'Github API is responding with a 403 when using Request's request function

I am trying to make a request to github's API. Here is my request:

var url = 'https://api.github.com/' + requestUrl + '/' + repo + '/';

request(url, function(err, res, body) {
    if (!err && res.statusCode == 200) {

        var link = "https://github.com/" + repo;
        opener(link);
        process.exit();

    } else {
        console.log(res.body);
        console.log(err);
        console.log('This ' + person + ' does not exist');
        process.exit();
    }

});

This is what I get for my response:

Request forbidden by administrative rules. Please make sure your request has a User-Agent header (http://developer.github.com/v3/#user-agent-required). Check https://developer.github.com for other possible causes.

I have used the exact same code in the past, and it has worked. No errors are being thrown by request. Now I am confused with why I am getting a 403 (Forbidden)? Any solutions?

node.jsrequest


Solution 1:[1]

As explained in the URL given in the response, requests to GitHub's API now require a User-Agent header:

All API requests MUST include a valid User-Agent header. Requests with no User-Agent header will be rejected. We request that you use your GitHub username, or the name of your application, for the User-Agent header value. This allows us to contact you if there are problems.

The request documentation shows specifically how to add a User-Agent header to your request: 

var request = require('request');

var options = {
  url: 'https://api.github.com/repos/request/request',
  headers: {
    'User-Agent': 'request'
  }
};

function callback(error, response, body) {
  if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
    var info = JSON.parse(body);
    console.log(info.stargazers_count + " Stars");
    console.log(info.forks_count + " Forks");
  }
}

request(options, callback);

Solution 2:[2]

From C# and using HttpClient you can do this (tested on latest .Net Core 2.1):

using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient())
{
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add( new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));

    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.UserAgent.TryParseAdd("request");//Set the User Agent to "request"

    using (HttpResponseMessage response = client.GetAsync(endPoint).Result)
    {
        response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
        responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync();
    }
}

Thanks

Solution 3:[3]

If Github API is responding with status Code : 403, It simply mean that your API fetching limit has been exceeded please wait for 1 min and again fetch then you will get your data,

Solution 4:[4]

ANGULAR

I had the same issue where I got 403 rate limit exceeded. I tried setting up the Authorization header using new HttpHeaders from angular/common but the header still failed. The code that failed is:

getUser(username: string): Observable<any> {
    this.headers.set('Authorization', `token ${this.ACCESS_TOKEN}`);
    const endpoint = `https://api.github.com/users/${username}`;
    return this.http.get(endpoint, {
      headers: this.headers
    }).pipe(response => {
      return response
    });
  }

The code that worked:

getUser(username: string): Observable<any> {
    const endpoint = `https://api.github.com/users/${username}`;
    return this.http.get(endpoint, {
      headers: {
        Authorization: `token ${this.ACCESS_TOKEN}`,
      }
    }).pipe(response => {
      return response
    });
  }

In this case, I directly set the header in the request headers segment.

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 kfb
Solution 2 Ernest
Solution 3 Jchy
Solution 4 Live Software Developer

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