Skip to main content
Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Configuring Emails for Public Repositories

Configuring Non-Public Emails

GitHub.com allows developers to create and commit to public repositories. While the VA supports this activity, to ensure that no sensitive information is accidentally leaked, we require that all users author and sign commits in a manner that does not expose their VA email address which is classified as Sensitive PII.

Configuring Your No-Reply Email Address

GitHub provides users a special email alias that is used to author and sign commits in a manner that does not expose their @va.gov email address, known as a no-reply email alias. When using a no-reply email alias, GitHub will automatically map these email addresses to your user account so commits are properly attributed to the correct user.

To configure this no-reply email alias, follow the steps below:

  • Login to GitHub and navigate to your Email Setting.
  • Select “Keep my email addresses private” option on this page.
  • Once you perform the previous step, you will see a new special email appear in your email options of the format <github_user_id>+<github_username>@users.noreply.github.com.
  • Copy your @users.noreply.github.com email address to your clipboard.
  • Navigate to PowerShell, Command Prompt, Terminal, or Git-Bash depending on your system, and configure your Git email address with this new no-reply email address.
  • To configure it globally, execute: git config --global user.email <your_no_reply_email>
  • To configure it per repository, navigate to your repository in the CLI and execute: git config --local user.email <your_no_reply_email>
  • If you choose to do it per repository, you will need to make this change to all of your local repositories.

Configuring Your No-Reply Email Address in GitHub Desktop

If you are using GitHub Desktop for development instead of a CLI, follow the official instructions for GitHub Desktop for modifying your author email.