About roles in an enterprise
GitHub offers a range of predefined and custom roles for access to enterprise settings and resources.
| Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Enterprise owner | Can manage all enterprise settings, members, and policies. |
| App manager | Can manage GitHub App registrations that are owned by the enterprise. |
| Security manager | Can view security results and manage security settings for the enterprise (public preview). |
| User | A regular enterprise member with no administrative access. |
| Custom roles | Define your own set of permissions for access to enterprise settings. |
People with collaborator access to repositories are listed in your enterprise's "People" tab, but are not enterprise members and do not have access to the enterprise. See Roles in an organization.
Enterprise owners
Enterprise owners have complete control over the enterprise and can take every action, including:
- Managing administrators
- Managing organizations
- Managing enterprise settings
- Enforcing policy across organizations
- Managing security settings
Enterprise owners do not have access to organization settings or content by default, but they can gain access by joining any organization. See Managing your role in an organization owned by your enterprise.
App managers
GitHub App managers:
- Can view, create, edit, and delete GitHub App registrations that are owned by the enterprise. For the specific app settings that GitHub App managers can control, see Modifying a GitHub App registration.
- Cannot install and uninstall GitHub Apps on an enterprise or organization.
App managers can also be assigned to individual apps. See Adding and removing GitHub App managers in your enterprise.
Security managers
Note
The enterprise security manager role is in public preview and subject to change.
Security managers have the permissions required to effectively manage use of security features and alerts for the enterprise. They can view, manage, and assign:
- Security configurations at the enterprise and organization level
- Use of GitHub Secret Protection and GitHub Code Security at the enterprise and organization level
- Security alerts and dashboards for all repositories in organizations in the enterprise
- Security campaigns for organizations
- Repository settings for security features
In addition, they have read access for code in all repositories and write access for all security alerts in the enterprise.
Users
Users have no administrative access to the enterprise by default. They cannot access or configure enterprise settings, unless you assign them a custom role that grants this access.
If a user is a member or owner of any organization, they are listed as an organization member on your enterprise's "People" page. In addition to their access to organizations where they are members, these users can access all repositories with "internal" visibility in any organization in the enterprise. See About repositories.
Custom roles
With custom roles, you can define your own sets of permissions. This allows you to delegate administrative duties securely or grant extra privileges to help non-administrators be productive.
To create a custom enterprise role, see Creating custom roles in an enterprise.
Next steps
When you have decided which roles your users require, assign the roles to them. See Assigning roles to people in an enterprise.