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 takes the form of github:github.com/<owner>/<repo>/<content> where content could be files, issues, pulls, commits, stargazers. See examples for more configuration detail.

name

The dataset name. This will be used as the table name within Spice.

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. 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.

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.
owner	Required. Specifies the owner of the GitHub repository.
repo	Required. Specifies the name of the GitHub repository.

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
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}

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
hashes	List(Utf8)	YES
id	Utf8	YES
labels	List(Utf8)	YES
merged_at	Timestamp	YES
number	Int64	YES
reviews_count	Int64	YES
state	Utf8	YES
title	Utf8	YES
url	Utf8	YES

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

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
author_email	Utf8	YES
author_name	Utf8	YES
committed_date	Timestamp	YES
deletions	Int64	YES
id	Utf8	YES
message	Utf8	YES
message_body	Utf8	YES
message_head_line	Utf8	YES
sha	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.

Cookbook

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