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Adding organizations to your enterprise

You can add organizations to manage within your enterprise by creating a new organization, inviting an existing organization, or transferring an organization from a different enterprise account.

Who can use this feature?

Enterprise owners can add organizations to an enterprise.

About addition of organizations to your enterprise account

Your enterprise account can own organizations. Members of your enterprise can collaborate across related projects within an organization. For more information, see "About organizations."

You can add new organizations to your enterprise account. If you do not use Enterprise Managed Users, you can add existing organizations on GitHub.com to your enterprise. You cannot add an existing organization from an enterprise with managed users to a different enterprise.

If you currently use GitHub Enterprise Cloud with a single organization, we encourage you to create an enterprise account. For more information, see "Creating an enterprise account."

After you add an existing organization to your enterprise, the organization's resources remain accessible to members at the same URLs, and the following changes will apply.

  • If two-factor authentication (2FA) is required by the enterprise, organization members who do not use 2FA will be removed from the organization.

  • The organization's members will become members of the enterprise, and GitHub will bill the enterprise account for the organization's usage. You must ensure that the enterprise account has enough licenses to accommodate any new members. For more information, see "About billing for your enterprise."

  • Enterprise owners can manage their role within the organization. For more information, see "Managing your role in an organization owned by your enterprise."

  • Any policies applied to the enterprise will apply to the organization. For more information, see "About enterprise policies."

    Note: If the organization has write permissions for GitHub Actions, you must manually set write permissions for the enterprise. For more information, see "Managing GitHub Actions settings for a repository." For more information about managing organization-level permissions for GitHub Actions, see "Disabling or limiting GitHub Actions for your organization."

  • If SAML SSO is configured for the enterprise account, the enterprise's SAML configuration will apply to the organization. If the organization used SAML SSO, the enterprise account's configuration will replace the organization's configuration. SCIM is not available for enterprise accounts, so SCIM will be disabled for the organization. For more information, see "Configuring SAML single sign-on for your enterprise" and "Switching your SAML configuration from an organization to an enterprise account."

  • If SAML SSO was configured for the organization, members' existing personal access token or SSH keys that were authorized to access the organization's resources will be authorized to access the same resources. To access additional organizations owned by the enterprise, members must authorize the personal access token or key. For more information, see "Authorizing a personal access token for use with SAML single sign-on" and "Authorizing an SSH key for use with SAML single sign-on."

  • If you add an organization to a trial enterprise, certain features in the organization may be disabled. For more information, see "Setting up a trial of GitHub Enterprise Cloud."

  • If the organization was connected to GitHub Enterprise Server using GitHub Connect, adding the organization to an enterprise will not update the connection. GitHub Connect features will no longer function for the organization. To continue using GitHub Connect, you must disable and re-enable the feature. For more information, see "Managing GitHub Connect" in the GitHub Enterprise Server documentation.

  • If the organization uses billed GitHub Marketplace apps, the organization can continue to use the apps, but usage will be billable to the enterprise.

    • If your enterprise is billed via invoice, you must contact the vendor of the app and pay them directly.
    • If your enterprise is billed via credit card or PayPal, billing for the app will continue automatically via your preferred payment method.
  • If your organization was sponsoring any accounts, the sponsorships will be cancelled.

  • Any coupons will be removed from the organization. To reapply the coupon, contact our sales team.

Creating an organization in your enterprise account

New organizations you create within your enterprise account settings are included in your enterprise account's GitHub Enterprise Cloud subscription.

Enterprise owners who create an organization owned by the enterprise account automatically become organization owners. For more information about organization owners, see "Roles in an organization."

During a trial of GitHub Enterprise Cloud, you can create up to three new organizations in your enterprise.

  1. In the top-right corner of GitHub.com, click your profile photo, then click Your enterprises.

  2. In the list of enterprises, click the enterprise you want to view.

  3. In the left sidebar, click Organizations.

  4. On the "Organizations" tab, above the list of organizations, click New organization.

  5. Under "Organization name", type a name for your organization.

  6. Click Create organization.

  7. Optionally, under "Invite owners", type the username of a person you'd like to invite to become an organization owner, then click Invite.

  8. Click Finish.

Inviting an organization to join your enterprise account

Enterprise owners can invite existing organizations to join their enterprise account.

During a trial of GitHub Enterprise Cloud, you can invite organizations to join your trial enterprise. You can invite organizations that are not currently owned by another enterprise. If an organization you want to invite is already owned by another enterprise, you must be an owner of both enterprise accounts and initiate an organization transfer. For more information, see "Transferring an organization between enterprise accounts."

When you invite an organization to join your enterprise account, at least one owner needs to accept the invitation. Then, you must give a final approval for the transfer. After you invite the organization, and before an owner approves the invitation, you can cancel or resend the invitation at any time.

  1. In the top-right corner of GitHub.com, click your profile photo, then click Your enterprises.

  2. In the list of enterprises, click the enterprise you want to view.

  3. In the left sidebar, click Organizations.

  4. On the "Organizations" tab, above the list of organizations, click Invite organization.

  5. Under "Organization name", start typing the name of the organization you want to invite and select it when it appears in the dropdown list.

  6. Click Invite organization. The organization owners will receive an email inviting them to join the enterprise.

  7. After an organization owner has approved the invitation, navigate back to the Organizations tab of the enterprise settings.

  8. Under "Organizations", click X pending.

  9. To complete the transfer, next to the organization name, click Approve.

Transferring an organization between enterprise accounts

Enterprise owners can transfer existing organizations between enterprise accounts. You must be an enterprise owner of both enterprise accounts.

Note: You cannot transfer an existing organization to or from an enterprise with managed users or an enterprise account that is currently enrolled in a trial of GitHub Enterprise Cloud.

  1. In the top-right corner of GitHub.com, click your profile photo, then click Your enterprises.

  2. In the list of enterprises, click the enterprise you want to view.

  3. In the left sidebar, click Organizations.

  4. Next to the organization you want to transfer, select the dropdown menu, then click Transfer organization.

    Screenshot of an organization in the organization list. A dropdown menu, labeled with the gear icon, is highlighted with an orange outline.

  5. Select the Select enterprise dropdown menu, start typing the name of the destination enterprise, and click the enterprise you want to transfer the organization to.

  6. Click Review transfer.

  7. To confirm the transfer, click Transfer organization.