Onboarding Checklist: GitHub Secret Protection

Overall Progress 0 / 12 tasks completed
Week 1
Set Your Foundation
Lay the groundwork so GitHub Secret Protection starts working from day one
0 / 3
  • Turn on secret scanning broadly
    Set up secret scanning to detect exposed credentials, API keys, and other risks across repositories so teams can address them before they become incidents.
    Secure secrets
  • Prevent future secret leaks with push protection
    Ensure secrets don't reach your repos by blocking commits that contain exposed credentials before they're pushed.
    Stop leaks
Steps completed? Here's the exec recap: GitHub Secret Protection is configured and ready to roll out.
Week 2
Customize Your Coverage
Build security policies that work for your specific org
0 / 3
  • Expand your secret detection capabilities
    Define your own custom patterns to identify internal credentials, proprietary tokens, and organization-specific secrets.
    Detect more
  • Manage bypass requests
    Establish a process for reviewing and approving exception requests while maintaining security controls and developer productivity.
    Take control
  • Enable scanning for your AI coding agent
    The GitHub Model Context Protocol (MCP) server lets you run secret scanning directly from GitHub Copilot agent mode, GitHub Copilot CLI, and other MCP-compatible tools.
    Turn it on
Steps completed? Here's the exec recap: Core GitHub Secret Protection capabilities have been customized to reflect your org's specific security needs, improving coverage and enabling more targeted risk detection.
Week 3
Build Adoption
Turn detection into active protection
0 / 3
  • Manage security notifications
    Establish a regular cadence and define communication channels for reviewing and responding to secret scanning alerts.
    Monitor alerts
  • Define who owns alert triage and remediation
    Delegate clear accountability for alert triage and remediation to ensure timely response and accountability.
    Track responses
  • Enable alert dismissal requests
    Put an emphasis on governance by regularly reviewing alert dismissal requests.
    Set it up
Steps completed? Here's the exec recap: GitHub Secret Protection is working as expected with new policies in place to manage the security vulnerabilities it surfaces.
Week 4
Prove Value
Understand what's working and grow with confidence
0 / 3
  • Understand your org's security landscape
    Use the security overview dashboard to get a consolidated view of your org's security posture and where risks remain.
    View insights
  • Monitor push protection performance
    See which commits are being blocked and how many are being remediated to understand where further action may be needed.
    Assess adoption
  • Go deeper on data
    Access job logs, view analysis output, and conduct in-depth analysis on alerts to get a full picture of how GitHub Secret Protection is safeguarding your org.
    Build understanding
Steps completed? Here's the exec recap: GitHub Secret Protection is delivering measurable value and is being used to actively minimize risk every day.

🎉 Congratulations!

You've completed the 30-Day GitHub Secret Protection Setup Checklist.
Your organization is on its way to a safer, more productive development environment!