This version of GitHub Enterprise will be discontinued on This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2020-01-22. 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 protected branches and required status checks

Protected branches ensure that collaborators on a repository cannot make irrevocable changes to branches. Required status checks ensure that all required CI tests are passing before collaborators can make changes to a protected branch. Branches within repositories that belong to organizations can be configured so that only certain users or teams can push to the branch.

Protected branches block several features of Git on a branch that a repository administrator chooses to protect. A protected branch:

Anyone with admin permissions for a repository are always able to push to a protected branch. If you enable branch restrictions, only users or teams that have been given permission can push to a protected branch. For more information, see "Configuring protected branches and required status checks."

Restricted branch permissions.

Note: If "Include administrators" is selected, you've enabled required status checks on the branch, and status checks fail, any attempt to push changes to the protected branch will also fail, even for people with admin permissions.

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