- term: '@mention'

description:

To notify a person on GitHub by using `@` before their username. Users in an organization on GitHub can also be a part of a team that can be

mentioned.

- term: access token

description: >-

A token that is used in place of a password when performing Git operations

over HTTPS with Git on the command line or the API. Also called a personal

access token.

- term: API preview

description: >-

A way to try out new APIs and changes to existing API methods before they

become part of the official GitHub API.

- term: appliance

description: >-

A software application combined with just enough operating system (JeOS) to

run optimally on industry-standard hardware (typically a server) or in a

virtual machine.

- term: assignee

description: The user that is assigned to an issue.

- term: authentication code

description: >-

A code you'll supply, in addition to your GitHub password, when signing in

with 2FA via the browser. This code is either generated by an application or delivered to

your phone via text message. Also called a "2FA authentication code."

- term: base branch

description:

The branch into which changes are combined when you merge a pull request.

When you create a pull request, you can change the base branch from the repository's default branch to another branch if required.

- term: basic authentication

description: >-

A method of authentication where the credentials are sent as

unencrypted text.

- term: bio

description: >-

The user-generated description found on a profile:

[Adding a bio to your profile](/articles/adding-a-bio-to-your-profile)

- term: billing cycle

description: The interval of time for your specific billing plan.

- term: billing email

description: >-

The organization email address where GitHub sends receipts, credit card or

PayPal charges, and other billing-related communication.

- term: billing manager

description: The organization member that manages billing settings for an organization.

- term: billing plan

description: >-

Payment plans for users and organizations that include set features for each

type of plan.

- term: blame

description: >-

The "blame" feature in Git describes the last modification to each line of a

file, which generally displays the revision, author and time. This is

helpful, for example, in tracking down when a feature was added, or which

commit led to a particular bug.

- term: block

description: >-

To remove a user's ability to collaborate on an organization's repositories.

- term: branch

description: >-

A branch is a parallel version of a repository. It is contained within the

repository, but does not affect the primary or main branch allowing you to

work freely without disrupting the "live" version. When you've made the

changes you want to make, you can merge your branch back into the main

branch to publish your changes.

- term: branch restriction

description: >-

A restriction that repository admins can enable so that only certain users

or teams can push or make certain changes to the branch.

- term: Business plan

description: >-

An organization billing plan where you can collaborate on unlimited public

and private repositories, allow or require organization members to

authenticate to GitHub using SAML SSO, and provision and deprovision access

with SAML or SCIM.

- term: CA certificate

description: >-

A digital certificate issued by Certificate Authority (CA) that ensures there are valid connections between two machines, such as a user's computer and GitHub.com and verifies the ownership of a site.

- term: card

description: A movable square within a project board associated with an issue or pull request.

- term: check

description: >-

A check is a type of status check on {% data variables.product.product_name %}. See "[Status checks](#status-checks)."

- term: checkout

description: >-

You can use `git checkout` on the command line to create a new branch, change your current working branch to a different branch, or even to switch to a different version of a file from a different branch with `git checkout [branchname] [path to file]`. The "checkout" action updates all or part of the working tree with a tree object or

blob from the object database, and updates the index and HEAD if the whole

working tree is pointing to a new branch.

- term: cherry-picking

description: >-

To choose a subset of changes from a series of changes (typically commits) and record them as a new series of changes on top of a different codebase. In Git, this is performed by the `git cherry-pick` command to extract the change introduced by an existing commit on another branch and to record it based on the tip of the current branch as a new commit. For more information, see [git-cherry-pick](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-cherry-pick) in the Git documentation.

- term: child team

description: >-

Within nested teams, the subteam that inherits the parent team's access

permissions and @mentions.

- term: clean

description: >-

A working tree is clean if it corresponds to the revision referenced by the

current HEAD. Also see "dirty".

- term: clone

description: >-

A clone is a copy of a repository that lives on your computer instead of on

a website's server somewhere, or the act of making that copy. When you make a

clone, you can edit the files in your preferred editor and use Git to keep

track of your changes without having to be online. The repository you cloned

is still connected to the remote version so that you can push your local

changes to the remote to keep them synced when you're online.

- term: clustering

description: >-

The ability to run GitHub Enterprise services across multiple nodes and load

balance requests between them.

- term: code frequency graph

description: >-

A repository graph that shows the content additions and deletions for each

week in a repository's history.

