GitHub API
Profiles, repositories, issues, releases and search — each a single POST returning structured JSON. Plus a public email finder, a one-call repo dossier and a developer velocity score no other unified API offers.
50 free credits on signup. No card, no GitHub app or OAuth token.
{ "data": { "handle": "torvalds", "emails": [ { "email": "[email protected]", "source": "search_commits", "is_noreply": false, "commit_sha": "cd30ecb3de0099e0a466d502992a97e40a0677d9", "repo": "CrafterKolyan/sandbox" } ], "primary_email": "[email protected]" }, "response_time": 1640}A real captured response from the email finder. Sign up to run your own.
What is the Scavio GitHub API?
The Scavio GitHub API is a REST API that returns public GitHub data as structured JSON. You send a handle, repo URL or query to one of 13 POST endpoints with your API key, and get back profiles, repositories, issues, releases or search results — plus three composites (a repo dossier, a velocity score, a repo's top issues) and a public email finder that resolves a handle to the email behind that developer's public activity.
- 13
- endpoints, all live in production
- 1
- email finder, sold by no other unified API
- 1 / 2 / 5 / 10
- credit tiers by endpoint weight
The four you'll reach for first
The email finder finds the person, the dossier profiles the repo, velocity scores the developer, search finds all of it.
Email finder
POST /api/v1/github/user/emailResolve any handle to the public email behind that developer's public activity, flag noreply masks and hand back one best primary_email. No other unified API sells this.
Repo dossier
POST /api/v1/github/repo/dossierOne call returns a repo, its README excerpt, latest releases, top issues, language split, top contributors and a year of weekly commits — the five-to-eight calls you would otherwise chain.
Profile velocity
POST /api/v1/github/user/profile-velocityA developer's last 90 days as one number set: total events, pushes, active days, events per week and the repo they touch most. Rank contributors without paging raw event feeds yourself.
Search
POST /api/v1/github/searchSearch repositories, users, issues, commits or code with sort, order and paging, and a total_count on every response. The same query surface across five entity types.
All 13 GitHub endpoints
Every route is a POST, returns JSON, and takes the same API key. Standard calls are 1 credit; the email finder is 2, top-issues and dossier 5, velocity 10.
| Endpoint | Returns | Credits |
|---|---|---|
Email finder/api/v1/github/user/email | The public email(s) behind a handle — address, whether it is a noreply mask, and a single best primary_email | 2 |
Profile/api/v1/github/profile | A user or org — name, company, location, bio, followers, following, public repo and gist counts | 1 |
Repo/api/v1/github/repo | One repository — stars, forks, real watchers, open issues, language, topics, license, default branch, dates | 1 |
User repos/api/v1/github/profile/repos | Every public repo for a handle, paginated and sortable by pushed, updated, created or stars | 1 |
README/api/v1/github/repo/readme | A repo's README decoded to plain markdown, with its html_url, file name and byte size | 1 |
Releases/api/v1/github/repo/releases | Releases with tag, name, notes, draft and prerelease flags, dates and per-asset download counts | 1 |
Issues/api/v1/github/repo/issues | Issues filtered by state, label and date — real issues only, with pull requests stripped out | 1 |
Issue detail/api/v1/github/issue | One issue in full — body, state, labels, assignees, milestone, comment and reaction counts | 1 |
Issue comments/api/v1/github/issue/comments | Every comment on an issue, paginated, with author, body, reactions and timestamps | 1 |
Search/api/v1/github/search | Search repositories, users, issues, commits or code — sorted, ordered and paginated, with total_count | 1 |
Top issues/api/v1/github/repo/top-issues | A repo's most-reacted or most-commented open issues, ranked — the signal buried in a long issue list | 5 |
Repo dossier/api/v1/github/repo/dossier | One composite call: repo, README excerpt, latest releases, top issues, language split, top contributors and commit activity | 5 |
Profile velocity/api/v1/github/user/profile-velocity | A developer's 90-day activity — events by type, push count, active days, events per week and most-active repo | 10 |
Failed calls bill nothing — you are only charged on a successful 200. See plans
Find a developer's email, then profile the repo
Resolve a handle to a public email, or collapse eight repo calls into one dossier. The response on the right is a real capture from the email finder, field names and all.
