Auto Assign feature doesn't work for team without direct access.

[ds-solum]

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Hello.

I'm trying to configure a reviewer team for all repositories in an organisation.

Auto assign works if the team have direct access.
Auto assign doesn't work if the team have organisation access only. It can't even pick the team as a reviewer !

Is that intended ? what's the logic behind ? Organisation wide read permission is supposed to cascade into the repo if I understand correctly.

Thank you !

[Kaval-Rathod]

Hi @ds-solum,

Great question! Here’s what’s happening:

When you add a team to your organization with only org-wide access (like read permissions), GitHub does not consider that team to have “direct access” to individual repositories. For the Auto Assign feature to work and for the team to be selectable as a reviewer, the team must be explicitly added to each repository with at least write access.

Why is this?

• Assigning reviewers (teams or individuals) requires “write” permissions on the repo, not just “read.”
• Org-wide read permissions let team members see the repo, but do not let them be assigned as reviewers or participate in pull requests.
• This is intentional for security reasons: only those with explicit permissions should be able to review and approve changes.

What can you do?

• Add your team directly to each repository with the needed permissions (write or above). Once that’s done, Auto Assign will be able to select the team as a reviewer.
• For organizations with many repositories, consider automating the process with scripts or GitHub Actions.

Summary Table:

Team Access Type	Can Be Auto-Assigned?
Direct repo access (write/admin)	✅ Yes
Org-wide read access only	❌ No

References:

• Adding a team to a repository – GitHub Docs
• About code owners – GitHub Docs

[ds-solum]

AutoAssign seems to work if the team is read only.

I think this is something that would be nice to add in the official documentation.

Thank you for your help.