---
title: Working with comments
intro: 'Using the REST API, you can access and manage comments in your pull requests, issues, or commits.'
redirect_from:
  - /guides/working-with-comments
  - /v3/guides/working-with-comments
versions:
  fpt: '*'
  ghes: '*'
  ghec: '*'
topics:
  - API
---



For any Pull Request, {% data variables.product.github %} provides three kinds of comment views:
[comments on the Pull Request](https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife/pull/1176#issuecomment-24114792) as a whole, [comments on a specific line](https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife/pull/1176#discussion_r6252889) within the Pull Request,
and [comments on a specific commit](https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife/commit/cbc28e7c8caee26febc8c013b0adfb97a4edd96e#commitcomment-4049848) within the Pull Request.

Each of these types of comments goes through a different portion of the {% data variables.product.github %} API.
In this guide, we'll explore how you can access and manipulate each one. For every
example, we'll be using [this sample Pull Request made](https://github.com/octocat/Spoon-Knife/pull/1176) on the "octocat"
repository. As always, samples can be found in [our platform-samples repository](https://github.com/github/platform-samples/tree/master/api/ruby/working-with-comments).

## Pull Request Comments

To access comments on a Pull Request, you'll use [the endpoints to manage issues](/rest/issues/comments).
This may seem counterintuitive at first. But once you understand that a Pull
Request is just an Issue with code, it makes sense to use these endpoints to
create comments on a Pull Request.

We'll demonstrate fetching Pull Request comments by creating a Ruby script using
[Octokit.rb](https://github.com/octokit/octokit.rb). You'll also want to create a [{% data variables.product.pat_generic %}](/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/creating-a-personal-access-token).

The following code should help you get started accessing comments from a Pull Request
using Octokit.rb:

``` ruby
require 'octokit'

# !!! DO NOT EVER USE HARD-CODED VALUES IN A REAL APP !!!
# Instead, set and test environment variables, like below
client = Octokit::Client.new :access_token => ENV['MY_PERSONAL_TOKEN']

client.issue_comments("octocat/Spoon-Knife", 1176).each do |comment|
  username = comment[:user][:login]
  post_date = comment[:created_at]
  content = comment[:body]

  puts "#{username} made a comment on #{post_date}. It says:\n'#{content}'\n"
end
```

Here, we're specifically calling out to the API to get the comments (`issue_comments`),
providing both the repository's name (`octocat/Spoon-Knife`), and the Pull Request ID
we're interested in (`1176`). After that, it's simply a matter of iterating through
the comments to fetch information about each one.

## Pull Request Comments on a Line

Within the diff view, you can start a discussion on a particular aspect of a singular
change made within the Pull Request. These comments occur on the individual lines
within a changed file. The endpoint URL for this discussion comes from [the endpoint to manage pull request reviews](/rest/pulls/comments).

The following code fetches all the Pull Request comments made on files, given a single Pull Request number:

``` ruby
require 'octokit'

# !!! DO NOT EVER USE HARD-CODED VALUES IN A REAL APP !!!
# Instead, set and test environment variables, like below
client = Octokit::Client.new :access_token => ENV['MY_PERSONAL_TOKEN']

client.pull_request_comments("octocat/Spoon-Knife", 1176).each do |comment|
  username = comment[:user][:login]
  post_date = comment[:created_at]
  content = comment[:body]
  path = comment[:path]
  position = comment[:position]

  puts "#{username} made a comment on #{post_date} for the file called #{path}, on line #{position}. It says:\n'#{content}'\n"
end
```

You'll notice that it's incredibly similar to the example above. The difference
between this view and the Pull Request comment is the focus of the conversation.
A comment made on a Pull Request should be reserved for discussion or ideas on
the overall direction of the code. A comment made as part of a Pull Request review should
deal specifically with the way a particular change was implemented within a file.

## Commit Comments

The last type of comments occur specifically on individual commits. For this reason,
they make use of [the endpoint to manage commit comments](/rest/commits#get-a-commit-comment).

To retrieve the comments on a commit, you'll want to use the SHA1 of the commit.
In other words, you won't use any identifier related to the Pull Request. Here's an example:

``` ruby
require 'octokit'

# !!! DO NOT EVER USE HARD-CODED VALUES IN A REAL APP !!!
# Instead, set and test environment variables, like below
client = Octokit::Client.new :access_token => ENV['MY_PERSONAL_TOKEN']

client.commit_comments("octocat/Spoon-Knife", "cbc28e7c8caee26febc8c013b0adfb97a4edd96e").each do |comment|
  username = comment[:user][:login]
  post_date = comment[:created_at]
  content = comment[:body]

  puts "#{username} made a comment on #{post_date}. It says:\n'#{content}'\n"
end
```

Note that this API call will retrieve single line comments, as well as comments made
on the entire commit.