Azure DevOps Rest API to create a branch from a specific branch

Question

I'm looking for an Azure DevOps Rest API to create a new branch from an existing branch.

Answer 1

Azure DevOps Rest API to create a branch from a specific branch

Konteks pointed out the correct REST API.

We could use the Initial commit (Create a new branch) to create a branch, but if you want to create a branch from a specific branch, we need modify the Request Body.

POST https://dev.azure.com/fabrikam/_apis/git/repositories/{repositoryId}/pushes?api-version=5.1

First, we need use the REST API Repositories - List to get the repositoryId.

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/git/repositories?api-version=4.1

Then, use the REST API Refs - List with filter=<BranchName> to get the oldObjectId for your specific branch:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/git/repositories/{repositoryId}/refs?filter=heads/master&api-version=5.1

Now, we could use the REST API Repositories - List with following request body to create a new branch from a specific branch:

{
  "refUpdates": [
    {
      "name": "refs/heads/<DefineYourNewBranchName>",
      "oldObjectId": "<oldObjectId we get from above REST API>"
    }
  ],
  "commits": [
    {
      "comment": "Initial commit.",
      "changes": [
        {
          "changeType": "add",
          "item": {
            "path": "/readme111.md"
          },
          "newContent": {
            "content": "My first file!",
            "contentType": "rawtext"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Result from postman:

This is my test powershell scripts:

$connectionToken="<PAT Here>"
$base64AuthInfo= [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes(":$($connectionToken)"))

$headers = @{ Authorization = "Bearer $env:SYSTEM_ACCESSTOKEN" }

$url= "https://dev.azure.com/<Organizationname>/<ProjectName>/_apis/git/repositories/<repositoryId>/pushes?api-version=5.1"


$body =@"
{
  "refUpdates": [
    {
      "name": "refs/heads/Test228",
      "oldObjectId": "a57f0c34f8ec7330bdc37e7631f7be3cc3ea3956"
    }
  ],
  "commits": [
    {
      "comment": "Initial commit.",
      "changes": [
        {
          "changeType": "add",
          "item": {
            "path": "/readme111.md"
          },
          "newContent": {
            "content": "My first file!",
            "contentType": "rawtext"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
"@


Write-Host "$url"
$response= Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -ContentType "application/json-patch+json" -Body $body -headers @{authorization = "Basic $base64AuthInfo"} -Method POST

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I captured the requests created by the AzureDevOps web UI and found out that creating a branch from a specific branch is quite simple task for the REST api.

$repository = "repositoryName"
$newBranch = "newBranchName"
$baseBranch = "baseBranchName"

$organization = "organizationName"
$project = "projectName"
$pat = "personalAccessToken"

$base64AuthInfo = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes(":$pat"))

$headers = @{ Authorization = "Basic $base64AuthInfo" }

# Get ID of the base branch
$url = "https://dev.azure.com/$organization/$project/_apis/git/repositories/$repository/refs?filter=heads/$baseBranch&api-version=5.1"
$baseBranchResponse = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -ContentType "application/json" -headers $headers -Method GET

# Create a new branch
$url = "https://dev.azure.com/$organization/$project/_apis/git/repositories/$repository/refs?api-version=5.1"
$body = ConvertTo-Json @(
@{
    name = "refs/heads/$newBranch"
    newObjectId = $baseBranchResponse.value.objectId
    oldObjectId = "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
})

$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -ContentType "application/json" -Body $body -headers $headers -Method POST

Answer 3

This worked for me:

To create/update/delete: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/azure/devops/git/refs/update%20refs?view=azure-devops-rest-5.0#create/update/delete-a-ref-by-repositoryid

To get objectId: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/azure/devops/git/refs/list?view=azure-devops-rest-5.0#refs

Answer 4

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/azure/devops/git/pushes/create?view=azure-devops-rest-5.1#initial-commit-(create-a-new-branch)

See section "initial commit"

Answer 5

Sparrow plugin does what you need ( using Rest API ):

s6 --plg-run ado-git-branch-create@project=Backends,repo=Catalog,branch_from=dev,branch=feature

Please pay attention, it does not create any dummy files for that, it only references for an existing branch through it's internal object ID.

Feel free to still the code ;-)).

---

PS Disclosure. I am the tool author, more details could be found here - https://github.com/melezhik/Spazure