How to Get Giscus Keys: Complete Guide to repo-id and category-id

When integrating Giscus as your blog comment system, you will encounter two essential parameters:

• data-repo-id

• data-category-id

Many developers get stuck at this step, unsure where these values come from or why they sometimes fail to generate.

This guide walks you through:

• What Giscus keys are

• How to obtain them correctly

• Why they might not appear

• How to troubleshoot common issues

1. What is Giscus?

Giscus is a comment system built on top of GitHub Discussions.

In simple terms:

👉 Your blog comments are stored as GitHub Discussions.

Benefits

• No database required

• Free to use

• Markdown support

• GitHub authentication

• Ideal for technical blogs

2. What are Giscus Keys?

To use Giscus, you need two key parameters:

data-repo-id
data-category-id

What they mean

ParameterDescriptionrepo-idUnique internal ID of your GitHub repositorycategory-idUnique ID of a Discussions category

⚠️ Important:

• 
  These values are not manually created
  

• 
  They are automatically generated by GitHub
  

3. Prerequisites

Before getting started, make sure you have:

• 
  A public GitHub repository
  

• 
  Installed the Giscus App
  
  👉 https://github.com/apps/giscus
  

• 
  Granted access to your repository
  

• 
  Enabled Discussions in your repository
  

To enable Discussions:

Settings → Features → Discussions

Also ensure that at least one category exists:

• 
  General
  

• 
  Announcements
  

• 
  Blog Comments (recommended)
  

4. How to Get Giscus Keys (Step-by-Step)

Step 1: Open the official configuration page

👉 https://giscus.app/zh-CN

Step 2: Enter your repository

Format:

username/repo

Example:

hezongcheng/blog

⚠️ If the repository cannot be resolved, keys will not be generated.

Step 3: Wait for automatic loading

Once the repository is recognized, the page will:

• 
  Fetch repository data
  

• 
  Load Discussions categories
  

• 
  Generate the repo-id
  

You will see something like:

data-repo-id="R_kgDOxxxx"

Step 4: Select a Discussions category

Choose a category such as:

• 
  General
  

• 
  Announcements
  

• 
  Blog Comments
  

Then Giscus will generate:

data-category-id="DIC_kwDOxxxx"

Step 5: Copy the generated script

Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you will see:

<script src="https://giscus.app/client.js"
        data-repo="username/repo"
        data-repo-id="R_kgDOxxxx"
        data-category="General"
        data-category-id="DIC_kwDOxxxx"
        async>
</script>

👉 The values you need are:

• data-repo-id
  

• data-category-id
  

5. Key Takeaway

Giscus keys are not manually obtained.

👉 They are automatically generated on the Giscus configuration page.

In short:

Select repository → Select category → Copy from generated script

6. Common Issues & Troubleshooting

If the keys are not generated, check the following:

1. Not logged into GitHub

Make sure you are logged in on the Giscus page.

2. Giscus App not installed

Install and authorize the app for your repository.

3. Discussions not enabled

Settings → Features → Discussions

4. No categories created

Discussions → Categories → New

5. Repository is not public

Giscus typically works with public repositories.

6. Insufficient permissions

You must be:

• 
  Repository owner
  
  or
  

• 
  Collaborator
  

7. Understanding the Internals

At its core:

• 
  Each page → one GitHub Discussion
  

• 
  Each comment → a reply
  

• 
  Data → stored in GitHub
  

So:

👉 Giscus is essentially a GitHub-powered comment system.

8. Practical Tips

Use a dedicated category

Create a category like:

Blog Comments

to keep comments separate from other discussions.

Keep URLs stable

If you use mapping like pathname, changing URLs may break comment associations.

Test before deployment

Verify:

• 
  Comment box loads correctly
  

• 
  GitHub login works
  

• 
  Comments are posted successfully
  

• 
  Discussions are created properly
  

9. Conclusion

Getting Giscus keys is straightforward:

👉 Select your repository and category on giscus.app, then copy data-repo-id and data-category-id from the generated script.

As long as you:

• 
  Install the Giscus App
  

• 
  Enable Discussions
  

• 
  Create at least one category
  

• 
  Use a public repository
  

you should be able to generate the keys without issues.