Accessing the audit log

The audit log lists events triggered by activities that affect your organization within the last 180 days. Only owners can access an organization's audit log.

By default, only events from the past three months are displayed. To view older events, you must specify a date range with the created parameter. See "Understanding the search syntax."

1. In the upper-right corner of GitHub, select your profile photo, then click Your organizations**.
2. Next to the organization, click Settings.
3. In the "Archive" section of the sidebar, click Logs, then click Audit log.

Searching the audit log

The name for each audit log entry is composed of a category of events, followed by an operation type. For example, the repo.create entry refers to the create operation on the repo category.

Each audit log entry shows applicable information about an event, such as:

• The enterprise or organization an action was performed in
• The user (actor) who performed the action
• The user affected by the action
• Which repository an action was performed in
• The action that was performed
• Which country the action took place in
• The date and time the action occurred
• For actions outside of the web UI, how the user (actor) authenticated

Note that you cannot search for entries using text. You can, however, construct search queries using a variety of filters. Many operators used when querying the log, such as -, >, or <, match the same format as searching across GitHub Enterprise Server. For more information, see "About searching on GitHub."

Search based on operation

Use the operation qualifier to limit actions to specific types of operations. For example:

• operation:access finds all events where a resource was accessed.
• operation:authentication finds all events where an authentication event was performed.
• operation:create finds all events where a resource was created.
• operation:modify finds all events where an existing resource was modified.
• operation:remove finds all events where an existing resource was removed.
• operation:restore finds all events where an existing resource was restored.
• operation:transfer finds all events where an existing resource was transferred.

Search based on repository

Use the repo qualifier to limit actions to a specific repository. For example:

• repo:"my-org/our-repo" finds all events that occurred for the our-repo repository in the my-org organization.
• repo:"my-org/our-repo" repo:"my-org/another-repo" finds all events that occurred for both the our-repo and another-repo repositories in the my-org organization.
• -repo:"my-org/not-this-repo" excludes all events that occurred for the not-this-repo repository in the my-org organization.

Note that you must include the account name within the repo qualifier and put it in quotes or escape the / with a \; searching for just repo:our-repo or repo:my-org/our-repo will not work.

Search based on the user

The actor qualifier can scope events based on who performed the action. For example:

• actor:octocat finds all events performed by octocat.
• actor:octocat actor:hubot finds all events performed by octocat or hubot.
• -actor:hubot excludes all events performed by hubot.

Note that you can only use a GitHub Enterprise Server username, not an individual's real name.

Search based on the action performed

To search for specific events, use the action qualifier in your query. Actions listed in the audit log are grouped in different categories. For the full list of events in each category, see Audit log events for your organization.