- term: code of conduct

description: A document that defines standards for how to engage in a community.

- term: code owner

description: >-

A person who is designated as an owner of a portion of a repository's code. The code owner is automatically requested for review when someone opens a pull request (not in draft mode) that makes changes to code the code owner owns.

- term: collaborator

description: >-

A collaborator is a person with read and write access to a repository who

has been invited to contribute by the repository owner.

- term: commit

description: >-

A commit, or "revision", is an individual change to a file (or set of

files). When you make a commit to save your work, Git creates a unique ID (a.k.a. the "SHA" or "hash") that allows you to keep record of the specific changes committed along with who made them and when. Commits usually contain a

commit message which is a brief description of what changes were made.

- term: commit author

description: The user who makes the commit.

- term: Commit graph

description: >-

A repository graph that shows all the commits made to a repository in the

past year.

- term: commit ID

description: Also known as SHA. A 40-character checksum hash that identifies the commit.

- term: commit message

description: >-

Short, descriptive text that accompanies a commit and communicates the change

the commit is introducing.

- term: compare branch

description: >-

The branch you use to create a pull request.

This branch is compared to the base branch you choose for the pull request, and the changes are identified.

When the pull request is merged, the base branch is updated with the changes from the compare branch.

Also known as the "head branch" of the pull request.

- term: continuous integration

description: >-

Also known as CI. A process that runs automated builds and tests once a person commits a change to a configured repository on GitHub. CI is a common best practice in software development that helps detect errors.

- term: contribution graph

description: >-

The part of a user's profile that shows their contributions over a period of

up to one year, day by day.

- term: contribution guidelines

description: A document explaining how people should contribute to your project.

- term: contributions

description: >-

Specific activities on GitHub that will:

- Add a square to a user's contribution graph: "[What counts as a contribution](/articles/viewing-contributions-on-your-profile/#what-counts-as-a-contribution)"

- Add activities to a user's timeline on their profile: "[Contribution activity](/articles/viewing-contributions-on-your-profile/#contribution-activity)"

- term: contributor

description: >-

A contributor is someone who does not have collaborator access to a repository but has contributed to a project and had a pull request they opened merged into the repository.

- term: contributors graph

description: A repository graph that displays the top 100 contributors to a repository.

- term: coupon

description: >-

A GitHub-provided code that users or organizations can use to pay for all or

part of their subscription.

- term: cron

description: A time-based job scheduler in Unix-like computer operating systems.

- term: cURL

description: Used in command lines or scripts to transfer data.

- term: dashboard

description: >-

Your personal dashboard is the main hub of your activity on GitHub. From your personal dashboard, you can keep track of issues and pull requests you're following or working on, navigate to your top repositories and team pages, and learn about recent activity in repositories you're watching or participating in. You can also discover new repositories, which are recommended based on users you're following and repositories you have starred. To only view activity for a specific organization, visit your organization's dashboard. For more information, see "[About your personal dashboard](/articles/about-your-personal-dashboard)" or "[About your organization dashboard](/articles/about-your-organization-dashboard)."

- term: default branch

description: >-

The base branch for new pull requests and code commits in a repository. Each repository has at least one branch, which Git creates when you initialize the repository. The first branch is usually called {% ifversion ghes < 3.2 %}`master`{% else %}`main`{% endif %}, and is often the default branch.

- term: dependents graph

description: >-

A repository graph that shows the packages, projects, and repositories that depend on a

public repository.

- term: dependency graph

description: >-

A repository graph that shows the packages and projects that the repository depends on.

- term: deploy key

description: >-

A deploy key is an SSH key that is stored on your server and grants access

to a single GitHub repository. This key is attached directly to the

repository instead of to a personal user account.

- term: detached HEAD

description: >-

Git will warn you if you're working on a detached HEAD, which means that Git

is not pointing to a branch and that any commits you make will not appear in

commit history. For example, when you check out an arbitrary commit that

is not the latest commit of any particular branch, you're working on a

"detached HEAD."

- term: diagnostics

description: An overview of a GitHub Enterprise instance's settings and environment.

- term: diff

description: >-

A diff is the difference in changes between two commits, or saved changes.

The diff will visually describe what was added or removed from a file since

its last commit.

- term: directory

description: >-

A folder containing one or more files or folders. You can create directories to organize the contents of a repository.

