Mass deleting github repos

General
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can repos get deleted with redact in bulk?

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redact mass deletes comments, stars, follows, and gists. if you want to delete your repos read this guide.

2 Likes
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If youā€™re trying to wipe a bunch fast, youā€™ve got a few real options:

  • Archive instead (way safer) makes them basically ā€œgoneā€ from view but you can undo it if you panic later lol

  • GitHub CLI: easiest way to bulk manage stuff without clicking 200 times

  • API script: if you want rules like ā€œdelete everything with prefix test-ā€ or ā€œolder than 2022ā€ or whatever

Before you go full send:

  • if any of these are org repos you might not even have permission or the org can block deletes

  • maybe do an archive pass first and then wait a day then delete once youā€™re sure you didnā€™t just yeet something important

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you ever heard of repo reaper? Iā€™ve never used it but have heard good things about it, itā€™s made specifically to remove repos in bulk: https://reporeaper-frontend.onrender.com/

it was just released in Aug of 25ā€™, so not much feedback about it yet. if you decide to use it report back on how you like it, I am curious.

1 Like
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doesnt github allow for mass repo delting, like as a native feature within github admin? I believe they do. although, the fact someone made repo reaper maybe points to the contrary. I donā€™t know, Iā€™m not a big github user.

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No, @D-Mag is wrong actually. There are no mass delete options within github, you gotta use a 3rd party app.

I have personally used https://reposweeper.com/ and it worked as intended. They also have repo reaper, linked up above in triggerā€™s post.

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Read this: Bulk delete github repos Ā· GitHub

Use this trick to bulk delete your old repos or old forks

(Inspired by https://medium.com/@icanhazedit/clean-up-unused-github-rpositories-c2549294ee45#.3hwv4nxv5)

  1. Open in a new tab all to-be-deleted github repositores (Use the mouseā€™s middle click or Ctrl + Click) https://github.com/username?tab=repositories

  2. Use one tab https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/onetab/chphlpgkkbolifaimnlloiipkdnihall to shorten them to a list.

  3. Save that list to some path

  4. The list should be in the form of ā€œur_username\repo_nameā€ per line. Use regex search (Sublime text could help). Search for ā€™ |.*ā€™ and replace by empty.

  5. Register a new personal access token with a ā€˜delete_repo permā€™ https://github.com/settings/tokens/new

  6. Copy the access_token and run the following line replacing xxx with your access token.

Linux and OS X :

while read r;do curl -XDELETE -H 'Authorization: token xxx' "https://api.github.com/repos/$r ";done < repos

Windows:

get-content D:\repolist.txt | ForEach-Object { Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://api.github.com/repos/$_ -Method ā€œDELETEā€ -Headers @{"Authorization"="token xxx"} }

Caution

I have only tested this script on Linux.

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fyi there is also a browser extension for deleting the repos https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/npleadnddajjokllpjmpkekijopogeci?utm_source=item-share-cb

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Iā€™ve used that browser extension, it does what it says it does.