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Using GitLab instead of GitHub? See Configure GitLab access. GitLab uses a service-account token rather than an installed app.
Claude Tag gives Claude its own GitHub identity, the Claude GitHub App, so pull requests it opens from a channel or a DM are authored by Claude rather than by a person. You only need GitHub access if a team will hand Claude code work: branches, pull requests, review, or CI follow-up. You link GitHub once for your Claude organization, then grant repositories per Access bundle.
If you link your GitHub organization before running setup, setup includes a step for granting repository access inline, so you don’t need to return to the Repositories tab afterward.
The person who completes the link must be both an owner of the GitHub organization and an Owner in your Claude organization. If you aren’t a GitHub organization owner, use Copy message under Not a GitHub account owner? on the GitHub settings page to send the link to someone who is.
1

Open the GitHub settings page

Open claude.ai/admin-settings/github. This page is shared with Claude Code; one connection serves both products.
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Connect Claude to GitHub

Click Connect Claude to GitHub (Connect, once any account is already linked) and complete the GitHub authorization. After authorizing, the Connected GitHub accounts table lists the GitHub accounts the Claude GitHub App is installed on. The Type column reads Organization or Personal. An account already linked to your Claude organization shows Connected, and one that still needs linking shows Not linked. Claude Tag uses Organization accounts only; a Personal row is someone’s own GitHub account and can’t be used for your repositories.
3

Link or install

If your organization’s row reads Not linked, select the Link button next to it. If it isn’t listed at all, click Install on another organization and complete the install on github.com; you’re returned to this page with the organization under Connected GitHub accounts as Connected.An organization can also be missing from the table because single sign-on (SSO) on GitHub hides it. A note under the table counts the organizations hidden that way. To make them appear, authorize the Claude app for those organizations on GitHub.
  • A disabled Link button means you can’t link that account yet; the button’s tooltip names the reason, such as not being an owner of that GitHub organization
  • A Needs permissions status means the installation has a pending request; Review permissions takes you to github.com to approve it
  • An Authorize SSO button in place of Link means your GitHub token isn’t authorized for that organization’s SSO; the button opens github.com to authorize it, and you link after returning

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Grant repository access

The remaining steps are in the Claude Tag admin page, not GitHub’s settings. Repository grants live on the Access bundle; editing a bundle’s Repositories tab requires the Owner role in your Claude organization. A channel manager can also add repositories to their own channel, limited to repositories their GitHub account is an admin of.
1

Open the bundle's Repositories tab

Open an Access bundle and go to its Repositories tab. Before any GitHub organization is linked, this tab shows a Get started with GitHub button that opens claude.ai/admin-settings/github.
2

Select repositories

Choose the repositories Claude can read from and open pull requests against. Access is per listed repository, or choose Connect all for the organization.

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Verify GitHub access

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If Claude can’t reach a repository

When Claude replies “That environment or repo isn’t configured for Claude Code”, or reports that GitHub returned a 403, check the two levels in order. Repository grants apply to new threads. After changing the Repositories tab, start a fresh thread in the channel and name the repository in the first message. A 403 that names a GitHub Actions operation, such as “repository_dispatch is not permitted for this session type.”, is a different error. It says nothing about repository access; see What Claude can do with GitHub Actions.

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How granted repositories reach a session

Granting a repository in a bundle makes it available to Claude in any channel under that bundle’s scope. It doesn’t clone the code into a session on its own. A session starts with no repositories checked out; Claude clones one when the request names it, or when someone in the thread tells it which repository to add. Tell your team to name the repository in the first message of a code task.

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What loads from a repository

When Claude clones a granted repository into a session, its Claude Code configuration loads on the next turn after the clone completes, so project context arrives without further prompting:
  • CLAUDE.md, .claude/CLAUDE.md, and .claude/rules/*.md load as project context
  • Skills in .claude/skills/ load, so Claude can use them in the session
Hooks in a repository’s .claude/settings.json don’t run in the session. A repository’s .mcp.json is never loaded, and connections come only from the Access bundle. Repository skills apply only in sessions that have the repository. To give a skill to every channel under a scope, add it through a skills repository.

