About GitHub Packages
GitHub Packages is a platform for hosting and managing packages, including containers and other dependencies. GitHub Packages combines your source code and packages in one place to provide integrated permissions management and billing, so you can centralize your software development on GitHub.
You can integrate GitHub Packages with GitHub APIs, GitHub Actions, and webhooks to create an end-to-end DevOps workflow that includes your code, CI, and deployment solutions.
GitHub Packages offers different package registries for commonly used packages, such as for Node, RubyGems, Apache Maven, Gradle, and Nuget.
GitHub Packages also offers a container registry designed to support the unique needs of container images. For more information, see "About GitHub Container Registry."
Note: GitHub Container Registry is currently in public beta and subject to change. During the beta, storage and bandwidth are free. To use GitHub Container Registry, you must enable the feature preview. For more information, see "About GitHub Container Registry" and "Enabling improved container support."
Viewing packages
You can review the package's README, some metadata like licensing, download statistics, version history, and more on GitHub. For more information, see "Viewing packages."
About package permissions and visibility
| Package registries | |
|---|---|
| Hosting locations | You can host multiple packages in one repository. |
| Permissions | Each package inherits the permissions of the repository where the package is hosted. For example, anyone with read permissions for a repository can install a package as a dependency in a project, and anyone with write permissions can publish a new package version. |
| Visibility | You can publish packages in a public repository (public packages) to share with all of GitHub, or in a private repository (private packages) to share with collaborators or an organization. |
About billing for GitHub Packages
GitHub Packages usage is free for public packages. For private packages, each GitHub account receives a certain amount of free storage and data transfer, depending on the product used with the account. Any usage beyond the included amounts is controlled by spending limits. If you are a monthly-billed customer, your account will have a default spending limit of $0, which prevents additional usage of storage or data transfer after you reach the included amounts. If you pay your account by invoice, your account will have an unlimited default spending limit. For more information, see "About billing for GitHub Packages."
Billing update for container image storage: During the beta phase of GitHub Container Registry, Docker image storage and bandwidth are free for the old docker.pkg.github.com and new ghcr.io hosting services. For more information, see "About GitHub Container Registry."
Supported clients and formats
GitHub Packages uses the native package tooling commands you're already familiar with to publish and install package versions.
Support for package registries
| Language | Description | Package format | Package client |
|---|---|---|---|
| JavaScript | Node package manager | package.json | npm |
| Ruby | RubyGems package manager | Gemfile | gem |
| Java | Apache Maven project management and comprehension tool | pom.xml | mvn |
| Java | Gradle build automation tool for Java | build.gradle or build.gradle.kts | gradle |
| .NET | NuGet package management for .NET | nupkg | dotnet CLI |
| N/A | Docker container management | Dockerfile | Docker |
For more information about configuring your package client for use with GitHub Packages, see "Package client guides for GitHub Packages."
For more information about Docker and GitHub Container Registry, see "Container guides for GitHub Packages."
Authenticating to GitHub Packages
You need an access token to publish, install, and delete packages. You can use a personal access token to authenticate with your username directly to GitHub Packages or the GitHub API. When you create a personal access token, you can assign the token different scopes depending on your needs.
To authenticate using a GitHub Actions workflow:
- For package registries (
PACKAGE-REGISTRY.pkg.github.com), you can use aGITHUB_TOKEN. - For the container registry (
ghcr.io/OWNER/IMAGE-NAME), you must use a personal access token.
About scopes and permissions for package registries
To use or manage a package hosted by a package registry, you must use a token with the appropriate scope, and your user account must have appropriate permissions for that repository.
For example:
- To download and install packages from a repository, your token must have the
read:packagesscope, and your user account must have read permissions for the repository. - To delete a package on GitHub, your token must at least have the
delete:packagesandread:packagesscope. Thereposcope is also required for repo-scoped packages. For more information, see "Deleting and restoring a package."
| Scope | Description | Repository permissions |
|---|---|---|
read:packages | Download and install packages from GitHub Packages | read |
write:packages | Upload and publish packages to GitHub Packages | write |
delete:packages | Delete packages from GitHub Packages | admin |
repo | Upload and delete packages (along with write:packages, or delete:packages) | write, or admin |
When you create a GitHub Actions workflow, you can use the GITHUB_TOKEN to publish and install packages in GitHub Packages without needing to store and manage a personal access token.
For more information, see:
Managing packages
You can delete a package in the GitHub user interface or using the REST API. For more information, see the "GitHub Packages API."
When you use the GraphQL API to query and delete private packages, you must use the same token you use to authenticate to GitHub Packages. For more information, see "Deleting and restoring a package" and "Forming calls with GraphQL."
You can configure webhooks to subscribe to package-related events, such as when a package is published or updated. For more information, see the "package webhook event."
Contacting support
If you have feedback or feature requests for GitHub Packages, use the feedback form for GitHub Packages.
Contact GitHub Support about GitHub Packages using our contact form if:
- You experience anything that contradicts the documentation
- You encounter vague or unclear errors
- Your published package contains sensitive data, such as GDPR violations, API Keys, or personally identifying information