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Following people and organizations on GitHub helps you stay updated on their public activity—commits, public PRs, and issue activity—that appears in your personal news feed. This guide explains how to follow users and organizations, what following actually does, and how it differs from other GitHub features like Watch and Star. Why follow?
  • Receive a curated view of public activity from people and organizations you care about.
  • Discover repositories, contributions, and community activity relevant to your interests.
  • Build a list of profiles to quickly revisit.

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How to follow an individual user

  1. Navigate to the user’s GitHub profile page.
  2. Locate the “Follow” button near the top-right of the profile header.
  3. Click the “Follow” button.
Once followed, some of that user’s public activity (e.g., public commits, public PRs) will appear in your activity feed. Following does not automatically subscribe you to repository-level notifications (issues, PRs, or emails).
The image shows a GitHub profile page with user details, repositories, and contribution stats. The profile features various repositories related to Kubernetes and Ansible.

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How to follow an organization

  1. Search for the organization by name or navigate to its GitHub organization page.
  2. Open the organization profile.
  3. Click the “Follow” button, usually near the top-right of the organization header.
Following an organization surfaces the organization’s public activity in your feed, similar to following an individual user. It does not grant access to private content or automatically sign you up for repository notifications.
Following someone or an organization surfaces their public activity in your feed. To receive issue/PR/email notifications for a specific repository, use that repository’s Watch settings.

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Follow vs Watch vs Star — quick comparison

For repository-level notifications:
  • Click the Watch button on the repository page and choose the notification level you want (e.g., “All Activity”, “Custom”).

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Additional tips and important notes

  • Following someone or an organization does not:
    • Subscribe you to issue/PR notifications for their repositories, or
    • Grant access to private repos or organization resources.
Following does not change repository permissions or privacy. If you need notifications for a repository, set the repository’s Watch level or adjust notification settings in your GitHub account.

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