GitHub: Delete a file

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Operation github.repos_delete_file

Provider route: DELETE /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents/{path}. Alter supplies the connection’s credentials and routing.

Call through Alter

Install @alter-ai/sdk @alter-ai/github with npm, or alter-sdk-github with pip. Supply your connected customer’s grant ID and the arguments described below.

import { App } from "@alter-ai/sdk";
import { GitHubIntegration } from "@alter-ai/github";

async function execute(input: Parameters<GitHubIntegration["repos"]["reposDeleteFile"]>[0]) {
  const app = new App({ apiKey: process.env.ALTER_API_KEY! });
  try {
    const provider = new GitHubIntegration(app, { grantId: process.env.PROVIDER_GRANT_ID! });
    const call = await provider.repos.reposDeleteFile(input);
    const result = await call.wait();
    return result.bodyJson();
  } finally {
    await app.close();
  }
}

import os
from alter_sdk import App
from alter_sdk_github import GitHubIntegration

async def execute(arguments):
    async with App(api_key=os.environ["ALTER_API_KEY"]) as app:
        provider = GitHubIntegration(app, {"grant_id": os.environ["PROVIDER_GRANT_ID"]})
        call = await provider.repos.repos_delete_file(arguments)
        result = await call.wait()
        return result.body_json()

Input

Field	Type	Presence	Description and constraints
$	object	Root	Additional keys: not allowed
path	object	Required within parent	Additional keys: not allowed
path.owner	string	Required within parent
path.repo	string	Required within parent
path.path	string	Required within parent
body	object	Required within parent
body.author	object	Optional	object containing information about the author.
body.author.email	string	Optional	The email of the author (or committer) of the commit
body.author.name	string	Optional	The name of the author (or committer) of the commit
body.branch	string	Optional	The branch name. Default: the repository’s default branch
body.committer	object	Optional	object containing information about the committer.
body.committer.email	string	Optional	The email of the author (or committer) of the commit
body.committer.name	string	Optional	The name of the author (or committer) of the commit
body.message	string	Required within parent	The commit message.
body.sha	string	Required within parent	The blob SHA of the file being deleted.

Response

Response media type: application/json. The table describes the pinned successful response. Referenced models link to their complete fields.

Field	Type	Presence	Description and constraints
$	Model	Root	Expand Delete a file — response body

Referenced models: Delete a file — response body

Schemas

Delete a file — response body

Field	Type	Presence	Description and constraints
$	object	Root	File Commit
commit	Model	Required within parent	Expand Delete a file — response body — commit
content	JSON	Required within parent
content (anyOf 1)	object	Alternative
content (anyOf 1)._links	object	Optional
content (anyOf 1)._links.git	string	Optional
content (anyOf 1)._links.html	string	Optional
content (anyOf 1)._links.self	string	Optional
content (anyOf 1).download_url	string	Optional
content (anyOf 1).git_url	string	Optional
content (anyOf 1).html_url	string	Optional
content (anyOf 1).name	string	Optional
content (anyOf 1).path	string	Optional
content (anyOf 1).sha	string	Optional
content (anyOf 1).size	JSON	Optional
content (anyOf 1).size (anyOf 1)	integer	Alternative
content (anyOf 1).size (anyOf 2)	string	Alternative	Pattern: ^-?[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?(?:[eE][+-]?[0-9]+)?$
content (anyOf 1).type	string	Optional
content (anyOf 1).url	string	Optional
content (anyOf 2)	null	Alternative

Referenced models: Delete a file — response body — commit

Delete a file — response body — commit

Field	Type	Presence	Description and constraints
$	object	Root
author	object	Optional
author.date	string	Optional
author.email	string	Optional
author.name	string	Optional
committer	object	Optional
committer.date	string	Optional
committer.email	string	Optional
committer.name	string	Optional
html_url	string	Optional
message	string	Optional
node_id	string	Optional
parents	array	Optional
parents[]	object	Each item
parents[].html_url	string	Optional
parents[].sha	string	Optional
parents[].url	string	Optional
sha	string	Optional
tree	object	Optional
tree.sha	string	Optional
tree.url	string	Optional
url	string	Optional
verification	object	Optional
verification.payload	JSON	Optional
verification.payload (anyOf 1)	string	Alternative
verification.payload (anyOf 2)	null	Alternative
verification.reason	string	Optional
verification.signature	JSON	Optional
verification.signature (anyOf 1)	string	Alternative
verification.signature (anyOf 2)	null	Alternative
verification.verified	boolean	Optional
verification.verified_at	JSON	Optional
verification.verified_at (anyOf 1)	string	Alternative
verification.verified_at (anyOf 2)	null	Alternative

Policy, approvals and errors

SDK function policy ID: github.repos_delete_file. Catalog operation: repos/delete-file. Rules can name either ID; function rules distinguish managed calls and conservatively cover raw calls sharing the route. Existing grant permissions and policy rules apply. wait() returns an immediate result or waits for a required approval; it never approves the request itself. Persist the approval ID to resume after a restart.

Provider errors retain their response; JSON decoding raises ProviderAPIError for provider failures. ManagedOperationError identifies contract/input/retention errors. See error handling and provider-specific behavior. Sensitive input may be refused before approval storage. A decoding error never resubmits a write.

Pinned headers: {"X-GitHub-Api-Version": "2026-03-10", "User-Agent": "Alter", "Accept": "application/vnd.github+json"}

Official provider source