# How do I provide authentication on GitHub Pages? **URL:** \ **Category:** Q&A\ **Tags:** github, researcher, jekyll, documentation\ **Created:** [June 14, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/how-do-i-provide-authentication-on-github-pages/950 "2019-06-14T15:11:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vsoch](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/user_avatar/ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/vsoch/32/112_2.png) [@vsoch](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/vsoch)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/how-do-i-provide-authentication-on-github-pages/950/1 "2019-06-14T15:11:50Z")
We have static documentation for our Group on GitHub Pages, and it’s a known fact that even private repos produce static content that is public: ![image](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/uploads/default/original/1X/684de2ead4df4449ea27c65ceca1442da329169b.png) I’m curious what kinds of strategies other groups have used to authenticate an entire, or part of, a private repo? For our use case, we would ideally want SAML (single sign on) sort of deal. It looks like there is something called [jekyll-auth](https://github.com/benbalter/jekyll-auth) that we could use for (some kind of auth) but the dependency is building with Heroku (which we don’t do). ---
**Author:** ![vsoch](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/user_avatar/ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/vsoch/32/112_2.png) [@vsoch](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/vsoch)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/how-do-i-provide-authentication-on-github-pages/950/2 "2019-06-14T15:59:12Z")
Here is an [example](http://kinlane.com/2013/10/15/securing-site-that-runs-on-github-pages-with-json-backend-in-private-repository/) using GitHub credentials, grabbing the content from a private repository, which would work if we didn’t want to use SAML (which we do). ---
**Author:** ![iki](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/user_avatar/ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/iki/32/100_2.png) [@iki](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/iki)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 9:38pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/how-do-i-provide-authentication-on-github-pages/950/3 "2019-06-15T21:38:12Z")
It seems to me like however you try to do this, you’ll end up having to host _something_ behind the authentication regime you want – and if that’s SAML, that implies at least a slightly sophisticated backend, I think? In such a situation, you might not be gaining anything from involving GitHub Pages at all. ---
**Author:** ![vsoch](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/user_avatar/ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/vsoch/32/112_2.png) [@vsoch](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/vsoch)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 10:02pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/how-do-i-provide-authentication-on-github-pages/950/4 "2019-06-15T22:02:15Z")
@iki this is a good point! The benefits of having docs on GitHub come down to community contribution. Within our group, if the docs are hosted on a private server, it might still be a bit of a hassle to get access to change them. Having them on GitHub means that if I’m a user or a member of the hosting group and I see something missing or off, I can open an issue or pull request. Or I can ask a question! This is possible to do given a custom deployment (to an external server) but it’s much easier to just push to the master branch and have it magically appear on GitHub pages 🙂 So - what about a server existing solely for the SAML auth bit? Do you think that could be possible (and if you have an idea how, please share!) ---
**Author:** ![iki](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/user_avatar/ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/iki/32/100_2.png) [@iki](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/iki)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 11:05pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/how-do-i-provide-authentication-on-github-pages/950/5 "2019-06-18T23:05:22Z")
I thought about this a bit, but I can’t think of a reasonable way to do this that keeps the documentation strictly within GitHub Pages. We have our (new, still under construction) documentation in a normal public repo ([https://github.com/UCL-RITS/mkdocs-rc-docs](https://github.com/UCL-RITS/mkdocs-rc-docs)) and deployed automatically via a simple cronjob running a slightly fancier version of `git pull` on an Apache server. Would this sort of option, with a private repo, Deploy Keys, and a standard Apache Shibboleth setup, work for you? It’s significantly more complex, but I’m not seeing any sensible ways to make it simpler while maintaining the SAML component. ---
**Author:** ![vsoch](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/user_avatar/ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/vsoch/32/112_2.png) [@vsoch](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/vsoch)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 11:31pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/how-do-i-provide-authentication-on-github-pages/950/6 "2019-06-18T23:31:02Z")
It would definitely be worth a try, because we don’t have a solution at the moment! If the repo is public, then the docs are freely browsable via GitHub? What does the Shibboleth protect? I would love to take a look at what you have set up, and see if we can customize it for the private case. The one issue that comes to mind (given a private repo) is that if a user wants to contribute, he/she couldn’t easily open a PR. But I wonder if it comes down to git pulls anyway, if there could be a public and private repo that are served alongside one another?