GitHubs magic files
I keep coming across files in GitHub that have some mystic magic feeling to them. There’s always a small incantation to come with them: the have to have the right name, the right extension and have to be stored in the right directory. I wanted to have an overview of all these spells for myself, so here we are 😉.
Photo by Artem Maltsev on Unsplash
Overview
A list of all the magic files / links that I came across in GitHub.
| Filename | Location | .github repo support | Description | Docs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNAME | root | no | Alias for the GitHub Pages site | Docs |
| CONTRIBUTING.md | root, /docs or /.github | yes | How to contribute to a project | Guidelines |
| CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md | yes | Code of conduct | ||
| CODEOWNERS | root, /docs or /.github | List of people who can make changes to the files or folders | Code owners info | |
| CITATION.cff | root | no | Let others know how to citate your work | cff |
| LICENSE.md or LICENSE.txt or LICENSE.md or LICENSE.rst | root | no | License | |
| FUNDING.md | .github folder | yes | Display a Sponsor button in your repo and send people to platforms where they can fund your development | Docs |
| SECURITY.md | root, .github or docs folder | yes | Security policy | |
| SUPPORT.md | root, .github or docs folder | yes | Tell people how to get help for the code in the repo | Docs |
| FORM-NAME.yml | .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ | Issue templates with forms (in Beta for github.com, not available for GHES) | Templates | |
| config.yml | .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ | Issue templates configuration settings | Template chooser | |
| issue_template.md | .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ | Issue template | Template | |
| Url query | In the url link | Create an issue with certain fields filled in with values | Create issue with url query | |
| pull_request_template.md | root, /docs, /.github or in the PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE directory | Create the default body for a Pull Request | Using a PR template | |
| workflow.yml | workflow-templates | only available in .github repo | Store starter workflows for your organizations | Starter workflow templates |
| dependabot.yml | .github/ | Dependabot configuration file | Dependabot configuration | |
| codeql-config.yml | .github/codeql/codeql-config.yml (convention, not required) | sort of | CodeQL configuration file. Can also be stored in an external repository (hence .github repo works). If using external repo, referencing can by done by using owner/repository/filename@branch |
CodeQL config |
| secret_scanning.yml | .github/secret_scanning.yml | Secret scanning configuration file | Secret scanning | |
| README.md | root | yes, see below | Project readme, also used on marketplace if the repo is published to the marketplace | |
| README.md | .github/username/username | Profile readme | About readme’s | |
| README.md | organizations .github repo or .github-private repo: profile/README.md | Organization readme | Organization readme | |
| release.yml | .github | Automatically generated release notes | Automatically generated release notes | |
| workflow.yml | .github/workflows/ | Workflows | ||
| action.yml/action.yaml | root | Configuration file for an actions repository | ||
| $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY | workflow | Job summary output in markdown | Job summary | |
| /releases/latest | link | To permalink to the latest release as any time. | Permalink to latest release |
Some of these are extra tricky, like for example the organization profile lives in a different directory and repo then the user profile readme: .github or in .github-private repo in the org and then in a folder named profile: README.md.
