{"id":70497,"date":"2025-05-19T08:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T08:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/github"},"modified":"2026-09-20T10:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:06:08","slug":"github","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/github","title":{"rendered":"GitHub"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/github-square-1.png\" alt=\"GitHub\" class=\"boxpad wp-image-80063 size-full alignright\" style=\"margin-top:0;\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/github-square-1.png 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/github-square-1-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>GitHub is a platform for hosting repositories, managing software projects and collaborating through Git-based workflows.<\/strong> It stores files and their revision history, supports contribution reviews, organises work and automates processes such as testing, building and deployment.<\/p>\n<p>GitHub is built around Git, but <strong>Git and GitHub are not the same thing<\/strong>. Git is a distributed version control system that can be used locally and with different remote services. GitHub adds cloud hosting, accounts, permissions, review interfaces, project management and integrated services around repositories.<\/p>\n<p>The platform was launched in 2008 and acquired by Microsoft in 2018. It currently provides services for personal, organisation and enterprise accounts through free and paid plans.<\/p>\n\n<h2>How GitHub works<\/h2>\n<p>The repository is GitHub&#8217;s central element. <strong>A repository contains files, revision history and tools for managing the work associated with a project.<\/strong> It may be public or private and owned by a person or an organisation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Commits and branches:<\/strong> a commit records a set of changes, while a branch supports development or testing without immediately modifying the primary branch.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Clones and forks:<\/strong> a clone creates a complete copy of the repository and its history; a fork creates a related repository for independent work.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Merges and remotes:<\/strong> a merge incorporates changes between branches and a remote identifies a copy of the repository hosted on GitHub or another server.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Code does not need to be created directly on GitHub.<\/strong> It can be edited locally, recorded with Git and then synchronised with the remote repository. It can also be changed through the web interface, GitHub Desktop, compatible development environments or an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/api\">API<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>GitHub&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.github.com\/en\/repositories\/creating-and-managing-repositories\/about-repositories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">repository documentation<\/a> explains its terminology, ownership and visibility options.<\/p>\n<h2>Collaboration on GitHub<\/h2>\n<p>GitHub adds tools for proposing, reviewing and organising changes around Git. <strong>A pull request is not merely an automated merge request:<\/strong> it brings together differences, commits, comments, reviews and checks so that a team can evaluate a change before integrating it.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Changes and reviews:<\/strong> pull requests propose changes between branches and support comments, review requests and checks before merging.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Work tracking:<\/strong> Issues, Projects and Discussions can record defects, organise tasks and maintain conversations related to the project.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Documentation:<\/strong> README files, wikis and contribution guides explain the repository&#8217;s purpose, installation process and participation rules.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Public repositories support participation in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/open-source\">open-source<\/a> projects, but <strong>making a repository public does not automatically make its contents open-source software<\/strong>. A licence needs to define the rights to use, modify and distribute the work.<\/p>\n<h2>Automation on GitHub<\/h2>\n<p>GitHub provides services beyond file hosting and review. Their availability, limits and billing depend on the plan and repository type.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Actions:<\/strong> runs workflows defined in the repository in response to events such as a commit, pull request or release and can support testing, continuous integration and deployment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pages, Packages and Releases:<\/strong> publish static websites, distribute packages and associate published versions with notes and downloadable files.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Codespaces and Copilot:<\/strong> provide cloud-based development environments and AI-assisted features for writing, understanding or reviewing code.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>These services are not provided under identical conditions in every plan.<\/strong> Some have quotas, billable consumption or controls reserved for particular account types. A workflow needs to consider current conditions rather than rely on historical limits.<\/p>\n<h2>Security on GitHub<\/h2>\n<p>Repository visibility determines who can view it, but it does not replace a security policy. <strong>A private repository restricts access through GitHub; it does not guarantee that code, credentials or data are protected across every connected system.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Access and authentication:<\/strong> roles, permissions, teams and authentication methods restrict the actions available to people and applications.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Change protection:<\/strong> repository and branch rules can require reviews, checks or other conditions before modifications are accepted.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Detection and auditing:<\/strong> dependency and code analysis, secret detection and activity logs help identify particular risks according to the plan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>A credential removed from the latest commit may remain in the repository history.<\/strong> If a secret is exposed, it needs to be revoked or rotated before evaluating removal from the history. Applications, actions, dependencies and collaborators with access also need to be reviewed.<\/p>\n<h2>GitHub limitations<\/h2>\n<p>GitHub centralises many processes but does not replace technical decisions or project governance. Teams still need to understand Git, resolve conflicts, design permissions and review code before integration.<\/p>\n<p>Service availability becomes a dependency, and some Actions, Codespaces, storage or security features are subject to limits or costs. Projects may require local copies, backups and alternative procedures.<\/p>\n<p>Automations execute code and can expose secrets or modify connected systems when they are misconfigured. Similarly, suggestions from Copilot or other agents may contain errors, vulnerabilities or incompatible code and <strong>require human review and testing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>GitHub does not determine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/source-code\">source code<\/a> quality either. Hosting a project on the platform does not prove that it is maintained, documented or secure. Adoption needs to consider permissions, development processes, legal requirements, data location, costs and migration capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What GitHub is, how it uses repositories and Git, which collaboration and automation tools it provides and what its security controls and limitations are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":80065,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1273],"class_list":["post-70497","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-web-programming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/70497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=70497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}