- term: dirty

description: >-

A working tree is considered "dirty" if it contains modifications that have

not been committed to the current branch.

- term: email notifications

description: Notifications sent to a user's email address.

- term: enterprise account

description: Enterprise accounts allow you to centrally manage policy and billing for multiple organizations. {% data reusables.gated-features.enterprise-accounts %}

- term: Explorer

description: >-

An instance of GraphiQL, which is a "graphical interactive in-browser GraphQL

IDE."

- term: fast-forward

description: >-

A fast-forward is a special type of merge where you have a revision and you

are "merging" another branch's changes that happen to be a descendant of

what you have. In such a case, you do not make a new merge commit but

instead just update to this revision. This will happen frequently on a

remote-tracking branch of a remote repository.

- term: feature branch

description: >-

A branch used to experiment with a new feature or fix an issue that is not in production. Also called a topic branch.

- term: fenced code block

description: An indented block of code you can create with GitHub Flavored Markdown using triple backticks \`\`\` before and after the code block. See this [example](/articles/creating-and-highlighting-code-blocks#fenced-code-blocks).

- term: fetch

description: >-

When you use `git fetch`, you're adding changes from the remote repository to

your local working branch without committing them. Unlike `git pull`, fetching

allows you to review changes before committing them to your local branch.

- term: following (users)

description: To get notifications about another user's contributions and activity.

- term: force push

description: >-

A Git push that overwrites the remote repository with local changes without

regard for conflicts.

- term: fork

description: >-

A fork is a personal copy of another user's repository that lives on your

account. Forks allow you to freely make changes to a project without

affecting the original upstream repository. You can also open a pull request in

the upstream repository and keep your fork synced with the latest changes since

both repositories are still connected.

- term: Free plan

description: >-

A user account billing plan that is free. Users can collaborate on unlimited

public repositories with unlimited collaborators.

- term: gist

description: >-

A gist is a shareable file that you can edit, clone, and fork on GitHub.

You can make a gist {% ifversion ghae %}internal{% else %}public{% endif %} or secret, although secret gists will be

available to {% ifversion ghae %}any enterprise member{% else %}anyone{% endif %} with the URL.

- term: Git

description: >-

Git is an open source program for tracking changes in text files. It was

written by the author of the Linux operating system, and is the core

technology that GitHub, the social and user interface, is built on top of.

- term: GitHub App

description: >-

GitHub Apps provide a service to an entire organization and use their own

identity when performing their function. They can be installed directly on

organizations and user accounts and granted access to specific repositories.

They come with granular permissions and built-in webhooks.

- term: GitHub Flavored Markdown

description: GitHub-specific Markdown used to format prose and code across GitHub. See [GitHub Flavored Markdown Spec](https://github.github.com/gfm/) or [Getting started with writing and formatting on GitHub](/articles/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github).

- term: GitHub Importer

description: >-

A tool that quickly imports source code repositories, including commits and

revision history, to GitHub for users.

- term: GitHub Jobs

description: >-

A GitHub site where employers can post jobs that GitHub users may be

interested in.

- term: GitHub Marketplace

description: >-

A subsite for GitHub users and organizations to purchase and install

applications that extend and complement their workflow.

- term: GitHub Pages

description: >-

Also referred to as Pages. A static site hosting service designed to host

your personal, organization, or project pages directly from a GitHub

repository.

- term: GitHub Wiki

description: A section for hosting wiki style documentation on a GitHub repository.

- term: gitfile

description: >-

A plain `.git` file, which is always at the root of a working tree and points to the Git directory, which has the entire Git repository and its meta data. You can view this file for your repository on the command line with `git rev-parse --git-dir`.

that is the real repository.

- term: GraphQL

description: >-

A query language for APIs and a runtime for fulfilling those queries with

your existing data.

- term: HEAD

description: A defined commit of a branch, usually the most recent commit at the tip of the branch.

- term: head branch

description: The branch whose changes are combined into the base branch

when you merge a pull request.

Also known as the "compare branch."

- term: 'Hello, World'

description: >-

A "Hello, World!" program is a computer program that outputs or displays

"Hello, World!" to a user. Since this program is usually very simple, it is

often used as an example of a programming language's basic syntax and

serves as a common first exercise for learning a new programming language.

- term: high-availability

description: >-

A system or component that is continuously operational for a desirably long

length of time.

- term: hook

description: >-

During the normal execution of several Git commands, call-outs are made to

optional scripts that allow a developer to add functionality or checking.

