What is the GitHub Enterprise Server 'ghost user' and when does it appear?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation and Infographic
When you delete a user from GHES, their issues, commits, and other contributions don't vanish — ownership transfers to the 'ghost' account. It's GitHub's way of keeping history intact when users leave.
Full explanation below image
Full Explanation
The 'ghost' user in GitHub (and GitHub Enterprise Server) is a special system account that serves as a fallback owner for resources that belonged to deleted user accounts. When a user account is deleted: (1) Issues and pull requests created by that user are attributed to 'ghost'. (2) Comments by the deleted user show as authored by 'ghost'. (3) Commit authorship in git history is unchanged (git history preserves author email/name). The ghost account ensures that issues and discussions remain coherent even after user deletion — threads don't break because of missing author references. The ghost account cannot be interacted with, cannot log in, and is not billable. Site administrators can see ghost attribution in the UI when reviewing historical records.