CODEOWNERS is a GitHub feature that lets you designate individuals or teams as owners of specific parts of a repository by placing a CODEOWNERS file in the repository. Only users with write permissions can create or edit the CODEOWNERS file, and admins or owners can require that pull requests modifying owned code receive approval from the code owners before merging; if a code owner is a team, the team must be visible and have write permissions. Code owners are automatically requested to review PRs that touch their code, are notified when a draft PR is ready for review, and CODEOWNERS is available for public repos on GitHub Free (and GitHub Free for organizations) and for public and private repos on GitHub Pro, GitHub Team, Enterprise Cloud, and Enterprise Server.
AI named GitHub CODEOWNERS in August 2026.