How GitHub gave every repository a durable owner

GitHub addressed a critical infrastructure gap by establishing clear ownership for all 11,000+ of its active internal repositories, which previously lacked identifiable owners outside of production services. Over six weeks, the company validated ownership for every active repository, archived 8,000 unused repositories, and implemented a new system requiring ownership assignment at repository creation. This change solved recurring problems during security remediation efforts, where the inability to identify repository owners created risks and inefficiencies in managing vulnerabilities and secrets across the organization.