Dot Github Organization Repository : Documentation and Public only ?

[cvergne]

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Hi,

I've heard around that we can create a .github repository, mainly to manage the public profile of our personal account or organization account.
I've also seen it's possible to set some other github related files like CONTRIBUTING, Pull request template, or FUNDING in this repository.

But I can't find any documentation related to this ".github" repository (what we can do, what we have to do).

Also, does the repo has to be in "public", or does it can be in private for other files than README ? The fact is I want to share some files like PR template across all the organization without making this template public.

Thanks ! :)

[AidenJamesYt]

Heres the documentation!

https://docs.github.com/en/repositories
https://docs.github.com/en/rest/repos?apiVersion=2022-11-28

hope it helps! :D

[cvergne]

Well unfortunately no because it's the general documentation about "repositories", not about the .github repository we can create in an account or organization, which is missing (or I can't find it).

But thanks for the try ! ;)

[AidenJamesYt]

oh, sorry about that haha

sorry i cant help any more, all that i can recommend is checking the documentation again

[chrisreddington]

Hey there! I think there are a couple of parts to your question:

• For the files like CONTRIBUTING and FUNDING, I believe you're looking for default community health files. Notice the following line:

  You can add default community health files to a public repository called .github, in the root of the repository or in the docs or .github folders.

• If you are looking to customise your profile, then:
  • For a GitHub organization, I believe you can follow this doc (which also uses the .github repository)
  • For a personal profile, I believe you'd need to use this document, and create a repository with the same name as your user account.

[cvergne]

Hi,

Thanks for the (quick) reply !
Alright so any ".github" repository related feature is only possible if the repository is a public one ? No pull request template possible for a whole organization if the .github repo is in private ?

That what I was looking. I know there was mention of the repo for CONTRIBUTING/FUNDING, but I was looking more for a documentation page regarding all the possibilities of the .github repo, and if it's only in public.

[chrisreddington]

Thanks @cvergne – I've quickly experimented on one of my organizations. As the docs suggest, it looks like the default community health files and pull request templates only become available to other repositories in the organization if the .github repository folder is public.

Is the private visibility something you're particularly looking for? (e.g. Are the templates sensitive in some way, hence you wouldn't want them public?) I'll pass on the feedback about this scenario, as well as the docs 🙂

[cvergne]

Thanks for the test and confirmation ! :)

Well yes, that would be great to be able to set those files for the whole organization in a private way. That won't be extra sensitive data (no passwords ! 😜), but rather processes or URLs that we do not want to share publicly as well.

I know it could conflict with public profile or already set public community files, and for now, I absolutely don't know how it could be managed apart with "choose to be public or private only", but could be very useful.

For now, we won't have other choice than set the files per repo 😅

[dpwspoon-hi]

Thumbs up on above to plus 1 ^

[ento]

Well yes, that would be great to be able to set those files for the whole organization in a private way.

For people who came here via search, there's a related discussion topic / feature request: Pull Request Templates improvements: support .github-private and UI for picking template

[ShaneCurcuru]

Additional question: how, specifically, do default community health files appear on a users/organization's other public repositories? Do they appear in the web view 'magically', or only appear for newly created repositories after you create the .github repo?

I've created a ShaneCurcuru/.github with several default community health files, but they don't actually seem to show up or affect any of my existing public repos in my account.

Apologies if this is the wrong spot!