How to collaborate with others?

Manage access to the repository

The fact that a repository can be private or public already influences its basic access management, as discussed in the Public vs Private repositories section, so we will not repeat it here. However, there are advanced features that allow you to manage access to the repository in more detail.

A GitHub repository can belong either to an individual user or to a GitHub organization (a group of users):

• If the repository belongs to an individual, that user is the owner and has full administrative control.

• If the repository belongs to a GitHub organization, then the organization owners are the admins of all repositories within the organization.

Let’s focus on the privately owned repositories first. To invite collaborators to a privately owned repository, you can open the repository on GitHub, click on the “Settings” tab, and then select “Collaborators” from the left sidebar. There, you can find “Manage access” section, where you can invite collaborators by their GitHub username. When you invite a collaborator, they will receive an email notification and will need to accept the invitation to gain access to the repository. After the invitation is accepted, the new collaborator will be assigned a “collaborator role” with write access to the repository.

The situation is a bit different for repositories that belong to an organization. First, organization can have two types of membership: “owners” and “members”. At the same time, the repositories within the organization can have separate access control. To invite people to a repository that belongs to an organization, you can click on the “Settings” tab of the repository, then select “Collaborators and teams” from the left sidebar, and then click on the “Add people” button. You can then search for the GitHub username of the person you want to invite and select them. If the invited person is not a member of the organization, they will be added as an “outside collaborator”. After selecting the person, you can assign them a role for the repository (see below) and click “Invite”. The role can be one of the following: Read, Triage, Write, Maintain, or Admin.

In practice, the Read role allows the user to read and clone the repository, which is just the same right as for any user in case of a public repository, so it only makes sense for private ones. The Triage role allows the user to manage issues and pull requests without write access to the code (e.g., they can label, close, or assign issues and pull requests). The Write role allows you to push changes to the repository, it also allows you to approve pull requests. The Maintain role gives you more permissions to manage the repository, such as managing branches and settings, but it does not allow you to delete the repository or manage access. The Admin role gives you full control over the repository, including managing access and deleting the repository.

After the invitation is accepted, the new collaborator will also be listed as an outside collaborator in the “People” section.

Report problems and give suggestions

Issue #3.