Working with Forks
About Fork
A fork is a copy of a repository that you manage. Forks let you make changes to a project without affecting the original repository. You can fetch updates from or submit changes to the original repository with pull requests.
Forking a repository is similar to copying a repository, with two major differences:
- You can use a pull request to suggest changes from your user-owned fork to the original repository in its GitHub instance, also known as the upstream repository.
- You can bring changes from the upstream repository to your local fork by synchronizing your fork with the upstream repository.
If you have access to a private repository and the owner permits forking, you can fork the repository to your personal account, or an organization on GitHub Team where you have repository creation permissions.
You cannot fork a private repository to an organization using GitHub Free.
Deleting a fork will not delete the original upstream repository. You can make any changes you want to your fork—add collaborators, rename files, generate GitHub Pages—with no effect on the original. You cannot restore a deleted forked repository.