Manage the EasyCLA GitHub App on GitHub
This page is for GitHub organization owners managing the Linux Foundation: EasyCLA GitHub App from inside GitHub, after a project manager has installed it through Project Control Center. It covers everything you can do from the GitHub side: changing which repositories EasyCLA can access, suspending the integration, and uninstalling it.
Prerequisite: You must be an owner of the GitHub organization to view or change the EasyCLA app configuration.
Find the EasyCLA App in GitHub
1. Sign in to GitHub and navigate to the organization where EasyCLA is installed.
2. Click Settings at the top of the organization page.
3. From the left sidebar, click GitHub Apps (under Third-party Access).
4. Locate Linux Foundation: EasyCLA in the list, and click Configure.
You can also reach the configuration page directly at https://github.com/organizations/<YOUR-ORG>/settings/installations, replacing <YOUR-ORG> with your GitHub organization name.
Change Repository Access
EasyCLA's configuration page has two repository access modes:
All repositories — EasyCLA can monitor every current and future repository in the organization.
Only select repositories — EasyCLA is limited to a specific list of repositories that you choose. Newly created repositories are not added automatically.
Switch between "All repositories" and "Only select repositories"
1. On the EasyCLA configuration page, scroll to Repository access.
2. Select either All repositories or Only select repositories.
3. Click Save.
Add or remove repositories when using "Only select repositories"
1. With Only select repositories selected, click the Select repositories dropdown to open the full list.
2. Tick the repositories EasyCLA should access. To remove a repository, click the × next to it in the selected list.
3. Click Save.
Granting EasyCLA access to a repository on GitHub is not the same as enforcing CLA checks on it. Even after you save here, the project manager must still enable each repository in Project Control Center, or turn on Auto Enable New Repositories in Additional Settings so newly authorized repositories are picked up automatically.
Effect of removing a repository
When you save the configuration after removing a repository:
EasyCLA stops checking pull requests on that repository — GitHub no longer sends pull-request events to EasyCLA for it.
The repository is disabled in EasyCLA's records and EasyCLA notifies the CLA managers by email.
Re-adding the same repository later only restores monitoring automatically if Auto Enable New Repositories is turned on in the organization's Additional Settings. Otherwise, a CLA manager must re-enable the repository in Project Control Center.
Suspend the App
Suspending temporarily blocks EasyCLA from accessing any of the organization's repositories without removing the installation or any of its configuration. CLA checks stop on every monitored repository until the app is unsuspended.
1. On the EasyCLA configuration page, scroll to Danger zone.
2. Next to Suspend your installation, click Suspend.
3. To re-enable, return to the same page and click Unsuspend.
While the app is suspended, new pull requests will not receive a CLA status check and existing pull requests cannot be re-checked. Use suspend only when you intentionally want to pause CLA enforcement — for normal removals, prefer removing individual repositories from the Only select repositories list.
Uninstall the App
Uninstalling fully revokes EasyCLA's access to the organization. After uninstall, EasyCLA notifies the CLA managers that it can no longer check pull requests, and no further status checks are posted to GitHub. Existing CLA signatures are preserved in EasyCLA's database and remain valid if the app is reinstalled later.
For the full step-by-step procedure, see Uninstall the EasyCLA Application.
What the App Does
When the EasyCLA app is installed on a repository, it has the following permissions in GitHub:
Read access to issues, members, merge queues, and metadata
Read and write access to administration, commit statuses, pull requests, and repository hooks
It uses these permissions to:
Receive webhook events when a pull request is opened, updated, or commented on.
Read the list of commit authors on a pull request to determine who must sign the CLA.
Post a commit status on each pull request indicating whether all contributors have signed.
Post a comment on the pull request with links to sign or check status.
EasyCLA does not modify your source code, branches, or repository contents.
Re-check a Pull Request
When a contributor signs the CLA after a pull request has already been opened, the EasyCLA status does not always update on its own. Anyone with access to the pull request can post the comment /easycla to trigger a fresh CLA check against the current set of commits.
The bot updates the status check within a few seconds. New pull requests opened after a configuration change are checked automatically; only pull requests that already existed need a manual /easycla trigger.
Apply Changes in Project Control Center
Repository changes you make on the GitHub side take effect immediately at the GitHub permission level, but they only appear in the EasyCLA project view after Project Control Center re-reads the installation:
1. Sign in to Project Control Center.
2. Open the project and navigate to Tools Status > EasyCLA.
3. Select your CLA Group, click Manage, and review the GitHub organization's repository list.
4. Enable Enforce CLA for any newly added repositories that should require contributor sign-off. For details, see Enforce or Remove CLA Mechanism from GitHub Repositories.
If Auto Enable New Repositories is turned on in Additional Settings, EasyCLA automatically enables the CLA check for any repository that gains access through the GitHub App, so step 4 happens for you.
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