Connect GitHub
Connecting GitHub is not a setup step. You need it for exactly one thing: creating a project from a repository. Your Scratchpad project starts from a base image, so you can use PlatformSmith without ever connecting a Git account.
Why you would
- Import repositories as projects. A project backed by a repository is what most people want: the agent gets your actual code, checked out at a branch you choose.
- Agents clone and push. Inside the container the agent uses the connection's access to clone, commit and push — so branches it creates appear on GitHub where your team can see them.
Why you might not
A project can start from a base image instead, with no repository behind it. That is a real mode, not a degraded one: it is the right shape for experiments, scratch environments, and anything where the code arrives some other way. See Projects.
Where to connect it
- Company settings → Git connections — the organization-wide place. A connection made here can be assigned to the workspaces that are allowed to use it.
- From the project import flow — when you create a project from a repository and no connection exists yet, you are offered one there.
What connecting does
- You are sent to GitHub to authorize PlatformSmith against an account or organization.
- GitHub sends you back and the connection is recorded.
- You choose which workspaces may use the connection. A connection is not automatically available everywhere — this is how one organization keeps a client's repositories out of an unrelated workspace.
When it goes wrong
| Symptom | What happened | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The connection shows an account you did not expect | You were signed into a different GitHub account in that browser | Sign out of GitHub, or authorize from a private window, and connect again |
| Repositories stopped listing; the connection shows an error | The GitHub App installation was revoked or its permissions changed on GitHub's side | Use Reauthorise on the connection |
| Repository listing is empty or intermittently fails | GitHub rate-limited the connection | Wait and retry; it clears on its own |
This is not the same as signing in with GitHub
Connecting a Git account and signing in with GitHub are two unrelated things that happen to name the same provider.
- Signing in with GitHub is an identity — it proves who you are to PlatformSmith. It lives on your account.
- A Git connection is an authorization to reach code — it lets agents clone and push. It lives on the organization.
Having one does not give you the other, and disconnecting one does not affect the other.