GitHub Connector

The GitHub connector syncs organization members, teams, and repository permissions from your GitHub organization.

What Gets Synced

• Organization Members - Users with access to your organization
• Teams - Team structure and memberships
• Repositories - Repository metadata
• Permissions - Team and individual access levels to repositories

Prerequisites

• GitHub organization (personal accounts not supported)
• Personal access token with appropriate scopes

Required Permissions

Create a personal access token with these scopes:

Classic Tokens

• read:org - Read org and team membership
• repo - Access repository information (or public_repo for public repos only)

Fine-Grained Tokens (Recommended)

• Organization permissions:
  • Members: Read-only
  • Administration: Read-only (optional, for SCIM email lookup)
• Repository permissions:
  • Metadata: Read-only
  • Administration: Read-only

Setup Instructions

Step 1: Create a Personal Access Token

Classic Token:

1. Go to GitHub → Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Tokens (classic)
2. Click "Generate new token (classic)"
3. Select scopes: read:org, repo (or public_repo)
4. Generate and copy the token

Fine-Grained Token:

1. Go to GitHub → Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Fine-grained tokens
2. Click "Generate new token"
3. Select your organization as the resource owner
4. Grant permissions:
   • Organization: Members (Read-only)
   • Repository: Metadata (Read-only)
5. Generate and copy the token

Step 2: Get Your Organization Name

Your organization name is in the URL: https://github.com/ORG-NAME

Step 3: Configure in Open-SSPM

1. Open Open-SSPM web UI
2. Go to Settings → Connectors
3. Click "Configure" on the GitHub card
4. Enter:
   • Organization: your org name (e.g., acme-corp)
   • Token: the personal access token
   • Enable SCIM Lookup: toggle on (optional, see below)
5. Click "Save"

SCIM Email Lookup

GitHub organization members may not have public email addresses. Enable SCIM lookup to:

• Query your IdP (Okta/Azure AD) for user emails
• Improve identity matching accuracy
• Link more GitHub accounts to identities

Requirements:

• GitHub organization must have SCIM provisioning enabled
• Your IdP must be configured for GitHub provisioning

Connector Settings

Setting	Required	Description
Organization	Yes	GitHub organization name
Token	Yes	Personal access token
Enable SCIM Lookup	No	Look up emails via SCIM API

Environment Variables

Override the sync interval:

SYNC_GITHUB_INTERVAL=30m

Adjust concurrent workers (GitHub has aggressive rate limits):

SYNC_GITHUB_WORKERS=6

Troubleshooting

"Not Found" error

• Verify the organization name is correct (case-sensitive)
• Ensure the token has access to the organization

"Bad credentials" error

• Token may be expired or revoked
• Generate a new token and update the connector

Rate limiting

GitHub has strict rate limits (5,000 requests/hour for classic tokens). If you hit limits:

1. Increase sync interval: SYNC_GITHUB_INTERVAL=60m
2. Reduce worker count: SYNC_GITHUB_WORKERS=1
3. Use fine-grained tokens (may have higher limits)

Missing repositories

• Check if repositories are private and token has repo scope
• Verify the organization member has access to those repositories

Missing member emails

• GitHub users may not have public emails
• Enable SCIM lookup if your org uses SCIM provisioning
• Manually link unmatched accounts in the UI

Data Retention

• Member and team data updates with each sync
• Repository permissions reflect current state
• Historical permission changes are not tracked

Security Best Practices

1. Use fine-grained tokens - More secure than classic tokens
2. Minimal permissions - Only request read access
3. Token rotation - Regenerate tokens periodically
4. Dedicated account - Consider using a service account (not a personal account)
5. Monitor token usage - Review GitHub security logs

GitHub Enterprise Server

For GitHub Enterprise Server (self-hosted), set the API base URL:

API Base URL: https://your-ghe-server.com/api/v3

Leave blank for GitHub.com (default: https://api.github.com).

Next Steps

After configuring GitHub:

1. Run initial sync
2. Review organization members in Identities
3. Check which users have access to which repositories
4. Link any unmatched GitHub accounts to identities