Managing GitHub Actions settings for a repository

About GitHub Actions permissions for your repository

By default, after GitHub Actions is enabled on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, it is enabled on all repositories and organizations. You can choose to disable GitHub Actions or limit it to actions in your enterprise. For more information about GitHub Actions, see "Learn GitHub Actions."

You can enable GitHub Actions for your repository. When you enable GitHub Actions, workflows are able to run actions located within your repository and any other public or internal repository. You can disable GitHub Actions for your repository altogether. When you disable GitHub Actions, no workflows run in your repository.

Alternatively, you can enable GitHub Actions in your repository but limit the actions a workflow can run.

Managing GitHub Actions permissions for your repository

You can disable GitHub Actions for a repository, or set a policy that configures which actions can be used in the repository.

1. On your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, navigate to the main page of the repository.

2. Under your repository name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.

   

3. In the left sidebar, click Actions.

4. Under "Actions permissions", select an option.

   If you choose Allow select actions, actions within your enterprise are allowed, and there are additional options for allowing other specific actions. For more information, see "Allowing select actions to run."

5. Click Save.

Allowing select actions to run

When you choose Allow select actions, local actions are allowed, and there are additional options for allowing other specific actions:

• Allow actions created by GitHub: You can allow all actions created by GitHub to be used by workflows. Actions created by GitHub are located in the actions and github organizations. For more information, see the actions and github organizations.

• Allow Marketplace actions by verified creators: This option is available if you have GitHub Connect enabled and configured with GitHub Actions. For more information, see "Enabling automatic access to GitHub.com actions using GitHub Connect." You can allow all GitHub Marketplace actions created by verified creators to be used by workflows. When GitHub has verified the creator of the action as a partner organization, the badge is displayed next to the action in GitHub Marketplace.

• Allow specified actions: You can restrict workflows to use actions in specific organizations and repositories.

  To restrict access to specific tags or commit SHAs of an action, use the same syntax used in the workflow to select the action.

  • For an action, the syntax is <OWNER>/<REPO>@<TAG OR SHA>. For example, use actions/javascript-action@v1.0.1 to select a tag or actions/javascript-action@a824008085750b8e136effc585c3cd6082bd575f to select a SHA. For more information, see "Finding and customizing actions."

  You can use the * wildcard character to match patterns. For example, to allow all actions in organizations that start with space-org, you can specify space-org*/*. To allow all actions in repositories that start with octocat, you can use */octocat**@*. For more information about using the * wildcard, see "Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions."

This procedure demonstrates how to add specific actions to the allow list.

1. On your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, navigate to the main page of the repository.

2. Under your repository name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.

   

3. In the left sidebar, click Actions.

4. Under "Actions permissions", select Allow select actions and add your required actions to the list.

5. Click Save.

Enabling workflows for forks of private repositories

If you rely on using forks of your private repositories, you can configure policies that control how users can run workflows on pull_request events. Available to private and internal repositories only, you can configure these policy settings for your enterprise, organizations, or repositories.

If a policy is disabled for an enterprise or organization, it cannot be enabled for a repository.

• Run workflows from fork pull requests - Allows users to run workflows from fork pull requests, using a GITHUB_TOKEN with read-only permission, and with no access to secrets.
• Send write tokens to workflows from pull requests - Allows pull requests from forks to use a GITHUB_TOKEN with write permission.
• Send secrets to workflows from pull requests - Makes all secrets available to the pull request.

Configuring the fork policy for a private repository

1. On your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, navigate to the main page of the repository.

2. Under your repository name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.

   

3. In the left sidebar, click Actions.

4. Under Fork pull request workflows, select your options.

5. Click Save to apply the settings.

Setting the permissions of the GITHUB_TOKEN for your repository

You can set the default permissions granted to the GITHUB_TOKEN. For more information about the GITHUB_TOKEN, see "Automatic token authentication." You can choose a restricted set of permissions as the default, or apply permissive settings.

The default permissions can also be configured in the organization settings. If your repository belongs to an organization and a more restrictive default has been selected in the organization settings, the same option is selected in your repository settings and the permissive option is disabled.

Anyone with write access to a repository can modify the permissions granted to the GITHUB_TOKEN, adding or removing access as required, by editing the permissions key in the workflow file. For more information, see permissions.

Configuring the default GITHUB_TOKEN permissions

1. On your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, navigate to the main page of the repository.

2. Under your repository name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.

   

3. In the left sidebar, click Actions.

4. Under "Workflow permissions", choose whether you want the GITHUB_TOKEN to have read and write access for all scopes, or just read access for the contents scope.

5. Click Save to apply the settings.

Allowing access to components in an internal repository

Members of your enterprise can use internal repositories to work on projects without sharing information publicly. For information about internal repositories, see "About repositories."

You can use the steps below to configure whether reusable workflows in an internal repository can be accessed from outside the repository.

1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the internal repository.

2. Under your repository name, click Settings.

3. In the left sidebar, click Actions.

4. Under Access, choose one of the access settings:

   • Not accessible - Workflows in other repositories cannot access this repository.
   • Accessible from repositories in the 'ORGANIZATION NAME' organization - Workflows in other repositories can use workflows in this repository if they are part of the same organization and their visibility is private or internal.
   • Accessible from repositories in the 'ENTERPRISE NAME' enterprise - Workflows in other repositories can use workflows in this repository if they are part of the same enterprise and their visibility is private or internal.

5. Click Save to apply the settings.

Configuring the retention period for GitHub Actions artifacts and logs in your repository

You can configure the retention period for GitHub Actions artifacts and logs in your repository.

By default, the artifacts and log files generated by workflows are retained for 90 days before they are automatically deleted. You can change this retention period to anywhere between 1 day or 400 days.

When you customize the retention period, it only applies to new artifacts and log files, and does not retroactively apply to existing objects. For managed repositories and organizations, the maximum retention period cannot exceed the limit set by the managing organization or enterprise.

You can also define a custom retention period for a specific artifact created by a workflow. For more information, see "Removing workflow artifacts."

Setting the retention period for a repository

1. On your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, navigate to the main page of the repository.

2. Under your repository name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.

   

3. In the left sidebar, click Actions.

4. Under Artifact and log retention, enter a new value.

5. Click Save to apply the change.