GitHub Contribution Chart Generator API
Overview
The GitHub Contribution Chart Generator API creates a visual representation of any GitHub user's contribution activity over the past year. No API key is required — simply provide a GitHub username and embed the generated image URL directly in a README or webpage. It is a great beginner project for learning how to work with image-generating APIs.
Beginner Tip
You can embed the chart directly in a GitHub README using Markdown: . No code needed — just swap in your username and paste the link.
Measurement Record
What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.
- Request
- GET https://github-contributions-api.jogruber.de/v4/torvalds?y=last
- Result
- HTTP 200 · application/json · 15,539 bytes · compressed
- Response time
- 262 ms (median of 3) · fastest 259 ms
- Transport
- TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Let's Encrypt
- Browser CORS
- Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
- Recorded
- 2026-08-10
Fields Returned
Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.
| Field | Type | Value received |
|---|---|---|
| total | object | {1 fields} |
| contributions | array | [1 item] |
Captured Response
Captured from a real request to https://github-contributions-api.jogruber.de/v4/torvalds?y=last on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.
{
"total": {
"lastYear": 3382
},
"contributions": [
{
"date": "2025-08-10",
"count": 6,
"level": 1
}
]
} Field Reference
contributions List of daily contribution entries, each containing a date and count date ISO date string (YYYY-MM-DD) for each day's contribution data count Number of contributions (commits, PRs, issues, reviews) made on that day level Activity level 0-4 used to determine the color intensity on the contribution graph total Summary object with yearly totals keyed by year (e.g., {"2024": 1234}) Implementation Example
Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.
const url = "https://github-contributions-api.jogruber.de/v4/torvalds?y=last";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
How This API Fails
We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.
Returned an HTML error page rather than JSON — worth knowing if your client assumes every response can be parsed as JSON.
{
"error": "Invalid request",
"issues": [
{
"code": "invalid_format",
"path": "y",
"message": "Invalid string: must match pattern /^(?:\\d+|all|last)$/"
}
]
} Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.
Measured Score Breakdown
Live HTTP request to the API endpoint
Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026
Technical Specifications
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