Turn off these GitHub features to grow your Repo
Don't distract the viewer with features you are not using!
Most new projects do not use certain GitHub repo features initially. These empty features can be distracting, so I would recommend turning them off to give the viewer a better experience.
Remember - when you come to use these features you can very easily turn them back on again.
The most common unused repo features are:
Packages
Releases
Deployments
Wiki
Project board
Packages1 are used with tools such as Docker images of your project. Not every project needs this feature, as they may not containerise the project.
Releases2 are great as they define a moment in time when the project is stable. Plus they can contain Release Notes with more information about that specific release. For example: features, bug fixes and community shoutouts. I recommend you use Releases as soon as possible in your GitHub Repo, as people using the project may only wish to use a Release rather than the “latest and greatest” git commit. GitHub Releases are built on top of git tags and allow for extra information, but until you start using them you should hide them.
Deployments3 are useful to show on the Repo as they allow the viewer to click directly to the deployed environment of their choice, if these part of your project. This is especially relevant when you have more than one deployment environment, for example: dev, staging and production. If your project will never be deployed (for example, a library), then it does not make sense to have this feature enabled.
Wiki I used to love the Wiki, as it was a great way to showcase the project’s documentation. Plus it was a git repo after all, which allowed us to version all the changes as we would our code and use branches if required. In reality however, most projects do not add documentation when they are starting out (whether that is right or wrong might be the subject of another blog…). If your Wiki is empty, then why have this tab at the top of your Repo enabled? Hide it. It is bad DX when a viewer’s attention is grabbed by this tab, only to find it is empty once they have clicked on it.
Once you are ready add documentation, give some thought as to whether the Wiki is the best place for it. I much prefer having the documentation in the docs directory in the main GitHub repo, so that it is treated like code by going through the same process with Pull Requests.
Discussions are a great way to have multiple threaded conversations on a specific topic, similar to a forum. They are an awesome way to collaborate on ideas before a concrete task is agreed on, which will make for more focused issues once these are created. However when starting out, a project is unlikely to have sufficient contributors or talking topics to warrant Discussions being set up. So hide these!
If later down the line you see a long thread forming in the comments of an Issue (and detracting this Issue from being worked on), this is a great opportunity to enable this feature and convert the Issue to a Discussion or start a new Discussion if the Issue should remain.
Project Boards are super useful for visual information as they can show the status and progress of the project’s Issues, as well as other details such as the project’s roadmap. These boards tend to be used more from a project management perspective. Whilst developers love to see these in action, the reality is that if there is no one in the team who will take responsibility for the continuous updating and management of the boards then they are unlikely to be used. Rarely do new projects add a roadmap or specific tasks right at the outset, so if this is you - hide it (for now)!
Disable GitHub repo features
You should know that these repo features are on by default when a repo is created - so it is important that you remember to disable them.
Where you disable these features depends on which one you are looking to hide.
NOTE: These settings are only available for owners and admins on the repo.
For: Releases, Packages and Deployments
Go to the cog located on the top right of the repo homepage, as shown in the image below. This will bring up the “Edit repository details” modal.
Disabling is done by simply unchecking the relevant feature. Do not forget to press “Save changes”!
For: Wiki, Discussions and Project Boards
Click the Settings tab on the repo and scroll down to the Features section. Uncheck those features you want to hide.
Making a project visually appealing to viewers and easy to use does have an impact on whether this will attract contributors and Stars. I would therefore recommend that you think about this from the start. Don’t wait until your project has been around for months to do this - especially as by then your tasks will also have increased as you will be dealing with more and more GitHub notifications for Issues, Pull Requests and potentially Discussions.
Disabling - or hiding - what you do not use is a great way to achieve a clean look on your project and does not take long to achieve. Just remember to turn on the feature when you start using it!
Hiding this feature is for display purposes only. It does not actually prevent it from functioning as normal. For example: if you are using a GitHub Action which utilises this feature, having disabled on the repo homepage does not prevent it from working.
As above.
As above.
Nice one. I came across those settings on Gitlab earlier today when trying to convince people that tagging rather than branching was better for releases.
Great share. I like the tip about moving documentation to the docs directory.