# Connect GitHub

Install the Kelrova GitHub App on your account or organization, choose the repositories it may read and change that choice later.

*Where in the portal: Connections → Connect GitHub*

*Last updated: 2026-10-21*

Sign in with GitHub and install the Kelrova GitHub App on your account or organization. You choose exactly which repositories it may read; nothing else is visible to Kelrova. Organization owners and admins manage GitHub connections.

1. **Open Connections**

   In the portal, open **Connections** and choose **Connect GitHub**.

2. **Sign in and install the app**

   Sign in to GitHub and install the Kelrova GitHub App on your account or on the GitHub organization that owns the code.

3. **Link the repositories**

   Pick the repositories you want scanned. Kelrova may ask you to confirm your sign-in again before it links them.

![The Connections page, Git providers: GitHub connected for the northwind account, GitLab and Bitbucket available to connect.](https://kelrova.com/docs/img/getting-started/connections.png)

*The Connections page after GitHub is linked; GitLab and Bitbucket can be connected from the same page.*

## Who can link an installation

- For a personal GitHub account, the person installing must be that account.
- For a GitHub organization, you must be an administrator of the repositories GitHub lists for you under the installation. You do not have to be an owner of the GitHub organization.

## What access Kelrova uses

Kelrova sees only the repositories you link. Scans only read the code. Kelrova writes to a repository only when a member asks Go Fix to open a pull request, which is why the connection also asks for permission to open pull requests.

## Change the repositories later

Add or remove repositories from the connection card on **Connections**. Adding repositories asks for a fresh sign-in; removing them does not.

Removing a repository, or unlinking the connection, notifies every organization admin and pauses the schedules that scanned it. Paused schedules are not resumed automatically. Code sources on a removed repository work again once the repository is linked again.

## When a repository is held

Kelrova can hold a repository, or a whole connection, until someone with admin rights on the repository re-verifies it. A hold blocks new scans and schedule runs for what it covers. It never cancels work that is already running. Admins get an email when a connection or repository is held. An administrator of the repository clears the hold by signing in with GitHub again to re-verify it.

## Next

[Add a code source](https://kelrova.com/docs/getting-started/code-sources) on one of the linked repositories.

## Related

- [Add a code source](https://kelrova.com/docs/getting-started/code-sources)
- [Connect GitLab or Bitbucket](https://kelrova.com/docs/getting-started/connect-gitlab-bitbucket)
- [Where your code goes and what Kelrova keeps](https://kelrova.com/docs/security/data-handling)