from scavio import ScavioClient
client = ScavioClient(api_key="sk_live_your_key")
# Find the public email behind a handle
res = client.github.user_email(handle="torvalds")
print(res["data"]["primary_email"])
for e in res["data"]["emails"]:
print(e["email"], "noreply" if e["is_noreply"] else "ok")
# Enrich it with the profile in one more call
who = client.github.profile(handle="torvalds")
print(who["data"]["name"], "-", who["data"]["company"]){
"data": {
"handle": "torvalds",
"emails": [
{
"email": "[email protected]",
"source": "search_commits",
"is_noreply": false,
"commit_sha": "cd30ecb3de0099e0a466d502992a97e40a0677d9",
"repo": "CrafterKolyan/sandbox"
}
],
"primary_email": "[email protected]"
},
"response_time": 1640
}Why not GitHub's own REST API?
It is free and complete, and it makes you chain calls, fight rate limits, and live without an email finder.
GitHub REST API
- Hard rate limits on a shared pool you have to budget and back off around
- Related data split across many calls — repo, readme, releases, issues, contributors, activity each a separate request
- Pull requests mixed into every issue list, and a watcher count that is really a stars alias
- No email finder, no repo dossier, no velocity score — you build all three yourself
Scavio GitHub API
- One API key, issued at signup — no OAuth app, no token budget to manage
- A one-call repo dossier and a 90-day velocity score in place of five-to-eight chained requests
- PR-free issue lists and the real subscriber-based watcher count
- A public email finder no other unified API sells, in the same JSON envelope as 30 platforms
Scavio returns publicly available data only, and never authenticates as a GitHub user or reads private repositories.
What developers build with it
Developer lead generation and recruiting
Turn a list of handles — stargazers, contributors, issue authors — into contactable public emails. The finder returns a single primary_email and flags noreply masks, so a recruiting or dev-sales list is clean without manual profile digging.
user/email + profileRepository intelligence in one call
Point the dossier endpoint at any repo and get its stats, README excerpt, latest releases, language split, top contributors and a year of weekly commit counts together — the input to a due-diligence report or a dependency-health score without chaining requests.
repo/dossierContributor and maintainer scoring
Read a developer's 90-day velocity — total events, push count, active days, events per week and most-active repo — to rank maintainers, size a team's real output, or spot the person actually driving a project.
user/profile-velocity + profile/reposIssue triage and community signal
Pull a repo's top issues by reactions or comments to surface what users actually want, then read full issue bodies and comment threads and feed them to an LLM for themes, sentiment and feature demand.
repo/top-issues + issue + issue/commentsPackage and dependency monitoring
Track releases with per-asset download counts, watch star and fork movement on the repos you depend on, and diff results on a schedule to catch a new version, a maintenance drop-off or a spike in open issues.
repo + repo/releasesAgent research and OSINT tools
Point an agent at the MCP server and GitHub becomes a callable tool — who is this developer, what does this repo look like, what is their email — with one key and the same JSON envelope as every other Scavio platform.
MCP + RESTHow to get GitHub data as JSON
- 1
Get an API key
Sign up for a Scavio account and copy your key from the dashboard. You get 50 credits free on signup, with no card required and no GitHub app or OAuth token to register.
- 2
POST a handle, repo or query
Send {"handle": "torvalds"} to https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/github/user/email with an Authorization: Bearer header. User endpoints take a handle, repo and issue endpoints take a URL or "owner/repo", and search takes a query.
- 3
Read the JSON
The response wraps the payload under data. List and search endpoints carry paging, so you walk results by incrementing page. Failed calls (bad handle, unknown repo, rate) bill nothing — you are only charged on a successful 200.
GitHub API FAQ
What is the Scavio GitHub API?
+
It is a REST API that returns public GitHub data as structured JSON. Thirteen POST endpoints cover profiles, repositories, a user's repos, READMEs, releases, issues, issue detail and comments, search across five entity types, plus three composites — a repo dossier, a developer velocity score and a repo's top issues — and a public email finder. You authenticate with a Scavio API key and never register a GitHub app.
