---

kind: change

title: Set the default branch for a repository

created_at: 2012-10-24

author_name: pengwynn

---

You can set the default branch for a repository to something other than 'master' from the GitHub repository admin screen:


Now, you can update this setting via the API. We've added a `default_branch` parameter to the [Edit Repository method][edit-repo]:

<pre class="terminal">

curl -u pengwynn \

-d '{"name": "octokit", "default_branch":"development"}' \

https://api.github.com/repos/pengwynn/octokit

If you provide a branch name that hasn't been pushed to GitHub, we'll gracefully fall back to `'master'` or the first branch.

[edit-repo]: /v3/repos/#edit