GitHub Data Connector

The GitHub Data Connector enables federated SQL queries on various GitHub resources such as files, issues, pull requests, and commits by specifying github as the selector in the from value for the dataset.

Common Configuration

Configuration

from

The from field specifies the GitHub resource to query. The owner and repository name are extracted from the path (e.g., github:github.com/spiceai/spiceai/issues targets the spiceai/spiceai repository). It supports the following formats:

Format	Description
github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/files/<ref>	Query files from a repository at a specific branch or tag
github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/issues	Query issues from a repository
github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/pulls	Query pull requests from a repository
github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/commits	Query commits from a repository
github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/stargazers	Query stargazers from a repository
github:github.com/<organization>/members	Query members from an organization

name

The dataset name. This will be used as the table name within Spice. The dataset name cannot be a reserved keyword.

params

Personal Access Token

Parameter Name	Description
github_token	Required. GitHub personal access token to use to connect to the GitHub API. Learn more.

GitHub App Installation

GitHub Apps provide a secure and scalable way to integrate with GitHub's API, and works well when interacting with one or more GitHub organizations. Learn more.

Parameter Name	Description
github_client_id	Required. Specifies the client ID for GitHub App Installation auth mode.
github_private_key	Required. Specifies the private key for GitHub App Installation auth mode.
github_installation_id	Required. Specifies the installation ID for GitHub App Installation auth mode.

The client ID and private key are generated when creating the GitHub app.

Getting the Installation ID

If the app is installed on a GitHub organization:

• Visit the settings page for the organization (https://github.com/organizations/<ORG>/settings/installations)
• Click "Configure" on the app
• The URL of the page will be of the form https://github.com/organizations/<ORG>/settings/installations/<INSTALLATION_ID>

If the app is installed on a GitHub user:

• Visit the settings page
• Click "Configure" on the app
• The URL of the page will be of the form https://github.com/settings/installations/<INSTALLATION_ID>

Limitations

With GitHub App Installation authentication, the connector's functionality depends on the permissions and scope of the GitHub App. Ensure that the app is installed on the repositories and configured with content, commits, issues and pull permissions to allow the corresponding datasets to work.

Common Parameters

Parameter Name	Description
github_query_mode	Optional. Specifies whether the connector should use the GitHub search API for improved filter performance. Defaults to auto, possible values of auto or search.

Advanced Configuration

Rate Limiting

When using multiple GitHub datasets sharing the same GitHub token or GitHub app credentials, it is possible to exceed GitHub's primary and secondary rate limits. To mitigate this, use the github_concurrent_connections_limit setting under runtime.source_rate_control. This connections limit applies per GitHub token and per GitHub app installation, following GitHub's rate limit policy.

Deprecated

runtime.params.github_max_concurrent_connections is deprecated. Use runtime.source_rate_control.github_concurrent_connections_limit instead.

Example Configuration:

# ... other configuration ...
runtime:
  source_rate_control:
    github_concurrent_connections_limit: 5 # Defaults to 10

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/spiceai/spiceai/files/v0.17.2-beta
    name: spiceai.files
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
      include: '**/*.txt'
    acceleration:
      enabled: true
  - from: github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/issues
    name: spiceai.issues
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
    acceleration:
      enabled: true
# ... other configuration ...

The GitHub connector supports the following HTTP concurrency parameter:

Parameter Name	Description
max_concurrent_requests	Maximum number of concurrent HTTP requests to the same upstream origin. Overrides runtime.params.http_max_concurrent_requests. If both are unset, concurrency limiting is disabled.

The GitHub connector uses its own rate limiter based on GitHub API X-RateLimit-* response headers. Multiple datasets targeting the same GitHub endpoint share this rate limiter.

Filter Push Down

GitHub queries support a github_query_mode parameter, which can be set to either auto or search for the following types:

• Issues: Defaults to auto. Query filters are only pushed down to the GitHub API in search mode.
• Pull Requests: Defaults to auto. Query filters are only pushed down to the GitHub API in search mode.

Commits only supports auto mode. Query with filter push down is only enabled for the committed_date column. commited_date supports exact matches, or greater/less than matches for dates provided in ISO8601 format, like WHERE committed_date > '2024-09-24'.

