InputObject 'UpdateRepositoryInput' doesn't accept argument 'deleteBranchOnMerge'

[drmcclelland]

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I am attempting to use the GraphQL API to update our repositories to all have the option "Automatically delete head branches" turned on with the following mutation:

mutation($repoId: ID!, $deleteBranchOnMerge: Boolean!) {
  updateRepository(input: { repositoryId: $repoId, deleteBranchOnMerge: $deleteBranchOnMerge }) {
    repository {
      name
      deleteBranchOnMerge
    }
  }
}

However, I get the error message InputObject 'UpdateRepositoryInput' doesn't accept argument 'deleteBranchOnMerge'

This makes sense after I looked at the documentation for UpdateRepositoryInput

So... how can I set that property using GraphQL? It is a legitimate property on the Repository object

[sumyuck]

You’re running into a limitation of the GitHub GraphQL schema, that error is actually telling you the whole story 🙂

deleteBranchOnMerge is a field on the Repository object, but it’s not part of UpdateRepositoryInput, so there’s currently no way to set it via the updateRepository GraphQL mutation. In other words, in GraphQL it’s effectively read-only.

To turn on “Automatically delete head branches” programmatically, you have to use the REST API instead of GraphQL. The setting is exposed there as delete_branch_on_merge on the repository update endpoint:

PATCH /repos/{owner}/{repo}

Example with curl:

curl -X PATCH \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO \
  -d '{"delete_branch_on_merge": true}'

Or using GitHub CLI:

gh api \
  -X PATCH \
  repos/OWNER/REPO \
  -f delete_branch_on_merge=true

So short answer:
You can’t set deleteBranchOnMerge via GraphQL right now; you need to use the REST PATCH /repos/{owner}/{repo} endpoint with delete_branch_on_merge: true.