GitHub Features and Functionality

github_goodies.md

GitHub Features and Functionality

Here’s a comprehensive list of GitHub functionality, including many of the "hidden gems" that provide extra features

Repository Management

• Repositories

  Standard Git repositories hosted on GitHub.

• Templates

  Special repos that can be used to create new projects with predefined structures.

• GitHub Pages

  Host static sites directly from the gh-pages branch or /docs folder.

• Wikis

  Built-in wikis for documenting projects.

• Environments

  Define different deployment stages (e.g., staging, production) with protected secrets.

• Deployments

  Track deployment states and statuses for your environments.

• Actions Workflows

  Automate tasks using YAML-based workflows in .github/workflows/.

• Dependabot

  Automatically checks for dependency updates.

Special Files and Directories

• README.md

  Displays as the main project documentation.

• CONTRIBUTING.md

  Guidelines for contributing to the project.

• CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

  Code of conduct for project contributors.

• LICENSE

  License information for open-source projects.

• SECURITY.md

  Security policy for reporting vulnerabilities.

• ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ and PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE/

  Templates for issues and pull requests.

• FUNDING.yml

  Links to funding sources, like Patreon or GitHub Sponsors.

• CODEOWNERS

  File to define code owners for specific files or paths, auto-adding them as reviewers.

• Dependabot Config (.github/dependabot.yml)

  Customize dependency update behavior.

• GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/)

  Define CI/CD and automation workflows.

• .github Repository

  Special repository for shared GitHub configuration files.

• .github-private Repository

  Special repository for private GitHub configuration files.

Collaboration and Community

• Issues

  Track bugs, enhancements, and discussions.

• Pull Requests

  Collaborate on code changes before merging.

• Discussions

  Open-ended conversations separate from issues and PRs.

• Projects

  Kanban-style boards for managing issues and PRs.

• Milestones

  Group issues and PRs under project goals with deadlines.

• Labels

  Organize issues and PRs with tags.

Security and Permissions

• Secrets

  Store encrypted secrets (used in workflows or CI/CD).

• Branch Protection Rules

  Define rules to restrict access to branches.

• Required Reviews

  Require specific reviews before merging.

• Dependency Graph

  View dependencies and dependency vulnerabilities.

• Security Advisories

  Create advisories for known vulnerabilities in your project.

• Vulnerability Alerts

  Alerts when dependencies are affected by vulnerabilities.

Insights and Analytics

• Pulse

  Activity metrics for issues, PRs, and commits.

• Traffic Analytics

  Track views, clones, and referrers.

• Contributors Graph

  Visualizes contributions over time.

• Commits History

  View all commits, organized by contributor or time frame.

Integrations

• Webhooks

  Send repository events to external services.

• OAuth Apps

  Apps using OAuth for authentication.

• GitHub Apps

  Integrate custom apps to interact with GitHub API.

• Marketplace

  GitHub-approved apps and tools for various integrations.

• GitHub Packages

  Host and share packages and container images.

• GitHub Event Bus

  Event-driven architecture for GitHub integrations.

Developer Tools

• Actions Marketplace

  Community actions for GitHub Actions workflows.

• GraphQL API

  GitHub API available via GraphQL.

• REST API

  Full GitHub REST API for interacting with resources.

• GitHub CLI (gh)

  Command-line interface to interact with GitHub.

Specialized Repos and Features

• Monorepos

  Multi-project repository support, often with workflows tailored for them.

• Archived Repositories

  Mark repositories as read-only archives.

• Forking

  Create copies of repositories for personal work.

• Submodules

  Link to other repositories within a project.

• GitHub Sponsors

  Funding model for sponsoring open-source contributors.

GitHub Advanced Security (Enterprise)

• Code Scanning

  Detect vulnerabilities with integrated static analysis.

• Secret Scanning

  Detect accidentally committed secrets in your code.

• Dependency Review

  Shows dependency changes in pull requests for better security.

Notifications and Automation

• Notifications

  Track notifications via email or on GitHub.

• Saved Replies

  Templates for common responses to issues and PRs.

• Auto-merge

  Enable auto-merging for PRs that meet specific conditions.