Part 3️⃣ – Team & Organization: Shared Standards and Access

[shinybrightstar]

🎯 Key Theme: 👏 Team & Organization

Remember when we talked about repeatable environments and secure secret management? This week, we’re taking it further, shifting from my setup to our setup. Why? Because consistency isn’t just convenient, it’s what makes teams fast, confident, and collaborative.

🧠 What You’ll Learn

• See who’s using Codespaces across your org.
• Understand when to use user, repo, or org secrets.
• Manage access so the right people have the right setup.

🔍 Handy API Endpoints (click to open)

Focus: team consistency + org/repo secrets

Organization-level Codespaces:

• List org codespaces → GET /orgs/{org}/codespaces
• Add user access → POST /orgs/{org}/codespaces/access/selected_users
• Remove user access → DELETE /orgs/{org}/codespaces/access/selected_users
• List a specific user’s codespaces in org → GET /orgs/{org}/members/{username}/codespaces

Secrets:

• Org secrets (list/create/update/delete) → /orgs/{org}/codespaces/secrets
• Repo secrets (list/get public key/create/update/delete) → /repos/{owner}/{repo}/codespaces/secrets

Bonus

• Stop or delete an org user’s codespace (cleanup)

Quick Wins (Pick Any): 📦 Copy/Paste Friendly Snippets

# 1. List org Codespaces
gh api /orgs/{org}/codespaces | jq '.codespaces[] | {name, machine, owner: .owner.login, updated_at}'

# 2. Add selected user access (JSON body with usernames array)
gh api /orgs/{org}/codespaces/access/selected_users -X POST -f selected_usernames='["username1","username2"]'

# 3. Remove selected user access
gh api /orgs/{org}/codespaces/access/selected_users -X DELETE -f selected_usernames='["username1"]'

# 4. List a specific member's Codespaces
gh api /orgs/{org}/members/{username}/codespaces

# 5. Org Codespaces secrets (list)
gh api /orgs/{org}/codespaces/secrets

# 6. Repo Codespaces secrets list
gh api /repos/{owner}/{repo}/codespaces/secrets

# 7. (Advanced) Stop an org user’s codespace (requires codespace name)
gh api /user/codespaces/{codespace_name}/stop -X POST

Tip

Capture machine type distribution (e.g., counts per size) to spot cost or latency optimization targets.

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🚀 Feeling Adventurous?

Build a lightweight “access report” showing each active Codespace, who owns it, and when it was last used.

🧪 Example Access Report Sketch (click to open)

# Collect raw list
RAW=$(gh api /orgs/{org}/codespaces)

# Summarize into table-like output
echo "$RAW" | jq -r '
  ["NAME","OWNER","MACHINE","LAST_UPDATED"],
  (.codespaces[] | [ .name, .owner.login, .machine, .updated_at ]) | @tsv
'

Possible enhancements:

• Count per machine size
• Flag stale (>7 days since last used)
• Export to CSV for sharing

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Reflection

👉 “What’s one way shared standards could save my team time or cost?”

✍ Response Starters

• “A consistent machine type policy would save us ___ hours/week because ___.”
• “Centralizing secrets at the org level reduces duplication by ___ and prevents ___.”
• “Removing unused Codespaces (saw ___ stale) could save approximately ___.”
• “A naming convention like <SCOPE>_<TEAM>_<PURPOSE> helps because ___.”
• “Access clarity (who can launch what) prevents delays when ___.”
• Reply with 👍 if you gave it a shot.

[shinybrightstar]

Part 4️⃣ is here, and it’s all about small wins that scale.

We’re talking about the little scripts and automations that save time, reduce mess, and make your future self’s life easier.

Drop your thoughts in the comments. You might just inspire someone else (or find your next side project).

👉 Check it out here: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/174757