Installing GitHub Marketplace Apps Programmatically with Enterprise Apps

Overview

In my previous post on using Enterprise GitHub Apps for programmatic app management, I noted that enterprises could only install apps owned by the enterprise or its organizations. My colleague @tspascoal discovered that you can also use Enterprise GitHub Apps to install third-party Marketplace apps into your organizations programmatically.

This is a big deal for enterprises that need to roll out tools like Azure Boards/Pipelines, Jira Cloud, or any other Marketplace app across dozens (or hundreds) of organizations without clicking through installation screens one by one.

If you’re new to Enterprise GitHub Apps, start with my Enterprise GitHub Apps post for the full background on enterprise-level app management and the installation automation APIs.

How It Works

The installation API is the same one covered in my previous post. Instead of using the client_id of an enterprise or org-owned app, you use the client_id of the Marketplace app you want to install. There are two ways to get it.

Option 1: Look Up the App Slug

Every GitHub App has a slug (the URL-friendly name you see in github.com/apps/<slug>). You can query the app’s client_id directly:

gh api apps/azure-boards --jq .client_id

This returns:

Iv1.27a3a93db4db56bb

The app slug is not the same as the Marketplace listing URL. For example, the Shopify Marketplace listing is at github.com/marketplace/shopify-online-store, but the actual app slug is shopify (github.com/apps/shopify). The easiest way to find the real slug is to Google something like github app sonarqube cloud site:github.com/apps to land directly on the github.com/apps/<slug> page. Or, you can also look it up from an existing installation using Option 2 below.

Option 2: Find It from Existing Org Installations

If the app is already installed in one of your organizations, you can pull the client_id from there:

gh api orgs/my-org/installations --paginate --jq '.installations[] | {app_slug, client_id}' | grep azure-boards

This returns something like:

{
  "app_slug": "azure-boards",
  "client_id": "Iv1.27a3a93db4db56bb"
}

Common App Client IDs

To save you the trouble, here are the slugs and client_id values for some commonly used Marketplace apps:

App	Slug	Client ID
Atlassian (Jira/Bitbucket)	atlassian	Iv1.45aafbb099e1c1d7
Azure Boards	azure-boards	Iv1.27a3a93db4db56bb
Azure Pipelines	azure-pipelines	Iv1.3b08983b5115f30d
CircleCI	circleci-app	Iv1.7da85473579584a7
Docker	docker	Iv1.75f4ac19dd8b9b71
Microsoft Teams	microsoft-teams-for-github	Iv1.2b3f60f5d77cb30d
Slack	slack	Iv1.37ba7cd714104547
SonarQube Cloud	sonarqubecloud	Iv1.dc610988574d1724
Terraform Cloud	terraform-cloud	Iv1.a2b16df02bc2b121

Installing the Marketplace App

Once you have the client_id, installation is straightforward using the same Enterprise installation automation API:

# Generate token for the enterprise app (with "Enterprise organization installations" write permission)
token=$(gh token generate \
  --app-id 1891481 \
  --installation-id 84179086 \
  --key ~/Downloads/my-enterprise-app.private-key.pem \
  --token-only)

# Install the Marketplace app (e.g., Azure Boards) into an org
GH_TOKEN=$token gh api \
  --method POST \
  /enterprises/avocado-corp/apps/organizations/joshjohanning-org/installations \
  -f 'client_id=Iv1.27a3a93db4db56bb' \
  -f 'repository_selection=all'

That’s it! The Marketplace app is now installed in the target organization. You can also use repository_selection=selected along with a repositories array if you only want specific repos - I have examples of this in my Enterprise GitHub Apps post.

The Enterprise GitHub App performing the installation needs the Enterprise –> “Enterprise organization installations” (write) permission. See the prerequisites in my previous post for full setup details.

Scaling Across Organizations

You can combine this with a simple loop to install the app across all (or a subset of) organizations in your enterprise:

# Get all orgs and install the app in each one
for org in $(GH_TOKEN=$token gh api /enterprises/avocado-corp/apps/installable_organizations --jq '.[].login' --paginate); do
  echo "Installing azure-boards in $org..."
  GH_TOKEN=$token gh api \
    --method POST \
    "/enterprises/avocado-corp/apps/organizations/$org/installations" \
    -f 'client_id=Iv1.27a3a93db4db56bb' \
    -f 'repository_selection=all'
done

If the app is already installed in an organization, the API will return the existing installation details with a 200 status instead of creating a duplicate. This means the loop is safe to run repeatedly without errors.

Summary

Enterprise GitHub Apps can install third-party Marketplace apps just as easily as organization-owned apps. The process is simple: look up the app’s client_id from its slug, then use the same Enterprise installation automation API to install it across your organizations.

Happy click saving! 🛒 🚀