GitHub

Built, not certified Built and tested against recorded and synthetic responses (version 1.0.0, 10 November 2026). Not yet run against the vendor's sandbox or a client environment.

Reads issues, pull requests, their comments and the Markdown documents of the GitHub repositories you name, so engineering agents can answer from the design notes and the issue history. Optionally it reads every text file of the default branch (code) of named repositories or whole organisations.

At a glance

Collector	GitHub, version 1.0.0
Reads	GitHub: GitHub REST API (github.com and GitHub Enterprise Server) (the vendor's documentation)
Family	Engineering
Kind	Code
Ways to connect	Access token
Scopes	Read: Metadata: read, Contents: read, Issues: read, Pull requests: read
Read only	Yes
Vendor's API can move money	No
Personal data	Content, Identity
Hosts it may contact	api.github.com, codeload.github.com
Vendor API versions	GitHub REST API, X-GitHub-Api-Version 2022-11-28
Lowest engine version	0.47.1

What it reads

• Issues and pull requests (GitHub lists both with issues): title, body, comments, state, labels and the repository. Read since the newest updated_at seen per repository.
• Markdown files (*.md) on the default branch, optionally only under doc_paths. The cursor keeps each file’s blob sha; an unchanged file is not fetched, and a file that leaves the tree is withdrawn.
• With code: true: every text file of the default branch, from one tarball per repository, re-read only when the repository’s pushed_at moves. orgs names organisations whose every repository is read.
• Left out of code reads: version-control internals, dependency and build directories (node_modules, build, vendor, …), lockfiles, binaries and generated files by suffix, empty files and files over max_file_bytes (256 KiB). Each skip is counted by reason.
• Never read: wikis and Actions or CI results.

How to connect

1. Create a fine-grained personal access token limited to the repositories you want, with only the permissions below.
2. In LightHouse, open Connectors, choose GitHub, name the repositories (owner/name), a label and how often to read, and paste the token.
3. In code, give the deployment the token as GITHUB_TOKEN from your secret store and add a kind: github source card with repos (and orgs with code: true where wanted), label and requires.
4. For GitHub Enterprise Server set base_url to https://<host>/api/v3. A source that sets credential_env: "" reads public repositories without a token.

Permissions

Read only. For a fine-grained token: Metadata read, Contents read, Issues read and Pull requests read. The collector sends only GET requests to the API root (api.github.com by default, or the Enterprise Server’s host) and, for code reads, to codeload.github.com through the tarball redirect. The Authorization header is removed before a redirect is followed, as the redirect target carries its own short-lived token. Its read-only test proves it on every change.

Limits

• You must name repositories or, with code: true, organisations; an organisation is never the default.
• A repository tree too large for GitHub to return whole is a failure, not a partial sync: reading half the documents and withdrawing the rest would empty the index.
• A listing that has lost more than 25 repositories and more than a tenth of those the last pull knew fails the pull rather than withdrawing them.
• A rate limit is waited out (the tarball stream waits for the reset); a 304 does not count against GitHub’s limit, so a quiet repository costs nothing.
• Files over max_file_bytes (256 KiB) are skipped in code reads.
• Documents have no modified date, so a pull compares blob shas, not dates.

Data handling

• Issue, comment and document text is copied into the deployment’s corpus under the source’s label. Comments carry the author’s login. Repositories can hold personal data and secrets in text; use a restrictive label for code.
• The token stays in your secret store and is never written to logs or run notes; it is sent only to the API host.
• Nothing leaves the deployment: only counts reach LightHouse.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What it means	What to do
not owner/name repositories	A repository is not written owner/name	Correct the name
name the repositories to sync; an organisation is never the default	Neither repos nor orgs is set	Name the repositories
orgs reads every repository's code: it needs code: true	orgs was given without code: true	Set code: true, or use repos
base_url must be an https URL	An Enterprise Server address that is not https	Use the https API root
credential variable 'GITHUB_TOKEN' is not set	The token variable is empty	Set it, or credential_env: "" for public repositories
the tree is truncated; name doc_paths to narrow it	The repository is too large for one tree listing	Set doc_paths
refusing to delete	The organisation listing lost most of the repositories the last pull knew	Check the token’s access; it is not a deletion
HTTP 401 or HTTP 403	The token is revoked, expired or lacks access to the repository	Make a new token with the permissions above
Read succeeded, 0 written	Nothing changed since the cursor	Nothing to do

Certification

Each entry is a run by Atlantic Agentic Labs, newest first. Only a run against the vendor’s sandbox or a client environment certifies a collector; a certification lasts six months, or less if the vendor publishes an API version the collector does not list. See How collectors are certified.

Date	Collector	Engine	Vendor API	Method	Expires
10 November 2026	1.0.0	0.45.0	GitHub REST API, X-GitHub-Api-Version 2022-11-28	Fixtures only: built, not certified	Not applicable

Security posture

From the collector’s last scan on the default branch. What each line means, and what blocks a release: Security posture.

Last scanned	10 November 2026
Critical findings	0
High findings	0
Medium findings	0
Low findings	0
Info findings	0
Release blocked	No
Network allow-list check	Pass
Read-only behavioural test	Pass
SBOM (CycloneDX)	Produced
Dependency licences	Pass
Scanners	bandit 1.9.4, semgrep 1.181.1, pip-audit 2.10.1, osv-scanner 2.7.0, cyclonedx-py 7.5.0, pip-licenses 5.5.5, gitleaks repository job aal-secrets, hosts_check tools/hosts_check.py, read-only test pytest -m read_only