GitHub Community
Can I give read-only access to a private repo (from a developer account)? #23128
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Hi everyone, apologies if this is repeating a topic discussed already. Can I give read-only access to my private repo, to someone who is not a collaborator at present? Can I share a url, or add someone as a read-only collaborator? I don’t want to give fork/clone/download rights. I have a Developer account at present (not a Team/Business account, so cannot structure an organization-based acess). Here are the types of Github accounts. Thanks. |
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Replies: 135 comments 42 replies
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In a private repository, repository owners can only grant write access to collaborators. Collaborators can’t have read-only access to repositories owned by a user account. More information about permission levels for a repository owned by a user account can be found here: https://help.github.com/articles/permission-levels-for-a-user-account-repository/ Having said that, I know that we’ve heard users request these kinds of granular permissions before, and I’ll add your +1 to that existing feature request.
It’s worth noting here that cloning a repository is a central operation in the collaboration model that GitHub provides. For example, the read-only access that we currently offer to GitHub Organizations still allows users to both clone and fork the repositories that they have permission to read: https://help.github.com/articles/repository-permission-levels-for-an-organization/ With all of that in mind, I believe that it’s unlikely that we’ll change our permission model to disable the ability to clone a repository that someone has read access to; even if we do allow for read only access to private repositories owned by user accounts in the future. |
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@ivor52 agreed with you. Plus that I want with my own account, not collaborators, when I generate a personal access token, I want that token only to have permission to clone the private repo, no push. |
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Question: |
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Same. We would like to share our repo with our mobile team that is developing our mobile app. We'd frequently share our core code with them for consistency in our apps. Would really like to give them read-only access to our main repo rather than having to send them code. |
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Hi! In my case it's not about limiting cloning. I want to give access to the code but I don't want them to be able to push any commits or destroy the repo! |
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Dear GH Team Any plans to implement private repo access restriction for collaborators to read-only + pull-request? I want collaborators on my private (user) repo(s) put don’t want to allow them direct push… Where is this feature on your roadmap? Thanks |
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Gitlab has this feature. |
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Hi @sfindeisen, Thanks for this feedback! We’re always working to improve GitHub, and we consider every suggestion we receive. I’ve logged your feature request in our internal feature request list. Though I can’t guarantee anything or share a timeline for this, I can tell you that it’s been shared with the appropriate teams for consideration. Cheers! |
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Using protected branch ( especially for master) will give you some options, such as requesting members with write permission review to the changes before merging. You can also enforce the need for owner review. I did not tried protected branches with private reops before but I think it would be the same as the public repos. |
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@waleedmortajaThis is not exactly what you need.
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+1 from me. |
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Exactly what i need. |
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@Dark-haz I'm also really shocked as at now 2023 that it's still not implemented as I really need it now. I saw that some of these request were made way back in 2018:( |
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same here 2023 and no implemented yet |
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yep, it's really annoying... Please implement it |
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I was looking for the same but it seems like the feature is still not added |
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+1 Would be extremely helpful in corporate environment. |
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In orgs you can already do this, just grant org members, teams, or outside collaborators the read permission. This limitation only applies to private repositories owned by users. |
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+1 I’m trying to use Github as a place to keep my work and show potential employers. Would love to still have the ability to make it private and just give people access to view. |
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+1 - I have a couple of private repositories I want to share with friends but I don’t want them to be able to write to them. |
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+1 Extending this string, because of the work I do with public repos, it would be nice to be able to directly invite people to watch some public repos directly through github (as opposed to email or twitter), without giving them write access. Maybe this is already possible? |
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+1 on read only access |
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I just went to add a collaborator to a private project with read-only access and was surprised that I couldn’t do it. |
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+1 I want to show the code I have done from edX courses to potential employers, but I can’t make them public due to edX’s honor code, It would be usefull to have a way of granting by an URL, view only permission to a private repository, just like in google drive for example. |
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Having more granular control on private repos for individual users is a must. Sure if they can read it they should be able to clone/fork but i want to disable specific users ability to push with out a propper pull request. Same with branching. Really should be able to have same functionallity as public for private, just we control the viewers. Thank you, Joshua Dooley |
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Working with a colleague overseas that I want to be able to give access to pull my code (for reference/educational purposes), but not to be able to push. |
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+1 |
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+1 please add it |
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I'm using github to host some documentation with hugo. I want the theme which are shared between several repos to have a readonly access, so only theme owner can modify it. |
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+1 That would be helpful for projects where I want to show some pieces of code to potential employers but those projects beside code also consists assets that are free to use in personal and commercial builds, but are forbidden to redistribute publically as a raw files (for instance some audio, 3D models or animations). With read only repository without permission to clone I won't be violating the license and still be able to share my portfolio. |
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+1 please, this would be very helpful. |
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+1 |
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+1 |
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+1 I want to share my repo with someone for them to be able to download and post issues but nothing more. |
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Inability to grant read-only access was a reason I preferred to use GitLab over GitHub |
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I have a feeling that due to the nature of how the internal policy mechanism works for GitHub, it would require drastic code revision, yet the GitHub's core team justifications are worth nothing, you can only admit that due to lack of feature you're losing user/clients, that's your responsibility to take and react accordingly. |
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In a private repository, repository owners can only grant write access to collaborators. Collaborators can’t have read-only access to repositories owned by a user account. More information about permission levels for a repository owned by a user account can be found here:
https://help.github.com/articles/permission-levels-for-a-user-account-repository/
Having said that, I know that we’ve heard users request these kinds of granular permissions before, and I’ll add your +1 to that existing feature request.
It’s worth noting here that cloning a repository is a central operation in the collaboration model that Gi…