FAQs

FAQs

What if I already have a GitHub account?

You’ll be able to bring your GitHub.com account to the NIH GitHub. Just skip to Step 2 on How to Set Up Your Account. If you’d rather not associate your personal GitHub account with your professional life, feel free to create another. We recommend a GitHub account name like “usernameNIH,” where your NIH username is used. We’ve found these to be consistently available for all our users, and makes user identification easier.

What if I already have GitHub repositories?

If you have repositories of code that belong to NIH, we highly encourage you to move them into the NIH GitHub where they can be centrally managed. If your institute or business unit already has a GitHub Org in the NIH GitHub, reach out to those Org owners to get your repo(s) transferred over. If you don’t know who to reach out to, please contact us about next steps.

What is needed to transfer an existing GitHub Org into the NIH GitHub Enterprise?

We ask that you contact us so that process can begin. It will involve inviting an NIH GitHub Enterprise Administrator as an owner to your GitHub Org so we can assess licensing information and Org settings before the transfer is started. The NIH GitHub Enterprise Administrator will begin the transfer after coordinating with you on a mutually convenient schedule. For more information, please see: Adding organizations to your enterprise.

Who do I contact to set up an organization or a repository?

If you are a business owner looking to start a new GitHub Org within the NIH GitHub Enterprise, please contact us about next steps.

If you are looking to create a repository for your code project, please note that all members of any GitHub Orgs within the NIH GitHub Enterprise can create private and internal repos. If your repository needs to be public, please reach out to those Org owners for assistance.

When should my repository go into an existing organization versus creating a new one? (And who decides?)

Ultimately, this is up to your business owners. Whether that be at the institute-wide level, branch, program, or team level, it is up to them and how they want things structured.

At some institutes, a single Org for the entire institute is appropriate for how they currently operate. At others, they may have an institute Org for some projects, and then leave it up to branches, programs, teams, and other smaller business units to establish and run their own GitHub Org for their own purposes. The NIH GitHub Team is here to support it all!

Is there training available?

Yes. Check out our learning page to get started.

What do I do if I want to set up an integration with GitHub?

If you’re building a system that connects to NIH GitHub with GitHub Actions or another means, great!

GitHub really shines when it is orchestrating or connecting your code workflows to other services, whether it be for deploying your website from GitHub, running your Nextflow proteogenomics pipeline against your dataset in the cloud after a code improvement, or just getting updates to your Slack or Teams channels.

Keep in mind, this type of system interconnecting needs to be covered by your security documentation. Some integrations – like NIH GitHub with NIH’s use of Microsoft Teams – have already been done for you and both sides already have an authority to operate (ATO). Please contact us for questions about integrating.

Can I use NIH GitHub to publish a public website about my work?

It depends. Although GitHub does offer this capability through a feature called GitHub Pages, you must receive approval from your institute to publish a public website. Visit Policies for more information.

Does this service have an Authority to Operate (ATO)? Do I, or my IC, have to do anything to be covered by the ATO, or is it “automatic”?

This service has a full ATO for its FISMA/FedRAMP Low categorization. If you are looking to use NIH GitHub as a standalone service, you’re covered automatically. If you’re looking to do more with NIH GitHub – like connect it to other systems – then this answer gets a bit more involved.

GitHub is first and foremost a code service, with a lot of integrations allowing it to function alongside or orchestrate many other services. It is not a service for storing significant quanitities of any data. There are many better cloud services for storing data, which can be integrated with GitHub Actions.

Now, you might be wondering what it would look like to involve GitHub in an ATO with many other systems. Fortunately, we’ve documented the entire NIH GitHub system. This makes the things easier for your ISSO and security accessors. Large portions of any system security documentation should be able to fully inherit the NIH GitHub system. Many institutes and programs may find value in inheriting security controls from the NIH GitHub system in their own General Support System (GSS).

What should I do if I want extra paid features, such as GitHub Advanced Security?

Please contact us, as the licensing and management for GitHub Advanced Security is nuanced. We want to help you understand how it works within the NIH GitHub enterprise environment. For details on licensing costs, please visit the NIH ISDP website. (Note: this page requires NIH network/VPN access.)