is it possible to squash commits via Github API?

Question

I've successfully implemented automatic file creation/update via Github V3 Rest API, however the only downside is that for each file I have a commit.

There is a possibility to do the same for multiple files, but unfortunately it involves some concepts I still haven't mastered and it will take me some time until I get there since I have more urgents stuff on my TODO list.

In the meanwhile, I can totally live with that or simply squash the last N commits, which I imagined should be relatively easy, since locally it's just a matter of

git reset --soft HEAD~N
git commit -m ".."

but I couldn't find anything on the docs or online

So my question is: how can I squash the last N commits, non interactively, using Github API?

Ps: I don't care if it's v3 or v4 as long as I get it done

Answer 1

I did not see a squash feature directly through API.

You would need to:

• create a branch at HEAD-N commits, through the create ref API
• reset your current branch to HEAD-N sha, with force boolean parameter set to true?
• create a pull request from your new branch to your old reset branch
• merge the PR, with the merge_method parameter set to squash

Pretty convoluted, but it should work (entirely through script, without having to clone the repository).

Answer 2

I created a small service (https://squasher.nomeata.de/) that squashes commits on a branch, and it uses the Github API to do so:

• It gets information about the PR via repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{pr}, in particular base and head ref.
• It gets the merge base using repos/{head_repo_owner}/{head_repo_name}/compare/{base_label}...{head_label}
• It gets the tree of the head branch using repos/{head_repo_owner}/{head_repo_name}/git/commits/{head_sha}
• It creates a new, squashed commit using repos/{head_repo_owner}/{head_repo_name}/git/commits
• It force-updates the head branch to that commit using repos/{head_repo_owner}/{head_repo_name}/git/refs/heads/{head_ref}

Full code at https://github.com/nomeata/squasher/blob/1ccc24a5768e663199f8805b59120a6160592cae/squasher.py#L44-L109

Answer 3

Meanwhile it seems you can squash via API by setting merge_method to squash

see https://docs.github.com/en/rest/pulls/pulls?apiVersion=2022-11-28#merge-a-pull-request