Note
If your enterprise uses managed user accounts, the outside collaborator role is called "repository collaborator." Generally, the documentation for outside collaborators also applies to repository collaborators. For the distinctions that apply, see "Roles in an organization."
About outside collaborators
An outside collaborator is a person who is not a member of your organization, but has access to one or more of your organization's repositories. You can choose the level of access to grant for each outside collaborator. When you add an outside collaborator to a repository, you'll also need to add them to any forks of the repository you'd like them to access. If you are adding an outside collaborator to a private or internal fork of a repository, the collaborator must be a member of the enterprise.
Adding an outside collaborator to a private or internal repository will use one of your paid licenses. For more information, see "About per-user pricing."
An organization owner can restrict the ability to invite collaborators. For more information, see "Setting permissions for adding outside collaborators."
Outside collaborators are not required to use SAML SSO to access resources in your organization. For more information, see "Configuring SAML single sign-on for your enterprise."
If your organization requires two-factor authentication, all outside collaborators must enable two-factor authentication before accepting your invitation to collaborate on a repository. For more information, see "Requiring two-factor authentication in your organization."
Outside collaborators cannot be added to a team, team membership is restricted to members of the organization.
Adding outside collaborators to a repository
You can give outside collaborators access to a repository in your repository settings. For more information, see "Managing teams and people with access to your repository."