Typically, the hooks allow for a command to be pre-verified and potentially

aborted, and allow for a post-notification after the operation is done.

- term: hostname

description: >-

Human-readable nicknames that correspond to the address of a device

connected to a network.

- term: identicon

description: >-

An auto-generated image used as a default profile photo when users sign up for

GitHub. Users can replace their identicon with their own profile photo.

- term: identity provider

description: >-

Also known as an IdP. A trusted provider that lets you use SAML single

sign-on (SSO) to access other websites.

- term: instance

description: >-

An organization's private copy of GitHub contained within a virtual machine

that they configure and control.

- term: integration

description: >-

A third-party application that integrates with GitHub. These can be GitHub

Apps, OAuth Apps, or webhooks.

- term: issue

description: >-

Issues are suggested improvements, tasks or questions related to the

repository. Issues can be created by anyone (for public repositories), and

are moderated by repository collaborators. Each issue contains its own discussion thread. You can also categorize an issue with labels and assign it to someone.

- term: Jekyll

description: A static site generator for personal, project, or organization sites.

- term: Jekyll Theme Chooser

description: >-

An automated way to select a visual theme for your Jekyll site without editing or

copying CSS files.

- term: key fingerprint

description: A short sequence of bytes used to identify a longer public key.

- term: keychain

description: A password management system in macOS.

- term: keyword

description: A specific word that closes an issue when used within a pull request.

- term: label

description: >-

A tag on an issue or pull request. Repositories come with a handful of

default labels, but users can create custom labels.

- term: LFS

description: >-

Git Large File Storage. An open source Git extension for versioning large

files.

- term: license

description: >-

A document that you can include with your project to let people know what

they can and can't do with your source code.

- term: Linguist

description: >-

A library used on GitHub to detect blob languages, ignore binary or vendored

files, suppress generated files in diffs, and generate language breakdown

graphs.

- term: line comment

description: A comment within a pull request on a specific line of code.

- term: line ending

description: >-

An invisible character or characters that symbolize the end of a line in a

text file.

- term: locked personal account

description: >-

A personal account that cannot be accessed by the user. Accounts are locked

when users downgrade their paid account to a free one, or if their paid plan

is past due.

- term: management console

description: >-

A section within the GitHub Enterprise interface that contains

administrative features.

- term: Markdown

description: >-

Markdown is an incredibly simple semantic file format, not too dissimilar

from .doc, .rtf and .txt. Markdown makes it easy for even those without a

web-publishing background to write prose (including with links, lists,

bullets, etc.) and have it displayed like a website. GitHub supports

Markdown and uses a particular form of Markdown called GitHub Flavored Markdown. See [GitHub Flavored Markdown Spec](https://github.github.com/gfm/) or [Getting started with writing and formatting on GitHub](/articles/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github).

- term: markup

description: A system for annotating and formatting a document.

- term: main

description: >-

{% ifversion fpt or ghes > 3.1 or ghae %}

The default development branch. Whenever you create a Git repository,

a branch named `main` is created, and becomes the active branch.

In most cases, this contains the local development, though that is purely by

convention and is not required.{% else %}Name often chosen as an alternative to `master`

for the default branch of a repository.{% endif %}

- term: master

description: >-

The default branch in many Git repositories. By default, when you create

a new Git repository on the command line, a branch called `master` is created.

Many tools now use an alternative name for the default branch.{% ifversion fpt or ghes > 3.1 or ghae %} For example,

when you create a new repository on GitHub, the default branch is called `main`.{% endif %}

- term: members graph

description: A repository graph that shows all the forks of a repository.

- term: mention

description: >-

A notification sent to a user by prefacing their username with the @ symbol.

Users in an organization on GitHub can also be a part of a team that can be

mentioned.

- term: merge

description: >-

Merging takes the changes from one branch (in the same repository or from a

fork), and applies them into another. This often happens as a "pull request"

(which can be thought of as a request to merge), or via the command line. A

merge can be done through a pull request via the GitHub.com web

interface if there are no conflicting changes, or can always be done via the

command line.

- term: merge conflict

description: >-

A difference that occurs between merged branches. Merge conflicts happen

when people make different changes to the same line of the same file, or

when one person edits a file and another person deletes the same file. The

merge conflict must be resolved before you can merge the branches.