Category name	Description
auto_approve_personal_access_token_requests	Contains activities related to your organization's approval policy for fine-grained personal access tokens. For more information, see Setting a personal access token policy for your organization.
dependabot_alerts	Contains organization-level configuration activities for Dependabot alerts in existing repositories. For more information, see About Dependabot alerts.
dependabot_alerts_new_repos	Contains organization-level configuration activities for Dependabot alerts in new repositories created in the organization.
dependabot_security_updates	Contains organization-level configuration activities for Dependabot security updates in existing repositories. For more information, see Configuring Dependabot security updates.
dependabot_security_updates_new_repos	Contains organization-level configuration activities for Dependabot security updates for new repositories created in the organization.
discussion_post	Contains all activities related to discussions posted to a team page.
discussion_post_reply	Contains all activities related to replies to discussions posted to a team page.
enterprise	Contains activities related to enterprise settings.
hook	Contains all activities related to webhooks.
integration_installation	Contains activities related to integrations installed in an account.
integration_installation_request	Contains all activities related to organization member requests for owners to approve integrations for use in the organization.
issue	Contains activities related to deleting an issue.
members_can_create_pages	Contains all activities related to managing the publication of GitHub Pages sites for repositories in the organization. For more information, see Managing the publication of GitHub Pages sites for your organization.
org	Contains activities related to organization membership.
org_secret_scanning_custom_pattern	Contains organization-level activities related to secret scanning custom patterns. For more information, see Defining custom patterns for secret scanning.
organization_default_label	Contains all activities related to default labels for repositories in your organization.
oauth_application	Contains all activities related to OAuth apps.
packages	Contains all activities related to GitHub Packages.
personal_access_token	Contains activities related to fine-grained personal access tokens in your organization. For more information, see Managing your personal access tokens.
profile_picture	Contains all activities related to your organization's profile picture.
project	Contains all activities related to projects (classic).
protected_branch	Contains all activities related to protected branches.
repo	Contains activities related to the repositories owned by your organization.
repository_secret_scanning	Contains repository-level activities related to secret scanning. For more information, see About secret scanning.
repository_secret_scanning_custom_pattern	Contains repository-level activities related to secret scanning custom patterns. For more information, see Defining custom patterns for secret scanning.
repository_secret_scanning_custom_pattern_push_protection	Contains repository-level activities related to push protection of a custom pattern for secret scanning. For more information, see Defining custom patterns for secret scanning.
repository_secret_scanning_push_protection	Contains repository-level activities related to secret scanning push protection. For more information, see About push protection.
repository_vulnerability_alert	Contains all activities related to Dependabot alerts.
role	Contains all activities related to custom repository roles.
secret_scanning	Contains organization-level configuration activities for secret scanning in existing repositories. For more information, see About secret scanning.
secret_scanning_new_repos	Contains organization-level configuration activities for secret scanning for new repositories created in the organization.
team	Contains all activities related to teams in your organization.
team_discussions	Contains activities related to managing team discussions for an organization.
workflows	Contains activities related to GitHub Actions workflows.

You can search for specific sets of actions using these terms. For example:

• action:team finds all events grouped within the team category.
• -action:hook excludes all events in the webhook category.

Each category has a set of associated actions that you can filter on. For example:

• action:team.create finds all events where a team was created.
• -action:hook.events_changed excludes all events where the events on a webhook have been altered.

Search based on time of action

Use the created qualifier to filter events in the audit log based on when they occurred. Date formatting must follow the ISO8601 standard, which is YYYY-MM-DD (year-month-day). You can also add optional time information THH:MM:SS+00:00 after the date, to search by the hour, minute, and second. That's T, followed by HH:MM:SS (hour-minutes-seconds), and a UTC offset (+00:00).

When you search for a date, you can use greater than, less than, and range qualifiers to further filter results. For more information, see "Understanding the search syntax."

For example:

• created:2014-07-08 finds all events that occurred on July 8th, 2014.
• created:>=2014-07-08 finds all events that occurred on or after July 8th, 2014.
• created:<=2014-07-08 finds all events that occurred on or before July 8th, 2014.
• created:2014-07-01..2014-07-31 finds all events that occurred in the month of July 2014.

Search based on location

Using the qualifier country, you can filter events in the audit log based on the originating country. You can use a country's two-letter short code or its full name. Keep in mind that countries with spaces in their name will need to be wrapped in quotation marks. For example:

• country:de finds all events that occurred in Germany.
• country:Mexico finds all events that occurred in Mexico.
• country:"United States" all finds events that occurred in the United States.

Using the audit log API

You can interact with the audit log using the GraphQL API. You can use the read:audit_log scope to access the audit log via the APIs.

To ensure your intellectual property is secure, and you maintain compliance for your organization, you can use the audit log GraphQL API to keep copies of your audit log data and monitor:

• Access to your organization or repository settings
• Changes in permissions
• Added or removed users in an organization, repository, or team
• Users being promoted to admin
• Changes to permissions of a GitHub App

The GraphQL response can include data for up to 90 to 120 days.

For example, you can make a GraphQL request to see all the new organization members added to your organization. For more information, see the Interfaces.

Further reading

• Keeping your organization secure