Private repository hosting
- Clone, fetch, archive, and push over SSH
- Authenticated clone and fetch over smart HTTPS
- Rules for repositories, people, groups, and Git references
- A correlated, secret-free JSONL audit trail
Less to operate
A headless
Git host that
doesn’t
become a job.
Gith hosts private repositories on your own server using ordinary Git clients. One Go binary adds identity, access control, and an audit trail, then gets out of the way.
GO / SERVERgithone binary
OpenSSH+Gith+system Git
PRIVATE REPOSITORIESORDINARY GIT CLIENTSVERSIONED ACCESS POLICYAUDIT EVERY DECISION
Hosting, not a forge
The Git part.
On purpose.
Gith is server software for people who want to own their repositories and access policy, but do not need a GitHub-style product around them.
A collaboration platform
- No browser dashboard, pull requests, issues, or CI
- No Gith-specific desktop or command-line client
- No database or always-running Gith service
- No bundled SSH server or reimplementation of Git
A good fit when: Git transport and controlled access are the product you need—not the beginning of another platform.
A gate in front of Git
Check.Record.Run Git.
Your Git client connects over SSH, or over authenticated HTTPS for reads. OpenSSH or Apache starts Gith for that request. Gith identifies the principal, checks one immutable policy generation, records its decision, and hands the allowed operation to the server’s Git executable. Then the Gith process exits.
- 01 / CLONE
$ git clone git@host:org/apiPACK RECEIVED - 02 / PUSH
$ git push origin mainREQUEST / 8F2A
- 01identity bound
- 02policy matched
- 03intent recorded
alice may push to org/api
- IDENTITY
- principal:alice
- CAPABILITY
- fast-forward
- EVIDENCE
- intent recorded
DENY · NO MATCH · FAILED INTENT WRITESYSTEM GIT NEVER STARTS
No separate administration product
Change access
by pushing
a commit.
The special gith-admin repository is the control plane. An administrator clones it with Git, edits keys and conf/gith.conf, commits, and pushes main.
Gith validates the whole proposed state before activating it. A bad key, rule, or repository leaves the previous known-good generation active and returns a source-located error.
4fa171c2next
conf/gith.conf
01# identities and repository sets
02principal alice
03principal release-bot
04repository-set platform = repository:org/api repository:org/web
05
06allow read repository-set:platform principal:release-bot
07deny force-update repository:org/api all-principals06 PRECISE CAPABILITIES
- read
- create-repository
- create-reference
- fast-forward
- force-update
- delete-reference
No create-repository screen
First push in.
Private repo
out.
$ git push git@host:alice/sketch main
authorize→stage safely→alice/sketch.git PRIVATE
If Alice is allowed to create alice/sketch, that eligible first push stages and publishes a bare repository. Only Alice can access it until an administrator grants someone else a capability. A denied or interrupted push leaves no partial repository behind.
Evidence before action
No intent record?
No Git.
Every accepted or denied operation has a request ID that connects its intent and outcome. Gith writes the intent before it starts system Git. If that write fails, the operation does not begin.
request / 8f2aprincipal:aliceALLOW
09:41:08.021intentread · org/apirecorded
09:41:08.024git.upload-packchildstarted
09:41:09.117outcome1096mssuccess
INVALID POLICY → PREVIOUS GENERATION STAYS ACTIVEFAILED FIRST PUSH → STAGING REMOVEDADMIN LOCKOUT → RECOVERY CREATES AN AUDITED COMMIT
Proven behavior, new implementation
Gitolite roots.
Go runtime.
Gith rules.
Gith is a behavioral port of a fixed Gitolite v3.6.15 release. It keeps a proven server-side model, but gives it an explicit Gith vocabulary and an implementation designed for Go.
A known hosting model
Forced SSH commands, administration through a special Git repository, short-lived processes for each request, and ordered authorization behavior all come from the selected Gitolite baseline.
A smaller, typed surface
Gith uses its own names, six explicit capabilities, Go-native module boundaries, immutable policy generations, and no general extension system. It is not a drop-in Gitolite replacement.
A fixed conformance oracle
Development tests compare observable behavior with Gitolite v3.6.15 at commit 782b05f. Gitolite and Perl are development references; neither is a Gith production dependency.
The shape of a first installation
Empty host.
Admin key.
First push.
Gith runs under a dedicated Unix hosting account and composes with the host’s packaged Git and OpenSSH. The bootstrap guide covers installing the executable and wiring OpenSSH to the generated key file.
Once that host-level setup is complete, normal administration happens through Git.
- 01
Bootstrap an administrator
Run setup as the dedicated hosting account. The public-key filename becomes the first principal.
$ gith setup --admin-key /path/to/alice.pub - 02
Check the gateway
After OpenSSH uses Gith’s generated
authorized_keys, connect with the administrator key.$ ssh git@host info - 03
Push policy, then code
Clone
gith-admin, add principals and rules, and pushmain. Eligible developers can then create private repositories with their first push.