When set to search, Issues and Pull Requests will use the GitHub Search API for improved filter performance when querying against the columns:

• author and state; supports exact matches, or NOT matches. For example, WHERE author = 'peasee' or WHERE author <> 'peasee'.
• body and title; supports exact matches, or LIKE matches. For example, WHERE body LIKE '%duckdb%'.
• updated_at, created_at, merged_at and closed_at; supports exact matches, or greater/less than matches with dates provided in ISO8601 format. For example, WHERE created_at > '2024-09-24'.

All other filters are supported when github_query_mode is set to search, but cannot be pushed down to the GitHub API for improved performance.

Limitations

• GitHub has a limitation in the Search API where it may return more stale data than the standard API used in the default query mode.
• GitHub has a limitation in the Search API where it only returns a maximum of 1000 results for a query. Use append mode acceleration to retrieve more results over time. See the append example for pull requests.

Examples

Querying GitHub Files

Limitations

• content column is fetched only when acceleration is enabled.
• Querying GitHub files does not support filter push down, which may result in long query times when acceleration is disabled.
• Setting github_query_mode to search is not supported.

• ref - Required. Specifies the GitHub branch or tag to fetch files from.
• include - Optional. Specifies a pattern to include specific files. Supports glob patterns. If not specified, all files are included by default.

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/files/<ref>
    name: spiceai.files
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
      include: '**/*.json; **/*.yaml'
    acceleration:
      enabled: true

Schema

Column Name	Data Type	Is Nullable
name	Utf8	YES
path	Utf8	YES
ref	Utf8	NO
size	Int64	YES
sha	Utf8	YES
mode	Utf8	YES
url	Utf8	YES
download_url	Utf8	YES
content	Utf8	YES

Example

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/spiceai/spiceai/files/v0.17.2-beta
    name: spiceai.files
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
      include: '**/*.txt' # include txt files only
    acceleration:
      enabled: true

sql> select * from spiceai.files
+-------------+-------------+------+------------------------------------------+--------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+
| name        | path        | size | sha                                      | mode   | url                                                                                             | download_url                                                               | content     |
+-------------+-------------+------+------------------------------------------+--------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+
| version.txt | version.txt | 12   | ee80f747038c30e776eecb2c2ae155dec9a68187 | 100644 | https://api.github.com/repos/spiceai/spiceai/git/blobs/ee80f747038c30e776eecb2c2ae155dec9a68187 | https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spiceai/spiceai/v0.17.2-beta/version.txt | 0.17.2-beta |
|             |             |      |                                          |        |                                                                                                 |                                                                            |             |
+-------------+-------------+------+------------------------------------------+--------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------+

Time: 0.005067 seconds. 1 rows.

Querying GitHub Issues

Limitations

• Querying with filters using date columns requires the use of ISO8601 formatted dates. For example, WHERE created_at > '2024-09-24'.

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/issues
    name: spiceai.issues
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
    acceleration:
      enabled: true

Schema

Column Name	Data Type	Is Nullable
assignees	List(Utf8)	YES
author	Utf8	YES
body	Utf8	YES
closed_at	Timestamp	YES
comments	List(Struct)	YES
created_at	Timestamp	YES
id	Utf8	YES
labels	List(Utf8)	YES
milestone_id	Utf8	YES
milestone_title	Utf8	YES
comments_count	Int64	YES
number	Int64	YES
state	Utf8	YES
title	Utf8	YES
updated_at	Timestamp	YES
url	Utf8	YES

Example

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/spiceai/spiceai/issues
    name: spiceai.issues
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}

sql> select title, state, labels from spiceai.issues where title like '%duckdb%'
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+----------------------+
| title                                                                                                     | state  | labels               |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+----------------------+
| Limitation documentation duckdb accelerator about nested struct and decimal256                            | CLOSED | [kind/documentation] |
| Inconsistent duckdb connector params: `params.open` and `params.duckdb_file`                              | CLOSED | [kind/bug]           |
| federation across multiple duckdb acceleration tables.                                                    | CLOSED | []                   |
| Integration tests to cover "On Conflict" behaviors for duckdb accelerator                                 | CLOSED | [kind/task]          |
| Permission denied issue while using duckdb data connector with spice using HELM for Kubernetes deployment | CLOSED | [kind/bug]           |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+----------------------+

Time: 0.011877542 seconds. 5 rows.

Querying GitHub Pull Requests

Limitations

• Querying with filters using date columns requires the use of ISO8601 formatted dates. For example, WHERE created_at > '2024-09-24'.

