Estate planning as a GitHub account holder
GitHub, Inc. (Microsoft) reviews transfer requests for accounts individually upon receipt of documentation
Part of the Microsoft Account ecosystem.
GitHub is the world's largest source code hosting platform, owned by Microsoft and used by over 100 million developers. A GitHub account can hold repositories (public and private), GitHub Pages websites, GitHub Actions workflows with secrets and environment variables, GitHub Packages and container images, Codespaces cloud development environments, SSH/GPG keys, personal access tokens, OAuth apps, and GitHub Sponsors monetization. Organization accounts add shared repositories, teams, and enterprise-level access controls. GitHub is one of the few platforms in this directory with a formal, published Deceased User Policy and a built-in Successor Settings feature that lets members pre-designate another GitHub user to archive or transfer their public repositories.
After a GitHub account holder dies, GitHub, Inc. (Microsoft) may transfer accounts to a designated recipient, but this is handled case by case. The outcome depends on the documentation provided and is entirely at GitHub, Inc. (Microsoft)'s discretion.
GitHub supports transferring accounts to another person during the account holder's lifetime.
What happens at death
GitHub has a formal Deceased User Policy published at docs.github.com. An authorized individual -- next of kin, a pre-designated successor, or another authorized person such as a collaborator or business partner -- can contact GitHub Support through the support portal and request action on the deceased user's account. GitHub may request a copy of photo identification, a death certificate, and documentation confirming the requestor is authorized to act in relation to the account. GitHub reviews each request individually; privacy obligations and legal requirements may limit what actions GitHub will take. Separately, GitHub offers a Successor Settings feature (Settings > Account > Successor settings) that allows a user to pre-designate another GitHub user as their successor. An appointed successor can archive public repositories and transfer public repositories to their own account or to an organization where they can create repositories. Successors cannot log into the deceased user's account and cannot access private repositories.
Planning your estate
Protecting GitHub accounts while the account is active
No beneficiary designation, lifetime transfer options for accounts, and 8-step plan.
View details →When someone dies
Handling GitHub accounts after a death
Transfer is handled on a case-by-case basis, 8-step process, and 4 required documents.
View details →GitHub does not support beneficiary designations. Unlike bank accounts or investment accounts, there is no way to formally name a beneficiary on this type of account.
Frequently asked questions
Go to Settings > Account > Successor settings (https://github.com/settings/account) and invite another GitHub user. The invited user must have a GitHub account of their own and will appear as "Pending" until they accept. Successors cannot be set on a per-repository or per-organization basis; the setting is account-wide.
Yes. Anyone can clone or fork a public repository at any time. Existing forks survive account deletion, and for popular public repos (100+ clones or Actions uses), GitHub retires the owner/repo name to prevent impersonation and the oldest active public fork becomes the new upstream repository.
There is no automated succession for GitHub Sponsors payouts. Accrued but unpaid earnings require the estate to work with GitHub Support, and possibly with Stripe (GitHub's payout processor), on a case-by-case basis. Keep records of Stripe payout history and any outstanding balance in your digital asset inventory.
Sources
Data sourced from GitHub, Inc. (Microsoft) primary sources (8 pages reviewed). How we research.
