using the github API, Create git pull request without checking out the code

Question

How can I create a github pull request for a project that I haven't checked out using the github api. I want to automate simple changes to repositories, that I need not check out first. I simply want to pull a file from raw.githubusercontent.com modify it and create said pull request.

EDIT The github web user interface allows to edit foreign files by cloning and creating a pull request in the back ground.

Answer 1

2015:

I haven't checked out using the github api.

You should at least have forked the repo first (see GitHub API create a fork)

Then "Create a Pull Request" supposes you have pushed a commit to a dedicated branch (API "Create a commit" first, which supposes to create a tree first, based on creating a blob).

For all those operations, I would suggest using a wrapper to the GitHub API like go-github, which might make the all series of operation easier to chain.

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2023:

The GitHub CLI allows for:

• gh repo fork to create a fork of a repository (without cloning it locally).
• gh pr create --web to create a pull request on GitHub, from the web interface (so no local checkout required, assuming you have a branch ready to be merged).

Answer 2

You had to have checked it out, but you can use scripted command line to do it.

A pull request asks that a particular git commit be merged into the main repository, not that a set of edits be made to files. You can only merge in commits if you have a writable copy of the github repo, which you can only get by cloning or forking the project.