# Remove Spam Notification on GitHub

## What happened

I got a GitHub notification that I couldn't see nor remove. The repository name was `plasma-network/plasma.to`. At first, I thought one of my coworkers created a new repository. But it wasn't. I tried to open the repository, but I couldn't.

So I googled for a few days.

I found [this discussion](https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/174831) on GitHub's community forum where others were experiencing the similar issue.

So it was spam. 👾

## The problem

The notification badge appeared in my GitHub interface, but clicking on it didn't reveal the actual notification. The repository name remained visible in my notifications page, but I couldn't access or remove it through the web interface. This was frustrating because the badge kept showing up, and I couldn't get rid of it.

## The solution

I followed the solution from [the GitHub community discussion](https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/174831). The contributors there explained that GitHub's CLI (`gh`) provides the tools needed to manage notifications programmatically. Here's how I followed their solution step by step:

### 1\. Remove the notification badge

First, I marked all notifications as read to remove the blue badge:

```bash
gh api /notifications -X PUT -f read=true
```

This removed the blue badge 🔵 from the interface.

But the repository name still remained in repositories section.

### 2\. Check the notification list

To see all my notifications, I ran:

```bash
gh api --paginate 'notifications?all=true&per_page=100' | jq -r '.[].repository.full_name' | sort -u
```

Then I got:

```bash
command not found: jq
```

...🫠

### 3\. Install jq

I needed `jq` to parse the JSON output. `jq` is a lightweight command-line JSON processor.

Visit [https://jqlang.org/](https://jqlang.org/) for more information.

On macOS, I installed it with:

```bash
brew install jq
```

### 4\. Check the notification list again

After installing `jq`, I ran the same command again:

```bash
gh api --paginate 'notifications?all=true&per_page=100' | jq -r '.[].repository.full_name' | sort -u
```

Now I got a list of repositories:

```bash
...
plasma-network/plasma.to
yoniakabecky/my-personal-repository
```

Yay! 🙌 I could see the spam repository in the list.

### 5\. Get the notification ID

To delete the specific notification, I needed its ID. I filtered for the spam repository:

```bash
gh api --paginate 'notifications?all=true&per_page=100' | jq -r '.[] | select(.repository.full_name == "plasma-network/plasma.to") | "\(.id) - \(.subject.title) - unread: \(.unread)"'
```

The output showed:

```bash
19200066437 - Plasma Foundation | Over USD 2.4B TVL & 54.02% APY, XPL and Staking Rewards - unread: false
```

I had the notification ID: `19200066437`.

### 6\. Delete the notification

Finally, I deleted the notification thread:

```bash
gh api --method DELETE "notifications/threads/19200066437"
```

The spam notification was gone! 🎉

## Conclusion

If you encounter a persistent GitHub notification that you can't remove through the web interface, use GitHub CLI. The combination of `gh api` and `jq` gives you full control over your notifications, even when the web interface fails.

The key commands to remember:

* Mark all as read: `gh api /notifications -X PUT -f read=true`
    
* List all notifications: `gh api --paginate 'notifications?all=true&per_page=100' | jq -r '.[].repository.full_name' | sort -u`
    
* Delete a specific notification: `gh api --method DELETE "notifications/threads/{THREAD_ID}"`