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, click your profile picture, then click 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
• 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
• Optionally, the source IP address for the user (actor) who performed the action

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. 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; searching for just repo:our-repo will not work.

Search based on the actor

The actor qualifier can scope events based on the person or agent that performed the action. For example:

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

Note that you can only use a GitHub 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
account	Contains all activities related to your organization account.
advisory_credit	Contains all activities related to crediting a contributor for a security advisory in the GitHub Advisory Database. For more information, see About repository security advisories.
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.
billing	Contains all activities related to your organization's billing.
business	Contains activities related to business settings for an enterprise.
code-scanning	Contains all activities related to your organization's code scanning alerts.
codespaces	Contains all activities related to your organization's codespaces.
copilot	Contains all activities related to your GitHub Copilot Business or GitHub Copilot Enterprise subscription.
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.
dependency_graph	Contains organization-level configuration activities for dependency graphs for repositories. For more information, see About the dependency graph.
dependency_graph_new_repos	Contains organization-level configuration activities 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.
ip_allow_list	Contains activities related to enabling or disabling the IP allow list for an organization.
ip_allow_list_entry	Contains activities related to the creation, deletion, and editing of an IP allow list entry for an organization.
issue	Contains activities related to deleting an issue.
marketplace_agreement_signature	Contains all activities related to signing the GitHub Marketplace Developer Agreement.
marketplace_listing	Contains all activities related to listing apps in GitHub Marketplace.
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_credential_authorization	Contains all activities related to authorizing credentials for use with SAML single sign-on.
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.
payment_method	Contains all activities related to how your organization pays for GitHub.
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.
protected_branch	Contains all activities related to protected branches.
repo	Contains activities related to the repositories owned by your organization.
repository_advisory	Contains repository-level activities related to security advisories in the GitHub Advisory Database. For more information, see About repository security advisories.
repository_content_analysis	Contains all activities related to enabling or disabling data use for a private repository. For more information, see Managing security and analysis settings for your repository.
repository_dependency_graph	Contains repository-level activities related to enabling or disabling the dependency graph for a private repository. For more information, see About the dependency graph.
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.
repository_vulnerability_alerts	Contains repository-level configuration activities for 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.
restore_member	Triggered when an organization owner reinstates a member. For more information, see Reinstating a former member of your organization.
sponsors	Contains all events related to sponsor buttons (see Displaying a sponsor button in your repository)
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.

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.

Search based on access token

You can identify all events that were performed by a specific access token. For more information, see Identifying audit log events performed by an access token.

Exporting the audit log

You can export the log as JSON data or a comma-separated value (CSV) file with the Export dropdown menu.

To filter the results in your export, search by one or more of these supported qualifiers before using the Export dropdown menu.

Qualifier	Example value
action	team.create
actor	octocat
user	codertocat
org	octo-org
repo	octo-org/documentation
created	2019-06-01

After you export the log, you'll see the following keys and values in the resulting file.

Key	Example value
action	team.create
actor	octocat
user	codertocat
actor_location.country_code	US
org	octo-org
repo	octo-org/documentation
created_at	1429548104000 (Timestamp shows the time since Epoch with milliseconds.)
data.email	octocat@nowhere.com
data.hook_id	245
data.events	["issues", "issue_comment", "pull_request", "pull_request_review_comment"]
data.events_were	["push", "pull_request", "issues"]
data.target_login	octocat
data.old_user	hubot
data.team	octo-org/engineering

Using the audit log API

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

Using the GraphQL API

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
• API requests (must be enabled)

Note that you can't retrieve Git events using the GraphQL API. To retrieve Git events, use the REST API instead. For more information, see git category actions.

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.

Using the REST API

To ensure your intellectual property is secure, and you maintain compliance for your organization, you can use the audit log REST API to keep copies of your audit log data. For more information about the specific events you can access using the REST API, see Audit log events for your organization.

The audit log retains Git events for seven days. This is shorter than other audit log events, which can be retained for up to seven months.

By default, only events from the past three months are returned. To include older events, you must specify a timestamp in your query.

When you use the REST API to request Git events, events that were initiated via the web browser or the REST or GraphQL APIs are not included. For example, when you merge a pull request in the web browser, changes are pushed to the base branch, but the Git event for that push is not included in the response.

For more information about the audit log REST API, see REST API endpoints for organizations.

Further reading

• Keeping your organization secure
• Exporting member information for your organization