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Install project dependencies

Every session runs in an isolated sandbox with a standard set of preinstalled tools. There are two places to add what a project needs beyond that set, such as a specific language runtime or a database client:
  • For every session in a channel, an admin adds the install commands to the setup script of the environment the channel’s sessions run on. See Configure the environment for a scope.
  • For one repository, add the install commands to the repository’s CLAUDE.md.
Claude follows CLAUDE.md as guidance when it starts work that needs it, not as an unconditional setup step. Write each install as a precondition of the work it supports, for example “install the SDK before building or running tests”, so Claude runs it when a task touches that code. The sandbox is fresh for every session, so the installs repeat each time Claude works in the repository. Prefer the standard package manager and its default registry over a vendor install script or a third-party package source. Package managers such as apt, pip, npm, and dotnet reach their default registries from the sandbox; downloads from other hosts can be blocked at the sandbox’s egress boundary. An Owner can allow an additional host on the bundle’s Domains tab; see Allow a host without a credential.

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What Claude can do with GitHub Actions

In a channel, Claude acts on GitHub as the Claude GitHub App, and that identity carries a fixed set of GitHub Actions permissions. No admin setting changes it, and adding api.github.com as a custom connection with your own token doesn’t change it either; Claude’s GitHub requests always act as the Claude GitHub App. Claude can:
  • Read workflow runs, jobs, logs, and artifacts, so it follows a pull request’s CI and reports the result
  • Re-run a workflow run or its failed jobs, cancel a run in progress, and dispatch a workflow_dispatch workflow
  • Delete runs, logs, or artifacts, and enable or disable a workflow
  • Trigger push and pull_request workflows by pushing a branch or opening a pull request, the same way any other author does
  • Edit files under .github/workflows/ and open a pull request with the change, like any other file
Claude can’t:
  • Send a repository_dispatch event
  • Approve a workflow run that’s waiting on approval, or its pending deployments
A request for either is refused with a 403; a repository_dispatch request returns “repository_dispatch is not permitted for this session type.” Approving a held run or a pending deployment releases a checkpoint GitHub inserted for a person, so do it from the repository’s Actions tab on github.com.

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Require a second approval on Claude’s pull requests

Claude is the author of the pull requests it opens, from a channel or a DM, so GitHub’s rule against approving your own pull request applies to Claude and not to the person who asked for the change. On a branch that requires one approving review, the person who asked Claude for a change can approve and merge it alone. If you want a second person to look at Claude’s work before it merges, require the second review in GitHub. GitHub gives you two ways, both set in a branch protection rule or ruleset on each branch Claude opens pull requests against.
  • Require two approving reviews. GitHub’s built-in setting. It applies to pull requests from people too.
  • Require a status check that only Claude’s pull requests must pass. A check you build and maintain, for example a GitHub Actions workflow that fails on pull requests authored by claude[bot] (or by your own app’s <slug>[bot] login on GitHub Enterprise Server) until two people have approved, and passes on pull requests people open.
With either, also turn on dismissing stale approvals when new commits are pushed, so an approval doesn’t carry over to a later push. See About protected branches and About status checks in GitHub’s documentation.

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Scheduled work uses the same connection

Scheduled jobs use the same GitHub connection as interactive work, with nothing extra to configure. A recurring job that can’t reach its repository skips that run and retries on its next schedule; after three consecutive failed runs spanning at least an hour, it disables itself. A one-time job that can’t reach its repository is disabled on the first failure; the routine’s page shows why.

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GitHub Enterprise

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GitHub Enterprise Cloud with data residency

Organizations on *.ghe.com (Enterprise Cloud with Data Residency) are registered the same way as a GitHub Enterprise Server host below.

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GitHub Enterprise Server

GitHub Enterprise Server instances are supported when reachable from the public internet. A GHES host on a private network without a public address can’t be connected. On GHES, you create the GitHub App on your own instance instead of installing Anthropic’s. The setup is shared with Claude Code; follow the Claude Code GitHub Enterprise Server guide to create and register the app. After registering the GHE host, a host picker appears on the bundle’s Repositories tab; select your host there to grant its repositories. Registering a GHE host with your Claude organization isn’t fully self-serve. Raise it with your account team if the guide doesn’t get you all the way through.