Read-only deploy keys
You can now create deploy keys with read-only access. A deploy key is an SSH key that is stored on your server and grants access to a single GitHub repository.…
You can now create deploy keys with read-only access. A deploy key is an SSH key that is stored on your server and grants access to a single GitHub repository. They are often used to clone repositories during deploys or continuous integration runs. Deploys sometimes involve merging branches and pushing code, so deploy keys have always allowed both read and write access. Because write access is undesirable in many cases, you now have the ability to create deploy keys with read-only access.
New deploy keys created through GitHub.com will be read-only by default and can be given write access by selecting “Allow write access” during creation. Access level can be specified when creating deploy keys from the API as well.
Written by
Related posts
GitHub Availability Report: October 2025
In October, we experienced four incidents that resulted in degraded performance across GitHub services.
TypeScript, Python, and the AI feedback loop changing software development
An interview with the leader of GitHub Next, Idan Gazit, on TypeScript, Python, and what comes next.
What 986 million code pushes say about the developer workflow in 2025
Nearly a billion commits later, the way we ship code has changed for good. Here’s what the 2025 Octoverse data says about how devs really work now.