Creating and managing repositories

A repository contains all of your code, your files, and each file's revision history. You can discuss and manage your work within the repository.

Learn how to use repositories most effectively.

Learn how to create a new repository and commit your first change in 5 minutes.

Learn about limitations for repositories.

You can create a new repository on your personal account or any organization where you have sufficient permissions.

You can generate a new repository with the same directory structure and files as an existing repository.

You can make an existing repository a template, so you and others can generate new repositories with the same directory structure, branches, and files.

GitHub Enterprise Server does not provide issues-only access permissions, but you can accomplish this using a second repository which contains only the issues.

To maintain a mirror of a repository without forking it, you can run a special clone command, then mirror-push to the new repository.

When you create a repository on GitHub, it exists as a remote repository. You can clone your repository to create a local copy on your computer and sync between the two locations.

If you're having trouble cloning a repository, check these common errors.

You can rename a repository if you're either an organization owner or have admin permissions for the repository.

You can transfer repositories to other users or organization accounts.

You can delete any repository or fork if you're either an organization owner or have admin permissions for the repository or fork. Deleting a forked repository does not delete the upstream repository.

An enterprise owner can restore some deleted repositories to recover their contents.