Gitify offers three ways to authenticate with GitHub:

• Login with GitHub — The easiest option. Uses the OAuth Device Flow: Gitify generates a code, opens github.com/login/device in your browser, and completes authentication automatically. Supports GitHub Cloud only.
• Personal Access Token (PAT) — Authenticate with a token generated in your GitHub account settings. Supports both GitHub Cloud and GitHub Enterprise Server.
• OAuth App — Authenticate using a Client ID and Client Secret from a GitHub OAuth App you create. Supports both GitHub Cloud and GitHub Enterprise Server.

If you are unsure which method to use, Login with GitHub is recommended for most users on GitHub Cloud. For GitHub Enterprise Server, use a PAT or OAuth App.

To authenticate via an OAuth App:

• Open GitHub → Settings → Developer settings → OAuth Apps
• Click New OAuth App
• Set Authorization callback URL to gitify://oauth
• Complete all remaining mandatory fields
• Click Register application
• Click Generate a new client secret
• Use this client/secret pair within Gitify to authenticate.

Yes. Gitify supports both GitHub Cloud and GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES).

When signing in via Personal Access Token or OAuth App, you will see a Hostname field that defaults to github.com. Replace this with your GHES hostname (e.g. github.mycompany.com) to connect to your Enterprise instance.

Note: The Login with GitHub (Device Flow) method only supports GitHub Cloud and does not expose a hostname field.

Multiple accounts across different hostnames (e.g. github.com and your GHES instance) can be signed in simultaneously — see “How do I add multiple GitHub accounts?” for details.

The required GitHub scopes depend on your chosen authentication method.

Login with GitHub (Device Flow) and OAuth App:

Scopes are pre-configured by Gitify and requested automatically during sign-in. No manual scope selection is required.

Personal Access Token (PAT):

When generating a PAT, the following scopes are required:

• notifications — to read GitHub notifications
• read:user — to read your GitHub user details (name, profile, avatar)
• repo — to enrich notification details for public and private repositories

Note: If you only need access to public repositories, you can use public_repo instead of repo.

Gitify supports signing in to multiple accounts simultaneously — for example, a personal GitHub Cloud account alongside a GitHub Enterprise Server account.

To add an account:

• Open the Accounts screen from the Gitify sidebar
• Click Add new account and choose your preferred authentication method
• Complete the sign-in flow for the additional account

All signed-in accounts will appear on the Accounts screen. You can designate a primary account by clicking the star icon next to an account — the primary account is used as the default where applicable.

Each account can be individually refreshed or signed out at any time.

Gitify can be configured to start automatically when you log in to your computer.

To enable this:

• Open Settings in Gitify
• Navigate to the System section
• Toggle Open at startup

Note: This setting is available on macOS and Windows only. On Linux, startup behaviour is managed by your desktop environment or init system.

Filters in Gitify help you manage which notifications are shown in the app, allowing you to concentrate on the most crucial ones for your workflow.

Filters can be accessed from the left-hand sidebar. By default, all notifications are shown. You can filter by properties such as notification reason (e.g. Mentioned, Review Requested, Assigned), repository, or account.

If you apply multiple filters, your inbox will display notifications based on a LOGICAL AND condition — for example, selecting Mentioned and a specific repository will only show notifications where both conditions are true.

When you Unsubscribe from Thread, you will not receive future notifications for the thread until you either comment on the thread or get a @mention.

Note: If you are watching a repository, you receive notifications for all threads by default.

Gitify checks for updates automatically on launch and every 24 hours.

When an update is available, it downloads in the background. Once downloaded, a dialog will prompt you to Restart to apply the update or choose Later to apply it the next time Gitify restarts.

You can also trigger a manual check by right-clicking the tray icon and selecting Check for Updates.

When authenticating via Personal Access Token (PAT):

• Open GitHub → Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens
• Confirm that your PAT has the following recommended permissions: notifications, read:user and repo

Note: If you only want Gitify to access public repositories, you can use notifications, read:user and public_repo instead.

When authenticating via Gitify GitHub App:

• Some organizations require GitHub Apps to request access prior to allowing access to organization data (including notifications)
• To check if Gitify is approved by your organization:
  • Open GitHub → Settings → Applications → Authorized GitHub Apps
  • Click on the Gitify application
  • Under Organization access, you will see one of three states for each organization:

Note: If an organization shows Request or Disallowed by org owner, you will not receive notifications from that organization until access is approved.

Using Chrome Developer Tools (console logs, network requests, etc):

Right-click the tray icon and select Developer → Toggle Developer Tools, or use the keyboard shortcut for your platform:

• macOS: command + opt + i
• Windows / Linux: ctrl + shift + i

Using Application Log Files:

Right-click the tray icon and select Developer → View Application Logs, or navigate directly to the log directory for your platform:

• macOS: ~/Library/Logs/gitify
• Windows: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\gitify\logs
• Linux: ~/.config/gitify/logs

If you experience issues opening Gitify on Linux due to Chrome Sandbox permissions, the Electron sandbox requires root ownership and the SUID bit to be set on the sandbox binary. Run the following commands to fix this:

sudo chown root:root /opt/Gitify/chrome-sandbox
sudo chmod 4755 /opt/Gitify/chrome-sandbox

Note: The path /opt/Gitify/chrome-sandbox assumes a standard installation. If you installed Gitify via AppImage or to a custom directory, adjust the path accordingly.

To check for startup errors:

journalctl -xe | grep gitify

Some Linux users (i.e., Arch Linux) have reported seeing Encryption is not available errors within the application logs.

To remediate, try launching Gitify with the --password-store=basic flag to disable encrypted storage:

gitify --password-store=basic

For a full list of available options, see the Electron safeStorage documentation.

You can contribute to Gitify by opening an issue or pull request on GitHub at gitify-app/gitify.

Before contributing, please review our CONTRIBUTING.md guide for details on branch naming, the PR process, and code style.

Check out our open issues and see if there is an existing idea you would like to work on.

Not a developer? You can still help by reporting bugs, improving documentation, or starring and sharing the project.