How to remove a leaver from GitHub

Who can do it

Organization owners.

Steps in GitHub

Start at https://github.com/orgs/{org}/people.

1. Click your profile picture, then Organizations.
2. Click the organization name, then People.
3. Select the member.
4. Open the members selected dropdown, click Remove from organization.
5. Review, then click Remove members.

What happens to their data

Issues, pull requests and comments stay attributed to the user. Membership data is kept for three months and restored if they are re-invited in that window. They lose private forks of org repositories but may still have local clones.

Getting the seat back

Per-seat plans drop the seat. Volume licence billing does not downgrade automatically; you downgrade the plan yourself.

SCIM and the API

SCIM: GitHub Enterprise Cloud (requires SAML SSO; IdPs: Entra ID, Okta, OneLogin) ($21 per user per month (github.com/pricing, 2026-11-04)). The SCIM OAuth app acts as one org owner; if that owner leaves, SCIM stops.

API: Remove an organization member, DELETE https://api.github.com/orgs/{org}/members/{username} (docs).

Traps

• Without SCIM, removing someone in the IdP does not remove them from the org; authorised tokens keep working.
• Forks in other organizations keep their own access; the leaver may retain access through a fork.
• Removing a SCIM-managed user by hand leaves a stale linked identity that breaks a later rejoin.
• In an enterprise, a user still in another org keeps access to internal repositories.

Check after

• Personal access tokens and SSH keys they used against org repos (SAML-authorised tokens stop with membership).
• Deploy keys and GitHub Apps they installed.
• Outside collaborator access on individual repos (removing membership does not remove collaborator invites on forks in other orgs).
• CODEOWNERS files that name them.

How Caspian does this

Caspian removes the person from GitHub when they leave, over api. Where an app has no SCIM on your plan, Caspian runs an AI-generated browser script you can read and audit before it runs. The same leaver flow covers their laptop and the access inside other apps. Start for free, no sales call.

Sources

• Removing a member from your organization, checked 2026-11-04
• About SCIM for organizations, checked 2026-11-04
• GitHub pricing, checked 2026-11-04