How .github Works

Repositories hosted on GitHub have the concept of a .github directory, which holds files that inform the interaction with / displaying of data in that repository on github.com (things like templates, code ownership, workflows, etc).

However, when .github is the name of a repository within the organization (versus the name of a directory inside an individual repository), the files in that repository will become the default information for interacting with and displaying data for every repository in that organization.

This allows us to provide things, like a default Pull Request Template, that pre-populate every Pull Request created in every repository.

Note: if unique and specific info is desired for an individual repo, one can still use the .github dir within that repo to store that info. The repo-level .github dir will always trump the org-level .github repo's info.

Some cool things we can add at the org-level, or the repo-level, are:

1. CODEOWNERS -- determines which specified users/teams to auto-tag as a Reviewer in opened PRs.
2. Issue Template -- a template that pre-populates new issues with guiding questions.
3. Pull Request Template -- a template that pre-populates new pull requests with guiding questions.
4. README Template -- a template that pre-populates READMEs in new repos. Use this for guiding the setup of a new README, or to include top-level information in every README.
5. Workflows -- pre-built workflows for boards, code, and even new repo creation.
6. Community Health Files -- things like licenses, organizational info, links, etc.