- term: milestone

description: >-

A way to track the progress on groups of issues or pull requests in a

repository.

- term: mirror

description: A new copy of a repository.

- term: nested team

description: >-

A child team of a parent team. You can have multiple children (or nested)

teams.

- term: network graph

description: >-

A repository graph that shows the branch history of the entire repository

network, including branches of the root repository and branches of forks

that contain commits unique to the network.

- term: news feed

description: >-

An activity view of repositories or people you watch. An organization's News

Feed shows activity on repositories owned by the organization.

- term: non-fast-forward

description: >-

When your local copy of a repository is out-of-sync with the upstream

repository and you need to fetch the upstream changes before you push your

local changes.

- term: notification

description: >-

Updates, delivered by either the web or email depending on your settings,

that give you information about the activities you're interested in.

- term: OAuth App

description: >-

A third-party application that uses access tokens rather than passwords to

access information for users.

- term: OAuth token

description: The access token used in OAuth Apps to access information for users.

- term: outside collaborator

description: >-

A user who has been given access to one or more of an organization’s

repositories, but has no other access to the organization and is not a

member of the organization.

- term: open source

description: >-

Open source software is software that can be freely used, modified, and

shared (in both modified and unmodified form) by anyone. Today the concept

of "open source" is often extended beyond software, to represent a

philosophy of collaboration in which working materials are made available

online for anyone to fork, modify, discuss, and contribute to.

- term: organization

description: >-

Organizations are a group of two or more users that typically mirror

real-world organizations. They are administered by users and can contain

both repositories and teams.

- term: organization owner

description: Users who have full administrative access to the organization they own.

- term: origin

description: >-

The default upstream repository. Most projects have at least one upstream

project that they track. By default, origin is used for that purpose.

- term: owner

description: >-

Organization members that have complete administrative access to the

organization.

- term: parent team

description: >-

Within nested teams, the main team from which child teams inherit access

permissions and @mentions.

- term: participating notifications

description: >-

A notification about an update in a conversation in an issue or pull request

where your username or team was mentioned or where you have previously replied

in a comment.

- term: permalink

description: A permanent static hyperlink to a particular web page.

- term: personal account

description: >-

A GitHub account that belongs to an individual user.

- term: primary email address

description: >-

The main email address where GitHub sends receipts, credit card or PayPal

charges, and other billing-related communication.

- term: pinned repository

description: >-

A repository that a user has decided to display prominently on their

profile.

- term: pre-receive hooks

description: >-

Scripts that run on the GitHub Enterprise server that you can use to

implement quality checks.

- term: private contributions

description: Contributions made to a private (vs. public) repository.

- term: private repository

description: >-

Private repositories are only visible to the repository owner and

collaborators that the owner specified.

- term: production branch

description: >-

A branch with final changes that are ready to be used or deployed to an application or site.

- term: profile

description: The page that shows information about a user's activity on GitHub.

- term: profile photo

description: >-

A custom image users upload to GitHub to identify their activity, usually

along with their username. This is also referred to as an avatar.

- term: project board

description: >-

Boards within GitHub that are made up of issues, pull requests, and notes

that are categorized as cards in columns.

- term: protected branch

description: >-

Protected branches block several features of Git on a branch that a

repository administrator chooses to protect. They can't be force pushed,

deleted, have changes merged without required checks passing or required

reviews approved, or have files uploaded to it from the GitHub web

interface. A protected branch is usually the default branch.

- term: public contributions

description: Contributions made to a public (vs. private) repository.

- term: public repository

description: >-

A public repository can be viewed by anyone, including people who aren't

GitHub users.

- term: pull

description: >-

Pull refers to when you are fetching in changes and merging them. For

instance, if someone has edited the remote file you're both working on,

you'll want to pull in those changes to your local copy so that it's up to

date. See also fetch.

- term: pull access

description: A synonym for read access.

- term: pull request

description: >-

Pull requests are proposed changes to a repository submitted by a user and

accepted or rejected by a repository's collaborators. Like issues, pull

requests each have their own discussion forum.

- term: pull request review

description: >-

Comments from collaborators on a pull request that approve the changes or

request further changes before the pull request is merged.

- term: pulse graph

description: A repository graph that gives you an overview of a repository's activity.

- term: punch graph

description: >-

A repository graph that shows the frequency of updates to a repository based

on the day of week and time of day

- term: push

description: >-

To push means to send your committed changes to a remote repository on

GitHub.com. For instance, if you change something locally, you can push those changes so that others may access them.

