Keeping my clients code safe.

[Gurdev-Singh]

Discussion Type

Question

Discussion Content

I am managing team of ~100 developers on multiple projects and the code is owned by my clients. I want to protect the code of my clients so that my developers can only commit to selected git repos and should not be able to make a copy of the code and commit to their own git repos. How can I achieve this?

[jrb00013]

yo update — yeah you can set this up properly with GitHub Teams, that part is very doable.

what teams actually solve

you want: "devs can only work on selected client repos."

do this:

1. put every client project in your org (not personal accounts)
2. create a Team per client / per project (or per squad)
3. add people only to the teams for repos they're allowed to touch
4. give the team write (or maintain) on those repos only — no org-wide "everyone can see everything"
5. use base permissions = None/Read at the org level so random members don't auto-get every repo

that covers "they can only commit to selected git repos." teams + repo role permissions are exactly the tool for that.

what teams do not stop

if someone has read/write on a repo, they can still git clone and copy files locally / to a USB / to email. github cannot block "human with access made a copy." that's contracts (NDA/IP) + offboarding + optionally managed devices/DLP.

so the real setup is:

• GitHub Teams → who can push/pull which client repos ✅
• legal + least privilege + remove access when they leave → stop abuse / leaks outside github ✅

don't hand out org owner to 100 people. teams + per-repo access is the move.

[ebndev]

Thanks for posting in the GitHub Community, @Gurdev-Singh!

You are more likely to get a useful response if you are posting your question in the applicable category, the Discussions category is solely related to conversations around the GitHub product Discussions. This question should be in the Programming Help category. I've gone ahead and moved it for you. Good luck!