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GitHub Default Branch from a Repo URL

Parse a GitHub repository URL and return its default branch name from the GitHub API.

Language: Python

Added on: 30th September 2026

Submitted by: Lupraxus

from urllib.parse import urlparse

import requests


def get_default_branch(repo_url: str) -> str:
    """Return the default branch for a GitHub repository URL."""

    path = urlparse(repo_url).path.removesuffix(".git").strip("/")
    owner, repo = path.split("/")

    response = requests.get(
        f"https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}",
        timeout=10,
    )
    response.raise_for_status()

    return response.json()["default_branch"]


repo_url = "https://github.com/owner/repository"
print(get_default_branch(repo_url))

Caveats

Needs the requests package. GitHub HTTPS URLs only, in owner/repo form. Unauthenticated API calls are rate-limited.