Org script for deleting multiple repos repos via CLI.

delete_multiple_repos.sh

#!/bin/bash

echo "Enter repository names (one per line), or Ctrl+C to stop:"

# Function to delete a repository
delete_multiple_repos() {
    local repo=$1
    echo "Deleting repository: $repo"
    
    # Use curl to make DELETE request to GitHub API
    # Replace $PAT_ID variable with personal access token
    if ! curl -X DELETE \
        -H "Authorization: token $PAT_ID" \
        -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
        -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version:2022-11-28" \
        https://api.github.com/repos/$repo; then
        echo "Error deleting repository $repo"
        return 1
    fi
    
    echo "Successfully deleted repository: $repo"
}

# Check if PAT_ID environment variable is set
# Replace $PAT_ID variable with personal access token
if [[ -z "$PAT_ID" ]]; then
    echo "Error: PAT_ID environment variable is not set."
    echo "Please set PAT_ID with your GitHub Personal Access Token."
    exit 1
fi

# Read repositories from stdin (one per line)
while IFS= read -r repo; do
    delete_multiple_repos "$repo"
done

Deleting Multiple Repos from GitHub.md

Multiple Remote Repository Deletion Script

Deleting multiple repos via command line interface in the terminal using a script (for organizations); saving hours of time if you have a large supply of repos to delete. Note if you are doing this for an individual user profile, you will need to adjust the script slightly.

😩 Existing GitHub process for deleting a remote repository is arduous for large batches

⚙️ Setting up the ./manage_repos.sh script

• Generate a fine-grained Personal Access Token ID ($PAT_ID)
• Request that the organization accept the token, review permissions
• Test for org-repo permissions, run in the terminal: curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $PAT_ID" https://api.github.com/repos/<Organization-Name>/<repo-name>
• Download the delete_multiple_repos.sh file
• Replace $PAT_ID with personal access token; or create a separate environment variable file
• Enable file by running chmod +x delete_multiple_repos.sh in the terminal
• Run the file by running ./delete_multiple_repos.sh in the terminal

👩🏽‍💻 Grabbing repo names from https://github.com/orgs/<org-name>/repositories

📝 Formatting your repository list for pasting into terminal

🤖 Running & using the script