how to get total issues count of repository from github api ?

[0xabdulkhaliq]

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Hey there Everyone 👋🏻

Recently i tried to fetch a repository's total issues count without getting those issues itself, i tried many methods to get that count but in the end i got frustated.

This is what i get after calling issues

0: Object { url: "https://api.github.com/repos/pranjay-poddar/Dev-Geeks/issues/3986", repository_url: "https://api.github.com/repos/pranjay-poddar/Dev-Geeks", labels_url: "https://api.github.com/repos/pranjay-poddar/Dev-Geeks/issues/3986/labels{/name}", … }

But when we look at the repository's issue block we can see the numbers are indicated like this

I don't get this about how this site only getting the count perfectly but i can't get these values from the API ?

I tried to used several methods on javascript like filter, map to count them but it takes so much of time and resource to do that. It ends with duplicate values also.

I want to know that the API has the support to just return the total count of issues and PR's.

Your thoughts and feedbacks are highly appreciated!

Thank you for your attention regarding this matter.

[LangLangBart]

• try it with the search from the REST API
  • GitHub Docs - Search

gh api /search/issues?q="repo:pranjay-poddar/Dev-Geeks+is:issue" --jq .total_count
# 2131
gh api /search/issues?q="repo:pranjay-poddar/Dev-Geeks+is:issue+is:closed" --jq .total_count
# 1521
gh api /search/issues?q="repo:pranjay-poddar/Dev-Geeks+is:issue+is:open" --jq .total_count
# 610

[LangLangBart]

• alternatively, the GraphQL API can output the total count too
  • GitHUb Docs - GraphQL

query ($owner: String = "pranjay-poddar", $name: String = "Dev-Geeks") {
  repository(owner: $owner, name: $name) {
    all:issues {
      totalCount
    }
    closed:issues(states:CLOSED) {
      totalCount
    }
    open:issues(states:OPEN) {
      totalCount
    }
  }
}

{
  "data": {
    "repository": {
      "all": {
        "totalCount": 2131
      },
      "closed": {
        "totalCount": 1521
      },
      "open": {
        "totalCount": 610
      }
    }
  }
}

[0xabdulkhaliq]

Wow @LangLangBart, i have tried using Graph QL and it worked thank you for that!

But the thing i can't understand that i can't get the contributors count, i tried collabrators but it returns null

Can you resolve this ?

[LangLangBart]

i can't get the contributors count, i tried collabrators but it returns null

• NOTE: GitHub’s REST API and GraphQL API have no parity, they are a Venn Diagram, feature-wise.
  • the GraphQL API has no contributors object, only a collabrators object and this info is only accessible when you have some kind of access to the repo, you should receive an error message
  • collaborators != contributors
    • GitHub Docs - list-repository-collaborators
    • GitHub Docs - list-repository-contributors

{
  repository(owner: "pranjay-poddar", name: "Dev-Geeks") {
    collaborators {
      totalCount
    }
  }
}

{
  "data": {
    "repository": {
      "collaborators": null
    }
  },
  "errors": [
    {
      "type": "FORBIDDEN",
      "path": [
        "repository",
        "collaborators"
      ],
      "locations": [
        {
          "line": 3,
          "column": 5
        }
      ],
      "message": "You do not have permission to view repository collaborators."
    }
  ]
}

• the only object that might be of interest is the mentionableUsers in the GraphQL. I don't know why it's called that, but the names you get from there are very similar to the list of names from the Contributors in the REST API.

---

• checking the difference between the names returned from the REST API for contributors vs the GraphQL API for mentionableUsers below

# REST API
gh api --paginate repos/pranjay-poddar/Dev-Geeks/contributors --jq '.[].login' | sort >rest_api.txt

gh api --paginate repos/pranjay-poddar/Dev-Geeks/contributors --jq '.[].login' | wc -l
# 405

# GraphQL API
gh api graphql --paginate \
	--raw-field query=$'query ($endCursor: String){
		repository(owner: "pranjay-poddar", name: "Dev-Geeks"){
			mentionableUsers(first: 100 after: $endCursor){
				nodes { login }
				pageInfo { hasNextPage endCursor }
				totalCount }}}' \
	--jq '.data.repository.mentionableUsers.nodes[].login' | sort >graphql_api.txt

gh api graphql \
	--raw-field query=$'{repository(owner: "pranjay-poddar", name: "Dev-Geeks"){
			mentionableUsers{totalCount}}}' \
	--jq '.data.repository.mentionableUsers.totalCount'
# 407

# the differences between the lists
comm -3 graphql_api.txt rest_api.txt
# MohitGupta121
# UditSharma9999
#        codesee-maps[bot]
#        dependabot[bot]
# varunlmxd
# yvrjprshr

[LangLangBart]

The Web UI shows 409 Contributors, whereas the GraphQL API only returns 407 without counting codesee-maps[bot] and dependabot[bot].

---

NOTE: Another user reported a big difference between the total number mentionableUsers for the GraphQL API and the contributors number from the REST API - #53747 (26/Apr/23).

The mentionableUsers object might work for this specific repo in your example, but the description indicates a different purpose.

mentionableUsers: A list of Users that can be mentioned in the context of the repository.
Source: GitHub Docs - GraphQL API - objects#repository

[0xabdulkhaliq]

Glad to get this detailed breakdown about mentionableUsers 🖖🏻

Thank you so much once again!

[LangLangBart]

Thank you so much once again!

👍

---

PS: in your posted image, the number of Closed Pull Requests: is at 1267, but that includes only merged pull requests.

query ($owner: String = "pranjay-poddar", $name: String = "Dev-Geeks") {
  repository(owner: $owner, name: $name) {
    all: pullRequests {
      totalCount
    }
    open: pullRequests(states: OPEN) {
      totalCount
    }
    closed_merged: pullRequests(states: [CLOSED, MERGED]) {
      totalCount
    }
    merged: pullRequests(states: MERGED) {
      totalCount
    }
    closed: pullRequests(states: CLOSED) {
      totalCount
    }
  }
  __type(name: "PullRequestState") {
    description
    enumValues {
      name
      description
    }
  }
}

{
  "data": {
    "repository": {
      "all": {
        "totalCount": 1884
      },
      "open": {
        "totalCount": 115
      },
      "closed_merged": {
        "totalCount": 1769
      },
      "merged": {
        "totalCount": 1274
      },
      "closed": {
        "totalCount": 495
      }
    },
    "__type": {
      "description": "The possible states of a pull request.",
      "enumValues": [
        {
          "name": "OPEN",
          "description": "A pull request that is still open."
        },
        {
          "name": "CLOSED",
          "description": "A pull request that has been closed without being merged."
        },
        {
          "name": "MERGED",
          "description": "A pull request that has been closed by being merged."
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

[0xabdulkhaliq]

Yep, i want only the merged ones so that we can properly count the PR's which are contributed.

By the way thanks for sharing this code with such as amount of detail, I hope this will be useful in any other scenarios!

[ArnabBCA]

@LangLangBart Hi thanks for the detailed explanation! will this work if the number of issues (open or closed) is huge? or are there any limits like the rest api (number of items per page or pagination)?