Change default branch via CLI

Question

I have been looking for a way to change the default branches of a bunch of my repositories (>50). Thus I am trying to make a bash script to do it for me.

However every answer I find, e.g. Deleting remote master branch, refused due to being the current branch, tells me to "go to the setting page on GitHub".

Can you do it without the UI?

Answer 1

You can do it directly with the gh repo edit command of the GitHub CLI like this:

gh repo edit {owner}/{repo} --default-branch main

or if you have set a default remote repository, you can execute the command in the local repository without specifying the owner & repository:

gh repo edit --default-branch main

Please note that the new default branch must already exist, otherwise there will be a validation error.