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/pulls
    name: spiceai.pulls
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
      # Specifies the types of comments to fetch: 'all', 'review', 'discussion', or 'none'. Defaults to 'none'.
      github_include_comments: none
      # Number of comments to fetch per discussion or review thread.
      # Defaults to 25, and is capped at 75
      github_max_comments_fetched: 50

Schema

Column Name	Data Type	Is Nullable
additions	Int64	YES
assignees	List(Utf8)	YES
author	Utf8	YES
body	Utf8	YES
changed_files	Int64	YES
closed_at	Timestamp	YES
comments_count	Int64	YES
commits_count	Int64	YES
created_at	Timestamp	YES
deletions	Int64	YES
discussion	List(Struct(body: Utf8, author: Utf8, created_at: Timestamp))	YES
hashes	List(Utf8)	YES
id	Utf8	YES
labels	List(Utf8)	YES
merged_at	Timestamp	YES
number	Int64	YES
review_comments	List(Struct(body: Utf8, author: Utf8, created_at: Timestamp))	YES
reviews_count	Int64	YES
state	Utf8	YES
title	Utf8	YES
updated_at	Timestamp	YES
url	Utf8	YES

Note: The discussion and review_comments columns are only included in the schema when the github_include_comments parameter is set accordingly.

Example

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/spiceai/spiceai/pulls
    name: spiceai.pulls
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
    acceleration:
      enabled: true

sql> select title, url, state from spiceai.pulls where title like '%GitHub connector%'
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------+
| title                                                               | url                                          | state  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------+
| GitHub connector: convert `labels` and `hashes` to primitive arrays | https://github.com/spiceai/spiceai/pull/2452 | MERGED |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+--------+

Time: 0.034996667 seconds. 1 rows.

Append Example

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/spiceai/spiceai/pulls
    name: spiceai.pulls
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
      github_query_mode: search
    time_column: created_at
    acceleration:
      enabled: true
      refresh_mode: append
      refresh_check_interval: 6h # check for new results every 6 hours
      refresh_data_window: 90d # at initial load, load the last 90 days of pulls

Comments Example

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/spiceai/spiceai/pulls
    name: spiceai.pulls
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
      github_include_comments: all
      github_max_comments_fetched: 75
    acceleration:
      enabled: true

sql> select unnest(unnest(review_comments)) from spiceai.pulls where number = 6 limit 1;
+------------------------------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| __unnest_placeholder(UNNEST(spiceai.pulls.review_comments)).body | __unnest_placeholder(UNNEST(spiceai.pulls.review_comments)).created_at | __unnest_placeholder(UNNEST(spiceai.pulls.review_comments)).author |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nitpick - extra space.                                           | 2021-08-11T17:36:23                                                    | haardvark                                                          |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Time: 0.034283334 seconds. 1 rows.

sql> select unnest(unnest(discussion)) from spiceai.pulls where number = 148 limit 1;
+-------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| __unnest_placeholder(UNNEST(spiceai.pulls.discussion)).body | __unnest_placeholder(UNNEST(spiceai.pulls.discussion)).created_at | __unnest_placeholder(UNNEST(spiceai.pulls.discussion)).author |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Do not merge until after repo goes public.                  | 2021-09-06T08:00:45                                               | lukekim                                                       |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+

Time: 0.036530584 seconds. 1 rows.

Querying GitHub Commits

Limitations

• Querying with filters using date columns requires the use of ISO8601 formatted dates. For example, WHERE committed_date > '2024-09-24'.
• Setting github_query_mode to search is not supported.

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/commits
    name: spiceai.commits
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}

Schema

Column Name	Data Type	Is Nullable
additions	Int64	YES
associated_pull_request_number	Int64	YES
author_email	Utf8	YES
author_name	Utf8	YES
changed_files	Int64	YES
committed_date	Timestamp	YES
committer_date	Timestamp	YES
committer_email	Utf8	YES
committer_name	Utf8	YES
deletions	Int64	YES
id	Utf8	YES
message	Utf8	YES
message_body	Utf8	YES
message_head_line	Utf8	YES
ref	Utf8	YES
sha	Utf8	YES
status	Utf8	YES

