🤔 Suggestion: What about sharing your private repo with anyone just by a special link ?

[ayoub3bidi]

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I was thinking lately about the possibility of sharing my private repo with someone by a link I give it to him, so he can see it without making it public (a similare thing when you want to share a file from your google drive, you switch the General Access from Restricted to Anyone with the link and then you get a link you can give it to anyone to see your file).

I Think it will be a cool feature to have. What do you think ?

[devvsakib]

You can invite them so they will be able to access your repo and fork, as well as pr

[ayoub3bidi]

I know but that requires them to accept the invitation, but what about giving a link straight ahead just to see the code without any pre-actions. I think that will be useful.

[devvsakib]

no doubt. this would be obviously helpful and easier.

[itcarroll]

An "Anyone with the link can clone" feature for private repositories would be tremendously useful for exactly the same reasons that "Anyone with the link can view" is popular on Google Drive. You can share it with people who don't have an account. You want re-sharing to happen. You don't want to manage all the viewers.

Why not just make it public? Maybe you don't want the public to see issues or other GitHub features you are using. Maybe you want anyone to access the main branch, but not your development branch.

A related feature request is 32813.

[kimukook]

Some of the journal/conference requires that the paper submitted also come along with the authors' GitHub repo which contains the numerical simulation. I would like my repo to stay private before the publication, but visualizable to reviewers with a link so that they could see my results and code.

[crisnapatel]

this is exactly what brought me here.

[saurabhsingh72487-hub]

No, GitHub doesn't have "special link" sharing for private repos.

[jbellUIC]

As an instructor, my students have a strong desire for this feature.

I set up github repositories for them to use for their semester projects, both for them to share files among the group and for turning in their work for grading purposes. I want to keep the repositories private to prevent copying, either from students in the current semester or from past semester projects.

But the students would like to show their work to prospective employers when job hunting, for which they would put a link on their resumes for example. The "invitation to clone" model doesn't really work in this situation, but the "anyone with this particular link can view" would.

[KatayR]

Please please PLEASE IT'S 2024

[abdulahaddf]

As of now it's a mandatory feature.
anyone with the link can view the repo.

[ginqus]

please add this, it would be so useful

[quangsiDev]

please add this, that would be so useful

[PsyBrainy]

please add this!

[MsRiaCayde]

This feature would be beneficial to anyone searching for a position in the Tech field. The ability to share private repos with potential employers would allow users to upload project source code for (in my case) Game Design without compromising your project or release.

[ankit-gautam23]

The most secure way is to invite users as collaborators on your repository. This gives them specific access levels (read, write, etc.) based on your needs.

[ossup0v]

please add this!

[alnahian2003]

still not added? please add this feature. Thousands of people would get benefit from it

[xgloom]

This would be a great feature.

I would want to be able to see that there are active links-giving-access though and be able to revoke those at any time.

[vinayak071005]

Why is this still not a thing!! I am guessing security concerns? But we can restrict the pull requests to modify the private project by anyone so I don't see the point as to why they did not add the feature yet!

Please provide this feature.

[ananya183]

Desperately need this!

[crbyxwpzfl]

pls

[pochicake]

Still nothing? Disappointing...

[teresebressette3-alt]

hey

[usmanamin3254]

GitHub doesn’t let you share private repos via a simple link like Google Drive. To give someone access, you need to invite them as a collaborator or use an organization with controlled permissions.
It would definitely be a handy feature, but GitHub likely avoids it for security reasons—private repos often contain sensitive code. For now, inviting collaborators is the safest way to share.

[reach-Harishapc]

i guess its going to issue on Security

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I was thinking lately about the possibility of sharing my private repo with someone by a link I give it to him, so he can see it without making it public (a similare thing when you want to share a file from your google drive, you switch the General Access from Restricted to Anyone with the link and then you get a link you can give it to anyone to see your file).

I Think it will be a cool feature to have. What do you think ?

[itcarroll]

Where do you see this activity, please?

[reach-Harishapc]

Oh, sorry for the confusion — I didn’t mean any specific activity.
I just meant that GitHub might not add this feature because of potential security concerns — allowing public access links to private repos could be risky if not properly managed.

[ajaykumarreddy-k]

At the moment, GitHub doesn’t have a feature like that. Private repositories can only be accessed by collaborators you explicitly add, or by members of an organization with the right permissions.

[BloxdioCannoli]

This would be a great feature

[Suter-IK]

I was looking for exactly this functionality and ... ended here. What a shame!
Github, pls allow read-only access for private repos, pls!

[NatiaJav]

2026.. This is still not added..

[wyhinton]

Would love this feature. Important for sharing with employers.

[Gouravkumarpandey]

GitHub doesn’t support “anyone with the link can view” for private repositories, because private code is protected by account-based access control, not link-based sharing. To let someone view your private repo, you must explicitly invite them (as a collaborator) or grant access through an organization/team, so GitHub can track permissions, auditing, and security properly.

Your idea is definitely convenient like Google Drive, but for source code it would be risky (links can be forwarded or leaked), so GitHub keeps private repos restricted to invited users only.

[itcarroll]

Then don't think of this an enhancement for securely sharing private code, but as a way to make code public but not discoverable. Or the link could provide a view of Code but not Issues. So join the fun, and don't be a nay-sayer.

[thejasonxie]

Hey all, I’ve been following this thread because I’ve needed the same “anyone with the link can view” workflow for private repos (contractors, reviewers, students/employers, etc.).

I built a small tool that creates shareable, time‑boxed, revocable links to read-only views of private GitHub repos (or specific paths), without adding collaborators. You can set an expiry on your GitHub tokens to revoke instantly.

Just prepend share- to your GitHub url. So github.com/{owner}/{repo} becomes share-github.com/{owner}/{repo}. Then follow instructions on adding your token.

Or you can start from the landing page at https://privategithub.link

It's also free! 🙂

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[saurabhsingh72487-hub]

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I was thinking lately about the possibility of sharing my private repo with someone by a link I give it to him, so he can see it without making it public (a similare thing when you want to share a file from your google drive, you switch the General Access from Restricted to Anyone with the link and then you get a link you can give it to anyone to see your file).

I Think it will be a cool feature to have. What do you think ?
No, GitHub doesn't have "special link" sharing for private repos.

[saurabhsingh72487-hub]

No, GitHub doesn't have "special link" sharing for private repos.

[saurabhsingh72487-hub]

No, GitHub doesn't have "special link" sharing for private repos.

[saurabhsingh72487-hub]

No, GitHub doesn't have "special link" sharing for private repos.