Private GitHub Link

Share private GitHub repositories without adding collaborators. Generate shareable links that give read-only access to your private repos.

Live Demo: https://privategithub.link

• navigates to https://share-github.com/{owner}/{repo} for repo - see pro tip

Features

• Instant Sharing - Generate a shareable link in seconds
• No Collaborator Access - Share code without granting write access
• Syntax Highlighting - Beautiful code viewing for 100+ languages
• Full Navigation - Browse directories, view files, switch branches
• Branch Access - Share specific branches
• Dark/Light Mode - Automatic theme detection with manual toggle

Why?

People have been asking GitHub for this feature for years (#23128, #44506). The ability to share read-only access to a private repository—without adding collaborators—remains highly requested but unimplemented.

Common use cases:

• Share code with clients for review
• Let contractors browse a codebase before starting work
• Show code during technical interviews
• Link to private code from internal documentation

This tool fills that gap with a simple shareable URL - no GitHub invitations required.

Pro Tip: Prepend share- to any GitHub URL to instantly open it in the app:

github.com/owner/repo → share-github.com/owner/repo

Self-Hosting

Don't want to trust a third party with your access token? Self-host your own instance.

Prerequisites

• Bun (or Node.js 18+)

Local Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/thejasonxie/private-github-link.git
cd private-github-link

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Start development server
bun run dev

The app will be available at http://localhost:3000.

Environment Variables

No environment variables are required for basic functionality. The app uses client-side GitHub API calls with user-provided tokens.

Optional variables for production:

# Sentry error tracking (optional)
VITE_SENTRY_DSN=your_sentry_dsn

# PostHog analytics (optional)
VITE_POSTHOG_KEY=your_posthog_key

Production Build

# Build for production
bun run build

# Preview production build
bun run preview

How It Works

1. User enters a GitHub repository URL and personal access token
2. The app generates a shareable URL with the token embedded
3. Recipients can browse the repo using the GitHub API
4. All API calls happen client-side - no server stores your token

Security Note: The access token is embedded in the URL. Only share links with people you trust. Use fine-grained tokens with minimal permissions (read-only access to specific repos).

Scripts

bun run dev          # Start development server
bun run build        # Build for production
bun run preview      # Preview production build
bun run test         # Run tests
bun run test:watch   # Run tests in watch mode
bun run test:coverage # Run tests with coverage
bun run lint         # Lint code
bun run format       # Format code
bun run check        # Lint + format check

Testing

This project uses Vitest with Testing Library and MSW for API mocking.

# Run all tests
bun run test

# Run with coverage
bun run test:coverage

# Run specific test file
bun run test -- src/lib/utils.test.ts

See TESTING.md for more details on the testing setup.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Author

Created by @thejasonxie