Can I make commit history public without making code public?

[EleshN]

Select Topic Area

Question

Body

I have a repository where I want to be able to show off commit history, either to friends asking about progress or as part of a portfolio, but I don't want to expose the code to the public. Is there a repository option to successfully accomplish this? Just showing the commit messages or progress graph or something is what I'm looking for.

[nkhandwe]

yes you can make commit public in your profile

[spenserblack]

The closest I've seen is that some projects will keep their source code private, but have a sort of "fake" public repository for the community, so users can submit issues, view the changelog or a readme, or download releases.

If you decide to have a private repo for your source code and a public repo for the community, you have a lot of options available. The easiest would be to just manually put your commits in a changelog.md file or something, or you could get fancy and use either GitHub Actions or develop a site that sends an API query to get that repository's activity. You could even make fake versions of the commits by iterating over each commit in the private repo and making an empty commit git commit --allow-empty -m "$MESSAGE" in the public repo (I wouldn't do this, though. It might look like spam.).

That seems the closest to what you're trying to do to me. You can also just include private activity in your profile via the settings page, but that will just report "USER made X private contributions" IIRC, not provide the actual messages.

[github-actions[bot]]

🕒 Discussion Activity Reminder 🕒

This Discussion has been labeled as dormant by an automated system for having no activity in the last 60 days. Please consider one the following actions:

1️⃣ Close as Out of Date: If the topic is no longer relevant, close the Discussion as out of date at the bottom of the page.

2️⃣ Provide More Information: Share additional details or context — or let the community know if you've found a solution on your own.

3️⃣ Mark a Reply as Answer: If your question has been answered by a reply, mark the most helpful reply as the solution.

Note: This dormant notification will only apply to Discussions with the Question label. To learn more, see our recent announcement.

Thank you for helping bring this Discussion to a resolution! 💬

[gavinaustin70]

Try Profile -> Settings -> Public Profile then select the option that says, "Include private contributions on my profile". I know this is a late reply, but hopefully that's what you are looking for and helps you or someone else!