Example

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/spiceai/spiceai/commits
    name: spiceai.commits
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
    acceleration:
      enabled: true

sql> select sha, message_head_line from spiceai.commits limit 10
+------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| sha                                      | message_head_line                                                      |
+------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2a9fab7905737e1af182e17f40aecc5c4b5dd236 |  wait 2 seconds for the status to turn ready in refreshing status tes… |
| b9c210a818abeaf14d2493fde5227781f47faed8 | Update README.md - Remove bigquery from tablet of connectors (#1434)   |
| d61e1af61ebf826f83703b8dd939f19e8b2ba426 | Add databricks_use_ssl parameter (#1406)                               |
| f1ec55c5986e3e5d57eff94197182ffebbae1045 | wording and logs change reflected on readme (#1435)                    |
| bfc74185584d1e048ef66c72ce3572a0b652bfd9 | Update acknowledgements (#1433)                                        |
| 0d870f1791d456e7924b4ecbbda5f3b762db1e32 | Update helm version and use v0.13.0-alpha (#1436)                      |
| 12f930cbad69833077bd97ea43599a75cff985fc | Enable push-down federation by default (#1429)                         |
| 6e4521090aaf39664bd61d245581d34398ce77db | Add functional tests for federation push-down (#1428)                  |
| fa3279b7d9fcaa5e8baaa2425f69b556bb30e309 | Add LRU cache support for http-based sql queries (#1410)               |
| a3f93dde9d1312bfbf14f7ae3b75bdc468289212 | Add guides and examples about error handling (#1427)                   |
+------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Time: 0.0065395 seconds. 10 rows.

Querying GitHub stars (Stargazers)

Limitations

• Querying with filters using date columns requires the use of ISO8601 formatted dates. For example, WHERE starred_at > '2024-09-24'.
• Setting github_query_mode to search is not supported.

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/stargazers
    name: spiceai.stargazers
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}

Schema

Column Name	Data Type	Is Nullable
starred_at	Timestamp	YES
login	Utf8	YES
email	Utf8	YES
name	Utf8	YES
company	Utf8	YES
x_username	Utf8	YES
location	Utf8	YES
avatar_url	Utf8	YES
bio	Utf8	YES

Example

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/spiceai/spiceai/stargazers
    name: spiceai.stargazers
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
    acceleration:
      enabled: true

sql> select starred_at, login from spiceai.stargazers order by starred_at DESC limit 10
+----------------------+----------------------+
| starred_at           | login                |
+----------------------+----------------------+
| 2024-09-15T13:22:09Z | cisen                |
| 2024-09-14T18:04:22Z | tyan-boot            |
| 2024-09-13T10:38:01Z | yofriadi             |
| 2024-09-13T10:01:33Z | FourSpaces           |
| 2024-09-13T04:02:11Z | d4x1                 |
| 2024-09-11T18:10:28Z | stephenakearns-insta |
| 2024-09-09T22:17:42Z | Lrs121               |
| 2024-09-09T19:56:26Z | jonathanfinley       |
| 2024-09-09T07:02:10Z | leookun              |
| 2024-09-09T03:04:27Z | royswale             |
+----------------------+----------------------+

Time: 0.0088075 seconds. 10 rows.

Querying Members of a GitHub Organization

Limitations

• Querying with filters using date columns requires the use of ISO8601 formatted dates. For example, WHERE created_at > '2024-09-24'.
• Setting github_query_mode to search is not supported.

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/<organization>/members
    name: members
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}

Schema

Column Name	Data Type	Is Nullable
username	Utf8	YES
name	Utf8	YES
avatar_url	Utf8	YES
url	Utf8	YES
email	Utf8	YES
location	Utf8	YES
company	Utf8	YES
created_at	Timestamp	YES
bio	Utf8	YES

Example

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/apache/members
    name: apache.members
    params:
      github_token: ${secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN}
    acceleration:
      enabled: true

sql> select created_at, username from apache.members order by created_at desc limit 10;
+---------------------+-------------------+
| created_at          | username          |
+---------------------+-------------------+
| 2023-10-09T13:14:13 | heliang666s       |
| 2023-04-14T11:26:44 | cortlepp          |
| 2023-02-16T08:28:58 | ChengJie1053      |
| 2023-02-11T03:51:52 | FinalT            |
| 2022-11-20T12:12:56 | Yanshuming1       |
| 2022-10-10T23:29:29 | bernardodemarco   |
| 2022-10-07T05:06:37 | coldgust          |
| 2022-09-06T14:38:44 | No-SilverBullet   |
| 2022-08-18T13:31:44 | harshithasudhakar |
| 2022-07-05T10:44:08 | bearslyricattack  |
+---------------------+-------------------+

Time: 0.054390375 seconds. 10 rows.

Cookbook

• A cookbook recipe to configure Github as a data connector in Spice. GitHub Data Connector