by design).

Example

What probe af:github:probe:contents-directory-vs-file sends (prod) and what it checks in the answer.

GET https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contents

Response (only what the probe asserts; other fields omitted):

HTTP 200

[
  {
    "path": "README",
    "type": "file"
  }
]

Dimensions

env: prod · plan: any · region: any · account_state: anonymous

Evidence

Probe af:github:probe:contents-directory-vs-file (declarative, source)

Observations: none from reporters yet.

Machine access

curl -s https://apifacts.dev/v0/check \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"target":{"method":"GET","url":"https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents"},"error":{"status":200}}'

YAML: facts/github/contents-directory-is-array.yaml

Data: CC BY 4.0 · apifacts registry · This page is generated; edit the YAML, not the page.