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Configuring notifications for vulnerable dependencies

Optimize how you receive notifications about Dependabot alerts.

About notifications for vulnerable dependencies

When Dependabot detects vulnerable dependencies in your repositories, we generate a Dependabot alert and display it on the Security tab for the repository. GitHub Enterprise Server notifies the maintainers of affected repositories about the new alert according to their notification preferences.

By default, if your site administrator has configured email for notifications on your enterprise, you will receive Dependabot alerts by email.

Site administrators can also enable Dependabot alerts without notifications. For more information, see "Enabling the dependency graph and Dependabot alerts on your enterprise account."

Configuring notifications for Dependabot alerts

You can configure notification settings for yourself or your organization from the Manage notifications drop-down shown at the top of each page. For more information, see "Configuring notifications."

You can choose the delivery method and frequency of notifications about Dependabot alerts on repositories that you are watching or where you have subscribed to notifications for security alerts.

By default, if your site administrator has configured email for notifications on your instance, you will receive Dependabot alerts:

  • by email, an email is sent every time a vulnerability is found (Email each time a vulnerability is found option)
  • in the user interface, a warning is shown in your repository's file and code views if there are any vulnerable dependencies (UI alerts option)
  • on the command line, warnings are displayed as callbacks when you push to repositories with any vulnerable dependencies (Command Line option)
  • in your inbox, as web notifications (Web option)

You can customize the way you are notified about Dependabot alerts. For example, you can receive a weekly digest email summarizing alerts for up to 10 of your repositories using the Email a digest summary of vulnerabilities and Weekly security email digest options.

Dependabot alerts options

Note: You can filter your notifications on GitHub to show Dependabot alerts. For more information, see "Managing notifications from your inbox."

Email notifications for Dependabot alerts that affect one or more repositories include the X-GitHub-Severity header field. You can use the value of the X-GitHub-Severity header field to filter email notifications for Dependabot alerts. For more information, see "Configuring notifications."

How to reduce the noise from notifications for vulnerable dependencies

If you are concerned about receiving too many notifications for Dependabot alerts, we recommend you opt into the weekly email digest, or turn off notifications while keeping Dependabot alerts enabled. You can still navigate to see your Dependabot alerts in your repository's Security tab.

Further reading