The App State-Managed GitHub Enterprise is split into multiple Organizations. Organizations are distinct shared areas where groups can collaborate across many projects at once. Organization administrators can manage member access to their org's data and projects without having to coordinate with a central GitHub Administrator.

Owner Responsibilities

All Organizations must have at least 2 designated Org Owners who are responsible for managing and maintaining the GitHub Organization. Organizations that do not have an active App State owner may be scheduled for removal/deletion. Owners are expected to:

  • Manage membership and teams
  • Create and configure repositories
  • Ensure their organization settings and permissions are in compliance with App State policies
  • Maintain at least two active faculty/staff owners

Owners are also required to complete GitHub Enterprise training through ITS.

Requesting a GitHub Organization

To request an organization for your department, business unit, class, or special project, enter a Service or Software Support Ticket (reference GitHub Enterprise for managed users in the Service or Software drop-down list) with the following information:

  • Department for the Organization
  • Identify if this is for the entire department, a special project, or for using GitHub Classroom
  • Usernames of the 2 Owners/Admins to manage the GitHub Organization
    • A GitHub Classroom request should use the Faculty member and Department Chair as the owners
  • A description of what this GitHub organization will be used for

To learn more about Organizations, see About GitHub Organizations.

Initial Setup

After ITS creates your organization:

  1. Log in with username_appstate.
  2. Navigate to the organization page
  3. Verify you're listed as the owner

Critical: Always maintain two+ faculty/staff owners

Organization → PeopleInvite member → Set role to Owner

Organization → Settings:

  • Update profile (name, email, description, URL)
  • Set member privileges (who can create/delete repos)
  • Configure base permissions

Recommended:

  • Base permissions: Read
  • Repository creation: Owners only
  • Repository deletion: Owners only

Managing Members

Internal: People → Invite member → Enter username_appstate

External collaborators: People → Outside collaborator → Specific repo access only

People → Member → Gear icon → Remove

Note: Transfer repository ownership before removing key members

Teams → New team:

  • Name team (e.g., "Backend Developers")
  • Set visibility (Visible or Secret)
  • Add members
  • Grant team access to repositories

Instead of creating your own groups, you can request prepopulated groups based on your faculty, staff, or college-level subgroups. These directory groups can be used to automatically populate teams. If you have a college or department group you would like to use, submit a Service or Software Request.


Learn more about Roles in an organization.

Repository Management

Repositories → New:

  • Owner: Select organization
  • Name: Descriptive, lowercase, hyphens
  • Visibility: Private or Internal
  • Initialize with README, .gitignore, license

For each repo, configure:

  • Description and topics (for discoverability)
  • Collaborators and teams
  • Branch protection rules (for critical repos)
  • Features (Issues, Wiki, Projects)

Settings → Branches → Add rule:

  • Require pull request reviews
  • Require status checks
  • Restrict who can push

Learn more about Branch Protection.

Settings → Danger Zone → Archive (makes read-only)