About GitHub Packages
GitHub Packages is a platform for hosting and managing packages, including containers and other dependencies. GitHub Packages combines your source code and packages in one place to provide integrated permissions management and billing, so you can centralize your software development on GitHub.
You can integrate GitHub Packages with GitHub APIs, GitHub Actions, and webhooks to create an end-to-end DevOps workflow that includes your code, CI, and deployment solutions.
GitHub Packages offers different package registries for commonly used packages, such as for Node, RubyGems, Apache Maven, Gradle, and Nuget.
GitHub Packages also offers a container registry designed to support the unique needs of container images. For more information, see "About GitHub Container Registry."
Note: GitHub Container Registry is currently in public beta and subject to change. During the beta, storage and bandwidth are free. To use GitHub Container Registry, you must enable the feature preview. For more information, see "About GitHub Container Registry" and "Enabling improved container support."
Viewing packages
You can review the package's README, some metadata like licensing, download statistics, version history, and more on GitHub. For more information, see "Viewing packages."
About package permissions and visibility
| Package registries | GitHub Container Registry | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting locations | You can host multiple packages in one repository. | You can host multiple container images in one organization or user account. |
| Permissions | Each package inherits the permissions of the repository where the package is hosted. For example, anyone with read permissions for a repository can install a package as a dependency in a project, and anyone with write permissions can publish a new package version. | For each container image, you can choose the access level that others have. The permissions for container image access are separate from your organization and repository permissions. |
| Visibility | You can publish packages in a public repository (public packages) to share with all of GitHub, or in a private repository (private packages) to share with collaborators or an organization. | You can set the visibility of each of your container images. A private container image is only visible to people and teams who are given access within your organization. A public container image is visible to anyone. |
| Anonymous access | N/A | You can access public container images anonymously. |
For more information about permissions and visibility for GitHub Container Registry, see "Configuring access control and visibility for containers."
About billing for GitHub Packages
GitHub Packages usage is free for public packages. For private packages, each GitHub account receives a certain amount of free storage and data transfer, depending on the product used with the account. By default, your account will have a spending limit of $0, which prevents additional usage of storage or data transfer after you reach the included amounts. If you increase your spending limit above the default of $0, you will be billed for any additional storage or data transfer, also called overages, up to your spending limit. Any coupons on your account do not apply to GitHub Packages overages. For more information, see "About billing for GitHub Packages."
Billing update for container image storage: During the beta phase of GitHub Container Registry, Docker image storage and bandwidth are free for the old docker.pkg.github.com and new ghcr.io hosting services. For more information, see "About GitHub Container Registry."
Supported clients and formats
GitHub Packages uses the native package tooling commands you're already familiar with to publish and install package versions.
Support for GitHub Container Registry
The GitHub Container Registry hosts containers at ghcr.io/OWNER/IMAGE-NAME.
| Package client | Language | Package format | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Docker CLI | N/A | Dockerfile | Docker container support. |
For more information about the container support offered by GitHub Container Registry, see "About GitHub Container Registry."
Support for package registries
Package registries use PACKAGE-TYPE.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY/IMAGE-NAME as the package host URL, replacing PACKAGE-TYPE with the Package namespace. For example, your Gemfile will be hosted at rubygems.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY/IMAGE-NAME.
| Language | Description | Package format | Package client | Package namespace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JavaScript | Node package manager | package.json | npm | npm.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY/IMAGE-NAME |
| Ruby | RubyGems package manager | Gemfile | gem | rubygems.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY/IMAGE-NAME |
| Java | Apache Maven project management and comprehension tool | pom.xml | mvn | maven.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY/IMAGE-NAME |
| Java | Gradle build automation tool for Java | build.gradle or build.gradle.kts | gradle | maven.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY/IMAGE-NAME |
| .NET | NuGet package management for .NET | nupkg | dotnet CLI | nuget.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY/IMAGE-NAME |
For more information about configuring your package client for use with GitHub Packages, see "Using GitHub Packages with your project's ecosystem."
Authenticating to GitHub Packages
You need an access token to publish, install, and delete packages. You can use a personal access token to authenticate with your username directly to GitHub Packages or the GitHub API. When you create a personal access token, you can assign the token different scopes depending on your needs.
To authenticate using a GitHub Actions workflow:
- For package registries (
PACKAGE-REGISTRY.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY/IMAGE-NAME), you can use aGITHUB_TOKEN. - For the container registry (
ghcr.io/OWNER/IMAGE-NAME), you must use a personal access token.
About scopes and permissions for GitHub Container Registry
| Scope | Description |
|---|---|
read:packages | Download and install container images from GitHub Container Registry |
write:packages | Upload and publish container images to GitHub Container Registry |
delete:packages | Delete specified versions of private or public container images from GitHub Container Registry. For more information, see "Deleting a container image." |
To learn about available scopes and permissions for container images, see "About GitHub Container Registry" or "Configuring access control and visibility for container images."
For more information, see "Creating a personal access token" and "Available scopes."
About scopes and permissions for package registries
To use or manage a package hosted by a package registry, you must use a token with the appropriate scope, and your user account must have appropriate permissions for that repository.
For example:
- To download and install packages from a repository, your token must have the
read:packagesscope, and your user account must have read permissions for the repository. - To delete a specified version of a private package on GitHub, your token must have the
delete:packagesandreposcope. Public packages cannot be deleted. For more information, see "Deleting a package."
| Scope | Description | Repository permissions |
|---|---|---|
read:packages | Download and install packages from GitHub Packages | read |
write:packages | Upload and publish packages to GitHub Packages | write |
delete:packages | Delete specified versions of private packages from GitHub Packages | admin |
repo | Upload and delete packages (along with write:packages, or delete:packages) | write, or admin |
When you create a GitHub Actions workflow, you can use the GITHUB_TOKEN to publish and install packages in GitHub Packages without needing to store and manage a personal access token.
For more information, see:
Managing packages
You can delete a version of a private package on GitHub or using the GraphQL API. When you use the GraphQL API to query and delete private packages, you must use the same token you use to authenticate to GitHub Packages. For more information, see "Deleting a package" and "Forming calls with GraphQL."
You can configure webhooks to subscribe to package-related events, such as when a package is published or updated. For more information, see the "package webhook event."
Contacting support
If you have feedback or feature requests for GitHub Packages, use the feedback form for GitHub Packages.
Contact GitHub Support about GitHub Packages using our contact form if:
- You experience anything that contradicts the documentation
- You encounter vague or unclear errors
- Your published package contains sensitive data, such as GDPR violations, API Keys, or personally identifying information