Introduction:

Usually, setting up a project is done via the CircleCI UI. However, you might have a use-case that requires or benefits from automating the setup process.

You can programmatically set up a CircleCI project by leveraging the "Follow a New Project on CircleCI" API v1 endpoint.

Prerequisites:

If you don't already have one that you can use, you'll need to generate a personal API token for a user who has, at least, write access on the related project.

Instructions:

1. Retrieve the personal API token (see prerequisites)
2. Programmatically set up the project
   • The following example uses cURL+shell but you can wrap the API call and use it with your favourite language.
     

     curl --location --request POST 'https://circleci.com/api/v1.1/project/<VCS>/<ORG_NAME>/<NEW_REPO_NAME>/follow' \
     
     --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     
     -u '<API_TOKEN>:' \
     
     --data-raw '{
     
     "first_build": "true"
     
     }'

Outcome:

If the operation is successful, you'll receive a 200 response.

Additional Resources:

• CircleCI API Developer's Guide
• Managing API Tokens
• CircleCI API Reference