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This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2022-06-03. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

About authentication for your enterprise

You can choose how people authenticate to access your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

About authentication for your enterprise

Site administrators can decide how people authenticate to access a GitHub Enterprise Server instance. You can use GitHub Enterprise Server's built-in authentication, or, if you want to centralize identity and access management for the web applications that your team uses, you can configure an external authentication method.

Authentication methods for GitHub Enterprise Server

The following authentication methods are available for GitHub Enterprise Server.

Built-in authentication

When you use built-in authentication for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, each person creates a personal account from an invitation or by signing up. To access your instance, people authenticate with the credentials for the account. For more information, see "Configuring built-in authentication."

External authentication

If you use an external directory or identity provider (IdP) to centralize access to multiple web applications, you may be able to configure external authentication for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. For more information, see the following.

If you choose to use external authentication, you can also configure fallback authentication for people who don't have an account on your external authentication provider. For example, you may want to grant access to a contractor or machine user. For more information, see "Allowing built-in authentication for users outside your provider."

Further reading