REST API requests without a User-Agent header are rejected, and a request with an invalid User-Agent header receives HTTP 403 Forbidden.

GitHub REST API 路 GET /repos/{owner}/{repo} 路 HTTP 403

Status: 馃數 official 路 first seen 2026-10-20

What to do

  1. Send header User-Agent = the account setting github_username.

Dimensions

env: prod 路 plan: any 路 region: any 路 account_state: any

Evidence

official doc: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/using-the-rest-api/getting-started-with-the-rest-api#user-agent

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}"},"error":{"status":403}}'

YAML: facts/github/user-agent-required.yaml

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