A GitHub CLI extension for migrating GitHub Projects between GitHub accounts and products
- From GitHub Enterprise Server v3.7+ to:
- GitHub.com
- GitHub Enterprise Server v3.10+
- From GitHub.com to:
- Another organization or user account on GitHub.com (e.g. from a classic GitHub.com organization to Enterprise Managed Users organization)
- GitHub Enterprise Server v3.10+
This tool can't migrate so-called classic Projects - only the newer version of GitHub Projects.
Classic Projects can be migrated with GitHub Enterprise Importer or ghe-migrator.
The following data is not migrated and will be skipped:
- Views
- The order of project items displayed in your views
- Workflows
- Iteration custom fields
- Draft issues' assignees
Migrated draft issues will show as being created by the person who ran the migration at the time they ran the migration. A note will be prepended to the body with original author login and timestamp.
Make sure you've got the GitHub CLI installed. If you haven't, you can install it by following the instructions here.
Once gh is ready and available on your machine, you can install this extension by running gh extension install timrogers/gh-migrate-project.
You can check that the extension is installed and working by running gh migrate-project --help.
Items in GitHub Projects are linked to issues and pull requests. Before you can migrate a project, you need to make sure that the relevant issues and pull requests are already migrated.
If you're migrating from GitHub Enterprise Server to GitHub.com or between organizations on GitHub.com, you can migrate your issues and pull requests using GitHub Enterprise Importer.
If you're migrating to GitHub Enterprise Server, you can migrate your issues and pull requests using ghe-migrator.
When you run your migrations, make a note of the new owner and repo name for each repository.
Migrating a project is split into two distinct phases: export and import. The first step is to export your project and its items from your migration source.
To export a project, you'll need a token with appropriate permissions. The extension won't use your existing login session for the GitHub CLI. You'll need a classic token with the read:project and repo scopes, authorized for SSO if applicable.
You can export your project and its items using the gh migrate-project export command:
gh migrate-project export \
# A GitHub access token with the permissions described above. This can also be configured using the `EXPORT_GITHUB_TOKEN` environment variable.
--access-token GITHUB_TOKEN \
# The organization or user who owns the project you want to export
--project-owner monalisa \
# The type of the owner of the project you want to export (defaults to organization; only required if the owner is a user)
--project-owner-type user \
# The number of the project you want to export
--project-number 1337 \
# OPTIONAL: The base URL of the GitHub API, if you're migrating from a migration source other than GitHub.com.
--base-url https://github.acme.inc/api/v3 \
# OPTIONAL: The URL of an HTTP(S) proxy to use for requests to the GitHub API (e.g. `http://localhost:3128`). This can also be set using the EXPORT_PROXY_URL environment variable.
--proxy-url https://10.0.0.1:3128 \
# OPTIONAL: Emit detailed, verbose logs (off by default)
--verbose \
# OPTIONAL: Disable anonymous telemetry that gives the maintainers of this tool basic information about real-world usage.
--disable-telemetry \
# OPTIONAL: Skip automatic check for updates to this tool
--skip-update-checkWhen the export finishes, you'll have two files written to your current directory:
project.json: The raw data of your project and all of its project itemsrepository-mappings.csv: A repository mappings CSV template that you need to fill out with the names of your repositories in the migration target
You'll need to complete the repository-mappings.csv file outputted from the export command with repository mappings, so the tool knows how to match repositories in your migration source to repositories in your migration target.
The CSV will look like this:
source_repository,target_repository
corp/widgets,
corp/website,
Imagine that you're in the process of migrating from GitHub Enterprise Server to GitHub.com, and you've already moved your repositories into a new GitHub.com organization called monalisa-emu. You'd fill out the CSV like this:
source_repository,target_repository
corp/widgets,monalisa-emu/widgets
corp/website,monalisa-emu/website
If you don't want to map a repository - for example because it hasn't been migrated - just delete the line from the CSV or leave the target_repository blank. If a repository hasn't been mapped, project items related to that repository will be skipped during the import.
You've exported your data and filled out the repository mappings template. You can now import your project into your migration target.
To export a project, you'll need a token with appropriate permissions. The extension won't use your existing login session for the GitHub CLI. You'll need a classic token with the read:project and repo scopes, authorized for SSO if applicable. If you're creating an organization project, you'll also need the read:org scope.
You can import your project using the gh migrate-project import command:
gh migrate-project import \
# A GitHub access token with the permissions described above. This can also be configured using the `IMPORT_GITHUB_TOKEN` environment variable.
--access-token GITHUB_TOKEN \
# The name of the organization or user that will own the newly-imported project
--project-owner monalisa \
# The type of the owner who will own the project (defaults to organization; only required if the owner is a user)
--project-owner-type user \
# The path of the project data generated by the `export` command
--input-path project.json \
# The path of the repository mappings file generated by the `export` command and completed by you
--repository-mappings-path repository-mappings.csv \
# OPTIONAL: The base URL of the GitHub API, if you're migrating to a migration target other than GitHub.com.
--base-url https://github.acme.inc/api/v3 \
# OPTIONAL: The URL of an HTTP(S) proxy to use for requests to the GitHub API (e.g. `http://localhost:3128`). This can also be set using the IMPORT_PROXY_URL environment variable.
--proxy-url https://10.0.0.1:3128 \
# OPTIONAL: The title to use for the imported project. Defaults to the title of the source project.
--project-title "My Imported Project" \
# OPTIONAL: Emit detailed, verbose logs (off by default)
--verbose \
# OPTIONAL: Disable anonymous telemetry that gives the maintainers of this tool basic information about real-world usage.
--disable-telemetry \
# OPTIONAL: Skip automatic check for updates to this tool
--skip-update-checkNear the start of the import, the tool will ask you to manually set up your options for the "Status" field. It will explain exactly what to do, and will validate that you've correctly copied the options from your migration source.
Once you've set up the "Status" field, your project will be imported. Watch out for warn lines in the logs, which will let you know about data which hasn't been imported.
If you run into SSL connection errors and you are unable to set your proxy settings with the --proxy-url parameter, you can set the NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0 environment variable to bypass:
export NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0 # setting an environment variable in bash
$Env:NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED = 0 # setting an environment variable in PowerShell
This extension includes basic, anonymous telemetry to give the maintainers information about real-world usage. This data is limited to:
- The number of exports and imports being run
- The versions of GitHub Enterprise Server being used
- The versions of the extension currently in used
You can disable all telemetry by specifying the --disable-telemetry argument.