---
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:

![repo admin](/images/posts/default-branch.png)

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
</pre>

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