How to give someone read only access?

[josh000111]

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Is it possible to give someone read-only access to a private repo. Under Settings > Collaborators i can add a collaborator but i see no option to give them specific permissions. I'm on a free account currently. If this is a premium feature what would be the cheapest plan i could sign up to to access it? thanks

[AlphaC137]

So collaborators on private repositories are granted write access by default, If you require more granular control over collaborator permissions, such as assigning read-only access to specific users, you would need to upgrade to a GitHub Team or Enterprise Cloud plan. GitHub Team is priced at $4 per user/month,

[AlphaC137]

Or, you could just use deploy keys.

[josh000111]

Thanks @AlphaC137. I've done the following and still not found a solution. Are you any the wiser?:

I did the following:

1. I purchased a Teams plan for $4
2. Create an Organization
3. Moved the Repo to my Organization
4. Went in to the repo Settings > Collaborators & Teams > Add people
5. Added the collaborated > then i get a message saying "You must purchase at least one more seat to add this user as a collaborator."
6. In testing, I added my 2nd personal Github account as a collaborator with Read-only access- this worked fine. Then I deleted that collaborator and tried to add an external collaborator (another persons account) and got the above message- Githubs asking me to pay for another collaborator. Do you know what the issue is here?

Also, if i can only add one collaborator with read-only access at a time (without purchasing extra Team seats), is there any easier way to just make the whole private repo read-only so i can invite as many people as i like to view the project?

[nataliapaulino]

If you're using GitHub Free, here's what you need to know:

GitHub Free does not support assigning specific permissions to collaborators on private repositories. All collaborators added through
Settings > Manage Access > Invite Collaborator
are given write access by default.

They will be able to:

• Push changes
• Create branches
• Open pull requests

Options for Read-Only Access

1. Upgrade to GitHub Team Plan

To control permissions more precisely, you can upgrade to the GitHub Team plan:

• Price: $4 per user/month
• Allows setting specific roles such as read-only access
• Recommended for team environments

More details at: https://github.com/pricing

2. Use Deploy Keys

If you need to give read-only access to a system or user without adding them as a collaborator, you can use deploy keys.

Steps to set up:

1. Go to your repository
2. Open Settings > Deploy keys
3. Click "Add deploy key"
4. Provide a title and paste the public SSH key
5. Make sure "Allow write access" is unchecked

This method is commonly used for automation tools and CI/CD pipelines.

For more information, visit the GitHub documentation: https://docs.github.com

[josh000111]

Thanks Natalia. I signed up to Teams;
When I go to Repo > Settings > Collaborators > Add people ; I dont see an option to set that collaborator to read-only access. Do you know how I can do this?

[nataliapaulino]

Ah, got it! Apparently, to set permissions like read-only, the repository needs to be inside an organization. Create a free organization on GitHub https://github.com/account/organizations and transfer your repository to that organization.

For full details on how to manage repository roles and base permissions inside an organization, check out the official GitHub documentation:
👉 Setting base permissions for an organization (GitHub Docs)

[josh000111]

Thanks Natalia. I did the following:

1. I purchased a Teams plan for $4
2. Moved the Repo to my Organization
3. Went in to the repo Settings > Collaborators & Teams > Add people
4. Added the collaborated > then i get a message saying "You must purchase at least one more seat to add this user as a collaborator."

In testing, I added my 2nd personal Github account as a collaborator with Read-only access- this worked fine. Then I deleted that collaborator and tried to add an external collaborator (another persons account) and got the above message- Githubs asking me to pay for another collaborator. Do you know what the issue is here?

Also, if i can only add one collaborator with read-only access at a time (without purchasing extra Team seats), is there any easier way to just make the whole private repo read-only so i can invite as many people as i like to view the project?

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[nvmaxim]

On free plans, all collaborators get write access. For read-only: 1) Upgrade to Team plan ($4/month), 2) Use deploy keys (SSH keys without write access), or 3) Make a public repo (but code will be visible to everyone).

[github-actions[bot]]

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