About GitHub Connect
GitHub Connect enhances GitHub Enterprise Server by allowing your GitHub Enterprise Server instance to benefit from the power of GitHub.com in limited ways. After you enable GitHub Connect, you can enable additional features and workflows that rely on GitHub.com, such as Dependabot alerts for security vulnerabilities that are tracked in the GitHub Advisory Database.
GitHub Connect does not open your GitHub Enterprise Server instance to the public internet. None of your enterprise's private data is exposed to GitHub.com users. Instead, GitHub Connect transmits only the limited data needed for the individual features you choose to enable. Unless you enable license sync, no personal data is transmitted by GitHub Connect. For more information about what data is transmitted by GitHub Connect, see "Data transmission for GitHub Connect."
Enabling GitHub Connect will not allow GitHub.com users to make changes to GitHub Enterprise Server.
To enable GitHub Connect, you configure a connection between your GitHub Enterprise Server instance and enterprise account on GitHub.com that uses GitHub Enterprise Cloud. The connection uses HTTPS over ports 443 or 80 and is secured by TLS. For more information, see "Managing GitHub Connect."
After enabling GitHub Connect, you will be able to enable features such as automatic user license sync and Dependabot alerts. For more information about all of the features available, see "GitHub Connect features."
GitHub Connect features
After you configure the connection between your GitHub Enterprise Server instance and GitHub Enterprise Cloud, you can enable individual features of GitHub Connect for your enterprise.
| Feature | Description | More information |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic user license sync | Manage license usage across your GitHub Enterprise deployments by automatically syncing user licenses from your GitHub Enterprise Server instance to GitHub Enterprise Cloud. | "Enabling automatic user license sync for your enterprise" |
| Dependabot | Allow users to find and fix vulnerabilities in code dependencies. | "Enabling Dependabot for your enterprise" |
| GitHub.com actions | Allow users to use actions from GitHub.com in workflow files. | "Enabling automatic access to GitHub.com actions using GitHub Connect" |
| Unified search | Allow users to include repositories on GitHub.com in their search results when searching from your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. | "Enabling unified search for your enterprise" |
| Unified contributions | Allow users to include anonymized contribution counts for their work on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance in their contribution graphs on GitHub.com. | "Enabling unified contributions for your enterprise" |
Data transmission for GitHub Connect
When GitHub Connect is enabled, a record on GitHub Enterprise Cloud stores information about the connection. If you enable individual features of GitHub Connect, additional data is transmitted.
Note: No repositories, issues, or pull requests are ever transmitted from GitHub Enterprise Server to GitHub.com by GitHub Connect.
Data transmitted when GitHub Connect is enabled
When you enable GitHub Connect or specific GitHub Connect features, a record on GitHub Enterprise Cloud stores the following information about the connection.
- The public key portion of your GitHub Enterprise Server license
- A hash of your GitHub Enterprise Server license
- The customer name on your GitHub Enterprise Server license
- The version of your GitHub Enterprise Server instance
- The hostname of your GitHub Enterprise Server instance
- The enterprise account on GitHub Enterprise Cloud that's connected to your GitHub Enterprise Server instance
- The authentication token that's used by your GitHub Enterprise Server instance to make requests to GitHub Enterprise Cloud
- If Transport Layer Security (TLS) is enabled and configured on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance
- The GitHub Connect features that are enabled on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, and the date and time of enablement
- The dormancy threshold for your enterprise
- The number of dormant users for your enterprise
- A count of license-consuming seats, which does not include suspended users
GitHub Connect syncs the above connection data between your GitHub Enterprise Server instance and GitHub Enterprise Cloud weekly, starting from the day and approximate time that GitHub Connect was enabled.
Data transmitted by individual features of GitHub Connect
Additional data is transmitted if you enable individual features of GitHub Connect.
| Feature | Data | Which way does the data flow? | Where is the data used? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic user license sync | Each GitHub Enterprise Server user's user ID and email addresses | From GitHub Enterprise Server to GitHub Enterprise Cloud | GitHub Enterprise Cloud |
| Dependabot alerts | Vulnerability alerts | From GitHub.com to GitHub Enterprise Server | GitHub Enterprise Server |
| Dependabot updates | Dependencies and the metadata for each dependency's repository If a dependency is stored in a private repository on GitHub.com, data will only be transmitted if Dependabot is configured and authorized to access that repository. | From GitHub.com to GitHub Enterprise Server | GitHub Enterprise Server |
| GitHub.com actions | Name of action, action (YAML file from GitHub Marketplace) | From GitHub.com to GitHub Enterprise Server From GitHub Enterprise Server to GitHub.com | GitHub Enterprise Server |
| Unified search | Search terms, search results | From GitHub.com to GitHub Enterprise Server From GitHub Enterprise Server to GitHub.com | GitHub Enterprise Server |
| Unified contributions | Contribution counts | From GitHub Enterprise Server to GitHub.com | GitHub.com |
Further reading
- "Managing enterprise accounts" in the GraphQL API documentation