GitHub Enterprise

Overview

GitHub Enterprise is the platform for hosting, managing, and collaborating on software projects, documentation, and other digital assets. It provides a secure, centrally administered environment for faculty, staff, researchers, and authorized participants to collaborate.

Anyone may create a personal GitHub account at no cost. A personal GitHub account provides an individual identity on GitHub and allows a user to create repositories, collaborate with others, and contribute to open-source projects.

GitHub Enterprise builds upon these personal accounts by providing an institutional framework for managing collaboration and resources.

Personal GitHub Account GitHub Enterprise
Owned and controlled by an individual user Managed and governed by UH
Primarily intended for personal projects and collaborations Supports institutional projects and organizational collaboration
User manages their own access and resources Access and resources can be managed by designated administrators
Limited visibility into organizational activity Enterprise-wide governance, auditing, and reporting capabilities
No centralized license management Enterprise licensing and service management
Projects may become inaccessible if the owner leaves Organizational ownership provides continuity and succession planning
Security settings are managed individually Additional enterprise security controls and policies may be enforced
AI coding assistance requires an individually purchased Copilot subscription GitHub Copilot licenses may be centrally assigned, managed, and funded by the respective department.

Understanding Organizations and Organization Ownership

A GitHub Enterprise Organization is a collaborative workspace that allows multiple people to work together while sharing ownership and administration of repositories and other resources. Every GitHub organization has one or more Organization Owners.

Organization Owners can:

  • Manage organization settings
  • Add and remove members
  • Create and manage teams
  • Create and delete repositories
  • Configure security settings
  • Assign administrative roles
  • Manage integrations and applications
  • Manage billing and licensing (such as for Copilot)
     
UH Groupings Requirement

For security purposes, UH requires single sign-on (SSO) to our GitHub Enterprise. Organization owners must utilize a UH Grouping to list the members of the organization and must enable the GitHub Team sync destination. Until this is done a new member will not be able to SSO into the GitHub organization.

Planned future feature: the GitHub Team sync destination will also populate the GitHub team for your organization as long as the grouping name matches the organization name.
 

Personal GitHub Accounts, Account Linking, and Single Sign-On (SSO)

A personal GitHub is a prerequisite for access to our GitHub Enterprise. To access GitHub Enterprise organizations, users must first have a GitHub account and then associate that account with their UH identity through a process known as account linking.

Personal GitHub accounts are created and managed directly through GitHub and remain under the control of the individual user. Account linking is required for authentication and access to our GitHub Enterprise organizations. UH manages only those resources and permissions associated with UH-owned GitHub Enterprise Organizations.

Account linking enables UH to:

  • Verify UH affiliation.
  • Grant access to UH GitHub Enterprise organizations.
  • Assign GitHub Enterprise licenses.
  • Assign GitHub Copilot licenses.
  • Enforce enterprise policies, such as MFA.
  • Manage membership throughout the user’s affiliation with UH.
     

Account Linking Process

The account linking process generally consists of:

  • Signing in with a personal GitHub account.
  • Authenticating to the UH Microsoft Entra tenant with UH credentials. Note that a password reset may be required if the UH Entra Tenant does not yet have a hash for your password (we do not retain clear-text passwords, for security reasons).
  • Verifying UH affiliation by successfully authenticating.
  • Establishing a trusted association between the GitHub account and your UH identity.
  • Once completed, your GitHub account becomes eligible for access to UH GitHub Enterprise organizations and services, such as Copilot.
     

Single Sign-On (SSO)

When a user attempts to access a protected UH GitHub Enterprise resource:

  1. GitHub recognizes that the resource belongs to the UH GitHub Enterprise.
  2. GitHub redirects the user to the UH authentication service, the UH Entra tenant in this case.
  3. The user signs in using UH credentials. Think of the the UH Entra tenant as an extension of UH Login.
  4. Upon successful authentication, access is granted according to the user’s assigned permissions.

The user’s GitHub account remains the primary GitHub identity, while the UH credentials provide institutional authentication.
 

Additional Documentation

 

FAQ

Yes, although a faculty or staff member is required to be an owner of or "sponsor" the GitHub organization.

No, GitHub Enterprise and UH GitHub Organizations or Projects should not be used to store UH protected data. For testing scenarios, use realistic, sanitized mockup data to simulate your production environment.

The GitHub CoPilot free tier is available to students and instructors. To sign up, complete GitHub’s student or teacher sign up.

Student Sign Up: https://github.com/education/students

Teacher Sign Up: https://github.com/education/teachers

ITS is investigating if paid-for CoPilot license purchases are possible.

No, however, a faculty or staff sponsor can request an org and provide student RIO members with access.

Yes, outside contributors can be invited to a specific project, although guests cannot be added directly to the parent organization.

No, a team is associated with a single organization. A team can be assigned to 1 or more repositories within the same organization. This is the hierarchy: 

Enterprise GitHub instance
  └── Organization ORGA
        ├── Team ORGA-TM1
        ├── Team ORGA-TM2
        ├── Repository ORGA-REPO1
        ├── Repository ORGA-REPO2
        ├── Repository OA-REPO3
  └── Organization ORGB
        ├── Team ORGB-TM1
        ├── Repository ORGB-REPO1
        ├── Repository ORGB-REPO2

 

 
Submit Early Interest in GitHub Enterprise

Related Articles (1)

GitHub Enterprise Accounts
All active students, faculty, and staff of the University of Hawaii system and campuses are eligible for a Github Enterprise account.

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Submit Early Interest in GitHub Enterprise
UH students, faculty, and staff will be eligible to join a UH GitHub Enterprise Organization beginning in the Fall of 2026. Submit this form to express your early interest in a Github Enterprise account and receive more information as it becomes available.