Forgejo · Gitea · Codeberg · REST API · Checked October 25, 2026

Forgejo and Gitea: the changed files of a pull request

Forgejo and Gitea list the files a pull request changes at GET /repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/NUMBER/files, a page at a time, from the merge base to the pull request's own head (refs/pull/NUMBER/head). Neither refuses a large pull request: every file is listed, page by page. The answers below are what codeberg.org (Forgejo) and gitea.com (Gitea) said on October 25, 2026, with the servers' source behind them.

HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found

{"message":"The target couldn't be found.","url":"https://codeberg.org/api/swagger","errors":[]}

404

The target couldn't be found. (Forgejo), not found (Gitea): the repository has no pull request with that number, or the repository is missing or not visible to your token (see 404 "The target couldn't be found." and "not found").

Pages, and what a page holds

50 a page at most: limit is capped at the server's maximum, 50 by default (MAX_RESPONSE_ITEMS); both servers answered 50 a page when asked for 100. X-Total-Count gives the number of files, X-HasMore whether another page follows, and Link names it. A page past the end answers 200 with an empty list.
skip-to=FILE starts the list at that file. Forgejo's count starts there too (on codeberg.org, a pull request of 52 files answered 42 from its eleventh file); in Gitea's source, X-Total-Count stays the whole pull request's.
No patch in the list: each file has filename, status, additions, deletions, changes and the file's addresses (html_url, contents_url, raw_url), with previous_filename for a rename. The diff of the whole pull request comes as text from GET /repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/NUMBER.diff.
How a page is made: in the servers' source, Gitea works out the diff of every file for each page and hands out one page of it, while Forgejo lists the files' names first and works out only that page's files. A very large pull request costs Gitea more on every page.

200, but changed_files does not match the list

Open pull requests agree (codeberg.org: changed_files 52, and 52 files in the list). Merged ones can be far apart: two merged pull requests on codeberg.org said changed_files 1237 and 5537, and their lists held 56 and 8 files.
Why, in Forgejo's source: changed_files is counted from the merge base it stored to the head branch as it is now, while the branch still exists; the list compares up to the pull request's own head. A head branch that moved on after the merge is counted with everything pushed to it since.

What to do

Read every page: follow Link or X-HasMore with limit=50.
How many files: take X-Total-Count of the list, not changed_files of a merged pull request.
Every line: GET /repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/NUMBER.diff, or locally git fetch origin refs/pull/NUMBER/head, then git diff origin/BASE...FETCH_HEAD.

Forgejo and Gitea pull requests in IntelliJ IDEA

Pull Request Inbox for Forgejo and Gitea, a plugin by Lesstep for JetBrains IDEs 2024.1 or later, reads a pull request's changed files from this list, 50 a page, up to 1,000 files. Each file opens in the IDE's diff with the whole file read at the merge base and at the head commit. From version 1.0.20, when a pull request changes more than 1,000 files, the count of viewed files says that only the first files are listed and that git diff shows the rest; before, the list ended without saying so. Reading is free; approving, commenting and merging are Pro (US$1.50 a month, with a 30-day trial).

Forgejo, Gitea and Codeberg are names of their respective owners; IntelliJ IDEA is a trademark of JetBrains s.r.o. This page is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Forgejo project, Codeberg e.V., the Gitea project or JetBrains.

More: 404 "The target couldn't be found." and "not found" · 401 "token is required" and unknown tokens · "token does not have at least one of required scope(s)" · Forgejo and Gitea search refused (400, 422) · Forgejo and Gitea merge refused (405, 409) · Forgejo and Gitea merge when checks succeed refused (405, 409, 500) · Forgejo and Gitea review refused (422) · Forgejo and Gitea branch update refused (403, 409, 422) · Forgejo and Gitea pull request not created (409, 422, 403) · Forgejo and Gitea comment refused (403, 422, 400) · Forgejo and Gitea pull request plugins for IntelliJ IDEA, compared · 日本語