Accessing the audit log
Note
Webhooks might be a good alternative to the audit log or API polling for certain use cases. Webhooks are a way for GitHub to notify your server when specific events occur for a repository, organization, or enterprise. Compared to the API or searching the audit log, webhooks can be more efficient if you just want to learn and possibly log when certain events occur on your enterprise, organization, or repository. See "Webhooks documentation."
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."
- In the upper-right corner of GitHub, select your profile photo, then click Your organizations**.
- Next to the organization, click Settings.
- 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
- The SAML SSO and SCIM identity of the user (actor) who performed the action
- 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 theour-repo
repository in themy-org
organization.repo:"my-org/our-repo" repo:"my-org/another-repo"
finds all events that occurred for both theour-repo
andanother-repo
repositories in themy-org
organization.-repo:"my-org/not-this-repo"
excludes all events that occurred for thenot-this-repo
repository in themy-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 byoctocat
.actor:octocat actor:hubot
finds all events performed byoctocat
orhubot
.-actor:hubot
excludes all events performed byhubot
.
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_automatic_validity_checks | Contains organization-level activities related to enabling and disabling automatic validity checks for secret scanning. For more information, see "Managing security and analysis settings for your organization." |
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_automatic_validity_checks | Contains repository-level activities related to enabling and disabling automatic validity checks for secret scanning. For more information, see "Enabling secret scanning for your repository." |
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. |
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.
Note
The audit log contains data for the last 180 days.
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."