update the gist we made via the GitHub API, using PHP and streams

patch.php

<?php

include "github-creds.php"; // sets $access_token
ini_set('user_agent', "PHP"); // github requires this

$api = 'https://api.github.com';
$url = $api . '/gists/5501496'; // URL of the specific gist

// prepare the body data 
$data = json_encode(array(
    'description' => 'Rather Lame Poetry'
)); 

// set up the request context
$options = ["http" => [
    "method" => "PATCH",
    "header" => ["Authorization: token " . $access_token,
        "Content-Type: application/json"],
    "content" => $data
    ]];
$context = stream_context_create($options);

// make the request
$response = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);

echo $response;
print_r(json_decode($response));
print_r($http_response_header);