- term: push a branch

description: >-

When you successfully push a branch to a remote repository, you update the remote branch with changes from your local branch. When you "push a branch", Git will search for the branch's HEAD ref in the remote repository and verify that it is a direct ancestor to the branch's local HEAD ref. Once verified, Git pulls all objects (reachable from the local HEAD ref and missing from the remote repository) into the remote object database and then updates the remote HEAD ref. If the remote HEAD is not an ancestor to the local HEAD, the push fails.

- term: push access

description: A synonym for write access.

- term: read access

description: >-

A permission level on a repository that allows the user to pull, or read,

information from the repository. All public repositories give read access to

all GitHub users. A synonym for pull access.

- term: README

description: A text file containing information about the files in a repository that is typically the first file a visitor to your repository will see. A README file, along with a repository license, contribution guidelines, and a code of conduct, helps you share expectations and manage contributions to your project.

- term: rebase

description: >-

To reapply a series of changes from a branch to a different base, and reset

the HEAD of that branch to the result.

- term: recovery code

description: A code that helps you regain access to your GitHub account.

- term: release

description: GitHub's way of packaging and providing software to your users.

- term: remote

description: >-

This is the version of a repository or branch that is hosted on a server, most likely

GitHub.com. Remote versions can be connected to local clones so that changes can be

synced.

- term: remote repository

description: >-

A repository that is used to track the same project but resides somewhere

else.

- term: remote URL

description: >-

The place where your code is stored: a repository on GitHub, another user's

fork, or even a different server.

- term: replica

description: >-

A GitHub Enterprise instance that provides redundancy for the primary GitHub

Enterprise instance.

- term: repository

description: >-

A repository is the most basic element of GitHub. They're easiest to imagine

as a project's folder. A repository contains all of the project files

(including documentation), and stores each file's revision history.

Repositories can have multiple collaborators and can be either public or

private.

- term: repository cache

description: >-

A read-only mirror of repositories for your GitHub Enterprise server instance, located near

distributed teams and CI clients.

- term: repository graph

description: A visual representation of your repository's data.

- term: repository maintainer

description: >-

Someone who manages a repository. This person may help triage issues and use labels and other features to manage the work of the repository. This person may also be responsible for keeping the README and contributing files updated.

- term: required pull request review

description: >-

Required reviews ensure that pull requests have at least one approved review

before collaborators can make changes to a protected branch.

- term: required status check

description: >-

Checks on pull requests that ensure all required CI tests are passing before

collaborators can make changes to a protected branch.

- term: resolve

description: The action of fixing up manually what a failed automatic merge left behind.

- term: revert

description: >-

When you revert a pull request on GitHub, a new pull request is automatically opened, which has one commit that reverts the merge commit

from the original merged pull request. In Git, you can revert commits with `git revert`.

- term: review

description: >-

Reviews allow others with access to your repository to comment on the changes proposed in pull

requests, approve the changes, or request further changes before the pull

request is merged.

- term: root directory

description: The first directory in a hierarchy.

- term: root filesystem

description: The base operating system and the GitHub Enterprise application environment.

- term: saved reply

description: >-

A comment you can save and add to your GitHub user account so that you can

use it across GitHub in issues and pull requests.

- term: scope

description: >-

Named groups of permissions that an OAuth App can request to access both

public and non-public data.

- term: seat

description: >-

A user within a GitHub Enterprise organization. This may be referred to as

"seat count."

- term: secret team

description: >-

A team that is only visible to the other people on the team and people with owner

permissions.

- term: security log

description: >-

A log that lists the last 50 actions or those performed within the last 90

days.

- term: server-to-server request

description: >-

An API request used by an application that acts as a bot, independently of any particular user. For example, an application that runs on a scheduled basis and closes issues where there has been no activity for a long time. Applications that use this type of authentication don't use a licensed GitHub account so, in an enterprise with a billing plan that allows a certain number of licenses to be used, a server-to-server bot is not consuming one of your GitHub licenses. The token used in a server-to-server request is acquired programmatically, via [the GitHub API](/rest/reference/apps#create-an-installation-access-token-for-an-app). See also, "[user-to-server request](#user-to-server-request)."

- term: service hook

description: >-

Also called "webhook." Webhooks provide a way for notifications to be

delivered to an external web server whenever certain actions occur on a

repository or organization.

