Can you pass on your GitHub account when you die?
GitHub reviews requests about a GitHub account after a death case by case. While alive, the account holder can use transferring the account.
Protecting GitHub accounts while the account is active
Beneficiary designation available, lifetime transfer options for accounts, and 8-step plan.
How to protect your GitHub account while you are alive →Someone died. Handling GitHub accounts after a death
Transfer is handled on a case-by-case basis, 6-step process, and 5 required documents.
What happens to a GitHub account when someone dies →GitHub is a source code hosting platform owned by Microsoft. An account can hold public and private repositories, GitHub Pages sites, Actions workflows and secrets, Packages, Codespaces, SSH and GPG keys, access tokens and Sponsors earnings; organizations add shared repositories and teams.
GitHub decides what happens to a GitHub account after a death case by case; its terms promise no transfer. While the account holder is alive, GitHub allows transferring the account.
What happens to GitHub at death
- Case by case
GitHub works with an authorized individual, such as next of kin, a pre-designated successor or a collaborator or business partner, to decide what happens to a deceased user's account, and reviews each request individually.1
Naming who acts after a death
- Successor settings
Successor settings lets a member name another GitHub user, account-wide, who after the member's death can archive the public repositories or transfer them to their own account or to an organization. The invited user shows as pending until they accept.2, 3
Other companies and product lines involved1
GitHub publishes its own process for a deceased person's account: GitHub Deceased User Policy; a request goes in through GitHub's online form. GitHub lets the account holder name, in advance, who may act on the account after a death, through Successor settings.
Sources
Data sourced from GitHub, Inc. (Microsoft) primary sources (10 pages reviewed). How we research.
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