What is the GitHub email finder and why is it the headline?
+
The user/email endpoint resolves a GitHub handle to the public email address behind that developer's public activity. It returns each address found, flags noreply masks with an is_noreply boolean, and picks one best primary_email. No other unified data API sells this as a plain REST call — only dedicated lead-gen vendors do — which makes it the strongest reason to reach for the GitHub API for recruiting and developer sales.
What does the email finder return, exactly?
+
A data object with the handle, an emails array — each entry carrying email, source, an is_noreply flag, a commit_sha and the repo it was seen in — and a single primary_email that is the first non-noreply address, or null when only masked addresses exist. Addresses are deduplicated, so a handle with dozens of public commits returns a short, clean list.
What are the three composite endpoints?
+
repo/dossier returns a repository plus its README excerpt, latest releases, top issues, language percentage split, top contributors and a year of weekly commit activity in one call. user/profile-velocity computes a developer's last-90-day activity — events by type, push count, active days, events per week and most-active repo. repo/top-issues ranks a repo's open issues by reactions or comments. Each replaces several raw calls you would otherwise chain and page yourself.
How much does a GitHub request cost?
+
Four tiers. The nine standard endpoints — profile, repo, user repos, README, releases, issues, issue detail, issue comments and search — are 1 credit each. The email finder is 2 credits. repo/top-issues and repo/dossier are 5 credits each. user/profile-velocity is 10 credits. Failed calls bill nothing; you are only charged on a successful response. New accounts get 50 free credits on signup.
Does it return pull requests when I ask for issues?
+
No. On GitHub every pull request is also an issue in the underlying data, so a raw issues list is polluted with PRs — for a busy repo, more than half. The repo/issues endpoint strips pull requests out when you ask for issues, so you get real issues only. Set the type parameter to pr or all if you want the others.
Are the star and watcher counts accurate?
+
Yes, and the watcher count is the real one. The repo endpoint returns stars as the stargazer count and watchers as the true subscriber count — the number of people watching for notifications — rather than the stars-alias that some tools report as watchers. Note that list and search payloads omit the true watcher count, so those rows carry watchers: null by design; call the single-repo endpoint when you need it.
How is this different from GitHub's own REST API?
+
GitHub's REST API is free but rate limited hard on a shared pool, splits related data across many calls, mixes pull requests into issue lists, reports a watcher count that is really a stars alias, and has no email finder, no repo dossier and no velocity score. Scavio gives you one key with no per-IP rate ceiling to manage, real watcher counts, PR-free issue lists, the three composites and the email finder — the same JSON envelope as 30 other Scavio platforms.
Do I need a GitHub token or OAuth app?
+
No. You never register a GitHub OAuth app, run an OAuth flow, or manage a personal access token and its rate budget. You sign up for Scavio, take one API key, and POST a handle, repo URL or query. Authentication, paging headers and rate handling are ours to deal with.
Which endpoints are paginated?
+
User repos, releases, issues, issue comments and search all carry paging and accept per_page and page parameters, so you walk large result sets by incrementing page. Search additionally returns total_count so you know how deep the set goes. The composites and single-item endpoints return one bounded payload.
Which languages and tools are supported?
+
Official Python (pip install scavio) and JavaScript/TypeScript (npm i scavio) SDKs, a remote MCP server at mcp.scavio.dev for AI agents, and an n8n community node. Any language can call the REST endpoints directly with an HTTP client — every route is a POST that takes a JSON body and a Bearer key.
Is collecting GitHub data and emails legal?
+
Scavio returns publicly available GitHub data — profiles, repositories, issues and the email addresses developers have themselves attached to their public activity — and does not access private repositories or authenticate as another user. You remain responsible for how you use the data, including compliance with GitHub's terms and with privacy and anti-spam law where personal data such as an email is involved. Talk to your own counsel for your specific use case.
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Pricing
Credit packs and plans, no per-platform surcharge.
Start pulling GitHub data today
50 free credits on signup, no card. Your first request is a POST with a handle in it — try the email finder.