generated: '2026-06-20'
method: searched
source: >-
  https://docs.github.com/en/rest/using-the-rest-api/getting-started-with-the-rest-api
  and related REST API guides. Cross-cutting request/response conventions that
  apply to every GitHub REST endpoint including the Copilot slice, captured from
  the docs and derived from openapi/github-copilot-openapi.yml.
description: >-
  How the GitHub REST API behaves across every operation: authentication,
  versioning, pagination, conditional requests, rate-limit signaling, request
  tracing, media types, and the error envelope. These runtime-semantics
  conventions are not fully expressed by OpenAPI.
base_url: https://api.github.com
api_style: REST over HTTPS, JSON request/response
authentication:
  scheme: Bearer token in Authorization header
  token_types: [personal access token (classic), fine-grained PAT, OAuth app token, GitHub App installation token]
  docs: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/authentication
  detail: authentication/github-copilot-authentication.yml
  user_agent_required: true   # requests without a User-Agent header are rejected (403)
versioning:
  scheme: date-based
  header: X-GitHub-Api-Version
  example: '2022-11-28'
  docs: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/about-the-rest-api/api-versions
  detail: lifecycle/github-copilot-lifecycle.yml
media_types:
  default: application/vnd.github+json
  pattern: application/vnd.github.PARAM+json    # e.g. application/vnd.github.raw+json
  accept_header: true
pagination:
  style: page-number with Link header
  request_params:
    per_page: 1-100, default 30
    page: 1-based page number
  response:
    link_header: 'Link: <...>; rel="next", <...>; rel="last", rel="prev", rel="first"'
  docs: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/using-the-rest-api/using-pagination-in-the-rest-api
conditional_requests:
  supported: true
  mechanism: ETag / If-None-Match and Last-Modified / If-Modified-Since
  not_modified: 304 Not Modified (does not count against the rate limit)
  docs: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/using-the-rest-api/best-practices-for-using-the-rest-api
idempotency:
  supported: false
  note: >-
    GitHub does not offer an Idempotency-Key header; GET/HEAD are inherently
    idempotent and most Copilot management writes (PUT/DELETE seat assignment)
    are naturally idempotent by resource state.
request_tracing:
  header: X-GitHub-Request-Id
  note: Unique per-request id echoed on every response; include it when contacting support.
rate_limiting:
  headers: [x-ratelimit-limit, x-ratelimit-remaining, x-ratelimit-reset, x-ratelimit-used, x-ratelimit-resource]
  exhausted_status: [403, 429]
  retry_after: Retry-After header on secondary rate limits
  docs: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/overview/rate-limits-for-the-rest-api
  detail: rate-limits/github-copilot-rate-limits.yml
error_envelope:
  media_type: application/json
  shape: '{ "message": string, "documentation_url": string, "errors": [ { "resource", "field", "code" } ]? }'
  detail: errors/github-copilot-problem-types.yml