GitHub has announced the release of a new SDK, called Generated SDK, for connecting to the GitHub API. Previously, GitHub had an SDK called Octokit, which supported JavaScript/TypeScript, C#/.NET, and Ruby. This SDK was developed using the traditional approach of using GitHub programmers to create it.
However, GitHub recently acknowledged that the world has changed and that they need to use code generation tools to create an SDK that is constantly in sync with the latest version of the GitHub API. This eliminates the need for human intervention, reducing the burden of maintenance and bug fixing.
GitHub experimented with several automatic SDK generation tools and settled on Kiota, which is developed by Microsoft (a separate team from GitHub). Kiota converts the standardized OpenAPI format of the API into SDKs in various programming languages, automatically.
In the case of GitHub, since they already use the OpenAPI format, they can immediately use Kiota. Currently, there are new SDKs available for testing in two languages: Go and .NET, although they are still in alpha status. Eventually, GitHub plans to transition from other language-specific SDKs to the code generation approach in the long run.
In conclusion, GitHub is not only embracing code generation but also envisioning it as the future direction of their platform.
TLDR: GitHub has introduced a new Generated SDK for connecting to the GitHub API, aiming to create SDKs that align with the latest API version using code generation tools. They have experimented with various tools and settled on Kiota by Microsoft. Currently, alpha versions of Go and .NET SDKs are available, with plans to transition to code generation for other languages in the future. GitHub sees this as a vision for the future of their platform.
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