Install, Setup, & FAQs of Codeowners
Install takes 1 click & Setup 0. Let’s get you going 🏎️
Quick Install Guide
This guide will help you get CODEOWNERS
set up. We will go over installing the bot and merging your first PR.
- Start by clicking the install button on our website - or, ya know, click here to install via GitHub
- Select which repositories to install the application (or leave at all)

- Fill out your account information; we’ll use this information in case we need to contact you.
- Check your repositories for Pull Requests from us. Depending on the size of your repositories, this may take a few minutes.
- Look over your PR’s and merge them. We’ll automatically merge any hanging PR’s after they’ve been open for 24 hours - we check on Monday - Friday at 11 am EST. Leave a comment on the PR if you’d like to handle the merging the PR yourself.
Using CODEOWNERS on GitHub
You’re in luck, you don’t have to do anything in order to have PRs be automatically assigned to code owners! Once a valid CODEOWNERS
file exists GitHub will automatically start assigning PRs appropriately.
For all the details from GitHub directly, checkout their docs here: https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/managing-your-repositorys-settings-and-features/customizing-your-repository/about-code-owners
Blocking merges unless a code owner reviews it
If you want to enable blocking merges unless a code owner reviews the PR you can via branch protection rules in GitHub:

For all the details from GitHub directly, checkout their docs here: https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/configuring-branches-and-merges-in-your-repository/defining-the-mergeability-of-pull-requests/about-protected-branches#require-pull-request-reviews-before-merging
And extra detail on using branch protection rules here: https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/configuring-branches-and-merges-in-your-repository/defining-the-mergeability-of-pull-requests/managing-a-branch-protection-rule
FAQ
- How do I exclude a specific file from ownership?
- You can append the file to the end of the
CODEOWNER
file: - Soon we’ll be adding commands that allow you to do this easier!
# Files that don't need owners yarn.lock package-lock.json
- Why do you need read and write permissions on my source code?
- We need the
read
andwrite
permission in GitHub because we need to push ourCODEOWNER
file to your repository. - We read your git history metadata and perform our analysis based on that, but we do not store your source code anywhere.
- Is my data secure?
- Yes! We are SOC2 Type I compliant and will be Type II by the end of March 2023.
- We also undergo regular penetration testing.
- What happens to my
CODEOWNERS
file if I cancel? - You get to keep your
CODEOWNERS
file, but it will no longer be updated by us. If you wish to re-subscribe at any time in the future we would be happy to have you back!
Last updated on November 9, 2022