- term: single sign-on

description: >-

Also called SSO. Allows users to sign in to a single location - an identity

provider (IdP) - that then gives the user access to other service providers.

- term: snapshot

description: A checkpoint of a virtual machine at a point in time.

- term: squash

description: To combine multiple commits into a single commit. Also a Git command.

- term: SSH key

description: >-

SSH keys are a way to identify yourself to an online server, using an encrypted message. It's as if your computer has its own unique password to another service. {% data variables.product.product_name %} uses SSH keys to securely transfer information to your computer.

- term: staging instance

description: >-

A way to test modifications before they are applied to your actual GitHub

Enterprise instance.

- term: status

description: >-

A visual representation within a pull request that your commits meet the

conditions set for the repository you're contributing to.

- term: status checks

description: >-

Status checks are external processes, such as continuous integration builds, which run for each commit you make in a repository. For more information, see "[About status checks](/articles/about-status-checks)."

- term: star

description: >-

A bookmark or display of appreciation for a repository. Stars are a manual

way to rank the popularity of projects.

- term: subscription

description: A user or organization's GitHub plan.

- term: team

description: >-

A group of organization members that reflect your company or group's

structure with cascading access permissions and mentions.

- term: team maintainer

description: >-

Organization members that have a subset of permissions available to

organization owners to manage teams.

- term: Team plan

description: >-

An organization billing plan that gives you unlimited public and private

repositories.

- term: timeline

description: A series of events in a pull request or on a user profile.

- term: topic branch

description: >-

A regular Git branch that is used by a developer to identify a conceptual

line of development. Since branches are very easy and inexpensive, it is

often desirable to have several small branches that each contain very well

defined concepts or small incremental yet related changes. Can also be called a feature branch.

- term: topics

description: >-

A way to explore repositories in a particular subject area, find projects to

contribute to, and discover new solutions to a specific problem on GitHub.

- term: traffic graph

description: >-

A repository graph that shows a repository's traffic, including full clones

(not fetches), visitors from the past 14 days, referring sites, and popular

content.

- term: transfer

description: >-

To transfer a repository means to change the owner of a repository. The new owner will be able to

immediately administer the repository's contents, issues, pull requests,

releases, and settings.

- term: upstream

description: >-

When talking about a branch or a fork, the primary branch on the original

repository is often referred to as the "upstream", since that is the main

place that other changes will come in from. The branch/fork you are working

on is then called the "downstream". Also called origin.

- term: upstream branch

description: >-

The default branch that is merged into the branch in question (or the branch

in question is rebased onto). It is configured via `branch.<name>.remote` and

`branch.<name>.merge`. If the upstream branch of A is origin/B sometimes we

say "A is tracking origin/B".

- term: user

description: >-

Users are people with personal GitHub accounts. Each user has a personal profile, and

can own multiple repositories, public or private. They can create or be

invited to join organizations or collaborate on another user's repository.

- term: username

description: A user's handle on GitHub.

- term: user-to-server request

description: >-

An API request used by an application that performs a task on behalf of a particular user. Where a task is carried out with user-to-server authentication it's shown on GitHub as having been done by a user via an application. For example, you might choose to create an issue from within a third-party application, and the application would do this on your behalf on GitHub. The scope of tasks an application can perform using a user-to-server request is restricted by both the app's and the user's permissions and access. The token used in a user-to-server request is acquired via OAuth. For more information, see "[Identifying and authorizing users for GitHub Apps](/developers/apps/building-github-apps/identifying-and-authorizing-users-for-github-apps)." See also, "[server-to-server request](#server-to-server-request)."

- term: visible team

description: A team that can be viewed and @mentioned by every organization member.

- term: watch

description: >-

You can watch a repository or issue to receive notifications when updates are made to an issue or pull request.

- term: watching notifications

description: A notification about activity in a repository a user has subscribed to.

- term: web notifications

description: >-

Notifications displayed in the web interface on GitHub:

https://github.com/notifications

- term: webhooks

description: >-

Webhooks allow you to build or set up GitHub Apps which subscribe to certain

events on GitHub.com. Webhooks provide a way for notifications to be

delivered to an external web server whenever certain actions occur on a

repository or organization. Also called a service hook.

- term: write access

description: >-

A permission level on a repository that allows the user to push, or write,

changes to the repository.