Customizing user messages for your enterprise

You can create custom messages that users will see on GitHub.

In this article

About user messages

There are several types of user messages.

  • Messages that appear on the sign in or sign out page
  • Mandatory messages, which appear once in a pop-up window that must be dismissed
  • Announcement banners, which appear at the top of every page

Note: If you are using SAML for authentication, the sign in page is presented by your identity provider and is not customizable via GitHub Enterprise Server.

You can use Markdown to format your message. For more information, see "About writing and formatting on GitHub."

Creating a custom sign in message

  1. In the top-right corner of GitHub Enterprise Server, click your profile photo, then click Enterprise settings.

    Screenshot of the drop-down menu that appears when you click the profile photo on GitHub Enterprise Server. The "Enterprise settings" option is highlighted in a dark orange outline.

  2. On the left side of the page, in the enterprise account sidebar, click Settings.

  3. Under Settings, click Messages.

  4. To the right of "Sign in page", click Add message or Edit message.

    Screenshot of the "Sign in page" section of the "Messages" settings. A button, labeled with a plus icon and "Add message", is highlighted with an orange outline.

  5. Under Sign in message, type the message you'd like users to see.

  6. Optionally, to preview your message, click Preview.

  7. Click Save changes.

Creating a custom sign out message

  1. In the top-right corner of GitHub Enterprise Server, click your profile photo, then click Enterprise settings.

    Screenshot of the drop-down menu that appears when you click the profile photo on GitHub Enterprise Server. The "Enterprise settings" option is highlighted in a dark orange outline.

  2. On the left side of the page, in the enterprise account sidebar, click Settings.

  3. Under Settings, click Messages.

  4. To the right of "Sign out page", click Add message or Edit message.

    Screenshot of the "Sign out page" section of the "Messages" settings. A button, labeled with a plus icon and "Add message," is highlighted with an orange outline.

  5. Under Sign out message, type the message you'd like users to see.

  6. Optionally, to preview your message, click Preview.

  7. Click Save changes.

Creating a mandatory message

You can create a mandatory message that GitHub Enterprise Server will show to all users the first time they sign in after you save the message. The message appears in a pop-up window that the user must dismiss before using your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

Mandatory messages have a variety of uses.

  • Providing onboarding information for new employees
  • Telling users how to get help with your GitHub Enterprise Server instance
  • Ensuring that all users read your terms of service for using your GitHub Enterprise Server instance

If you include Markdown checkboxes in the message, all checkboxes must be selected before the user can dismiss the message. For example, if you include your terms of service in the mandatory message, you can require that each user selects a checkbox to confirm the user has read the terms.

Each time a user sees a mandatory message, an audit log event is created. The event includes the version of the message that the user saw. For more information see "Audit log events for your enterprise."

  1. In the top-right corner of GitHub Enterprise Server, click your profile photo, then click Enterprise settings.

    Screenshot of the drop-down menu that appears when you click the profile photo on GitHub Enterprise Server. The "Enterprise settings" option is highlighted in a dark orange outline.

  2. On the left side of the page, in the enterprise account sidebar, click Settings.

  3. Under Settings, click Messages.

  4. To the right of "Mandatory message", click Add mandatory message.

  5. Under "Mandatory message", in the text box, type your message.

  6. Optionally, select Show updated message to all users even if they dismissed the previous one.

  7. Optionally, to preview your message, click Preview.

  8. Click Save changes.

Creating a global announcement banner

You can set a global announcement banner to be displayed to all users at the top of every page.

You can also create announcement banners at the organization level. For more information, see "Creating an announcement banner for your organization."

You can also set an announcement banner in the administrative shell using a command line utility or using the API. For more information, see "Command-line utilities" and "REST API endpoints for GitHub Enterprise administration."

  1. In the top-right corner of GitHub Enterprise Server, click your profile photo, then click Enterprise settings.

    Screenshot of the drop-down menu that appears when you click the profile photo on GitHub Enterprise Server. The "Enterprise settings" option is highlighted in a dark orange outline.

  2. On the left side of the page, in the enterprise account sidebar, click Settings.

  3. Under Settings, click Messages.

  4. Under "Announcement", in the text field, type the announcement you want displayed in a banner.

  5. Optionally, under "Expires on", select the calendar drop-down menu and click an expiration date.

    Note: Announcements must either have an expiration date, be user dismissible, or both.

  6. Optionally, to allow each user to dismiss the announcement, select User dismissible.

  7. Optionally, to allow each user to dismiss the announcement, select Allow users to dismiss the announcement.

  8. Optionally, to preview your message, click Preview.

  9. Click Save changes.