What The Commit API

Base URL

https://whatthecommit.com

Authentication

No key and no headers required. A polite User-Agent is still good manners.

Rate limit

Not published. It is a single small server, so do not poll it in a loop.

Pricing

Free and open source.

CORS

Enabled — callable directly from browser JavaScript

Official docs

Read the docs

Every request below was executed against the live API on 21 Aug 2026, and the response shown is the real body it returned — not an illustration.

curl 'https://whatthecommit.com/index.txt'

const res = await fetch("https://whatthecommit.com/index.txt");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

import requests

res = requests.get("https://whatthecommit.com/index.txt", timeout=20)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())

I expected something different.

(body)text/plain

A single commit message, sometimes containing parenthetical asides such as `(this commit has no parents)`. There is no trailing newline guarantee, so trim before use.

• Add a `git yolo` shell alias that commits with a random message
• Populate a demo repository with plausible-looking history for a screenshot
• Use as the world's simplest live endpoint when demonstrating curl, fetch or an HTTP library
• Generate placeholder strings for a UI that displays commit history
• Health-check a proxy or firewall rule with a response small enough to read at a glance

If What The Commit does not fit, these developer & testing apis cover similar ground. Every one was called before publishing, and each links to its own reference page with a working curl command and the response it returned.