Dear friends,
For developers and technical professionals, source code repositories and development platforms represent years of intellectual work, collaborative projects, and technical legacy. These platforms contain not just code, but documentation, project history, and often substantial business or community value that extends beyond any individual contributor.
The challenge with technical platforms is that they often contain critical infrastructure, active projects with dependencies, or community resources that others rely upon. Sudden loss of access can disrupt projects, break dependencies, and leave communities without maintainers.
Key obstacles include repository ownership transfer requires active account access, organization admin privileges needed for succession planning, and private repositories completely inaccessible without credentials. These barriers affect not just personal projects, but potentially thousands of users who depend on your code, documentation, or infrastructure.
DeathNote enables you to document repository ownership, API credentials, deployment configurations, and succession plans for critical projects. You can designate technical successors, provide infrastructure access details, and ensure continuity for projects that matter to the broader technical community.
Consider documenting not just access credentials, but also project context: what services depend on your code, who should take over maintenance, and how to gracefully deprecate or transfer ownership of projects you maintain. This planning ensures your technical contributions continue serving their purpose even after you're gone.
Platform Overview
Primary Use
Code repositories, open source projects, collaboration, version control
Account Types
Free, Pro, Team, Enterprise Cloud, Enterprise Server
Data Types
Source code, issues, pull requests, wikis, discussions, gists, GitHub Actions, packages
Access Challenges
- Repository ownership transfer requires active account access
- Organization admin privileges needed for succession planning
- Private repositories completely inaccessible without credentials
- Two-factor authentication blocks all unauthorized access attempts
- GitHub Apps and OAuth integrations require reconfiguration
- GitHub Actions secrets cannot be exported or viewed
- Personal access tokens expire and cannot be recovered
- Commit signatures require GPG key access
- Sponsored projects may lose funding without maintainer transition
Inheritance Guidance
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Related Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
Can my family transfer my GitHub repositories after I die?
Repository transfer requires active account access. Without your credentials, repositories cannot be transferred. Document repository URLs, ownership details, and transfer instructions in your DeathNote. For critical projects, add trusted collaborators as co-owners before death or configure organization succession plans.
What happens to my GitHub Actions secrets and workflows?
GitHub Actions secrets cannot be exported or viewed, even by repository administrators. Workflows will continue running if the repository remains accessible, but secrets expire with account access. Document secret names, renewal procedures, and third-party service credentials separately. Consider migrating critical workflows to organization accounts with multiple administrators.
How do I preserve my open source contributions and project legacy?
Make important repositories public and add permissive licenses (MIT, Apache 2.0) to allow continued use. Create CODEOWNERS files designating successor maintainers. Document project architecture, deployment procedures, and community contacts. Archive completed projects to preserve contribution history while allowing forks to continue development.
What happens to GitHub enterprise billing and team access?
Enterprise accounts require designated billing administrators and organization owners for continuity. Without succession planning, team access expires and billing stops. Document enterprise account details, billing contacts, and organization ownership transfer procedures. Add multiple organization owners to prevent single points of failure.