Mannequins and user activity - GitHub Docs Skip to main content GitHub Docs Version: Free, Pro, & Team Search or ask Copilot Search or ask Copilot Select language: current language is English Search or ask Copilot Search or ask Copilot Open menu Collapse sidebar Expand sidebar Scroll breadcrumbs left * Home * Migrations * Overview * Mannequins and user activity Scroll breadcrumbs right Migrations * * * Overview * GitHub's migration tooling * Migrations within GitHub * Plan your migration * Migration paths * Locked repositories * Mannequins and user activity * Programmatic repository imports * Migrate from Azure DevOps * Get started * 1. Understand migrations * 2. Manage access * 3. Configure GitHub Enterprise Importer * 4. Prepare to migrate * 5. Migrate repositories * 6. Follow-up tasks * Key differences * Migrate with GraphQL API * Migrator role * Import source code * GitHub Importer * About GitHub Importer * Import a repository * Command line * About source code imports * Local code * External Git repo * Subversion * Mercurial * Team Foundation Version Control * GitHub Enterprise Importer * Understand GitHub Enterprise Importer * About GitHub Enterprise Importer * Migrate from Bitbucket Server * About migrations * Overview of a migration * Manage access * Migrate repositories * Migrate between GitHub products * About migrations * Overview of a migration * Manage access * Migrate from Enterprise Server * Migrate repositories from GitHub.com * Migrate organizations from GitHub.com * Migrate from GitLab * Get started * 1. Understand migrations * 2. Plan your migration * 3. Manage access * 4. Configure GitHub Enterprise Importer * 5. Configure storage * 6. Migrate repositories * 7. Follow-up tasks * Migrate with GraphQL API * Migrator role * Complete migration * Access migration logs * Reclaim mannequins * Live migrations (GHES to GHE.com) * About live migrations * Prepare for your migration * Migrate your repository * Complete your migration * Troubleshooting * Migrated data reference * ELM CLI reference * ghe-migrator * About ghe-migrator * Export from GHES * Export from GitHub.com * Migrate data * Troubleshoot migrations * Troubleshoot migrations Mannequins and user activity Mannequins are placeholder identities that users can reclaim after a migration. Copy as Markdown In this article * What are mannequins? * How can I reclaim mannequins? What are mannequins? After you run a migration with GitHub Enterprise Importer or Enterprise Live Migrations, all user activity in the migrated repository (except Git commits) is attributed to placeholder identities called mannequins. Each mannequin only has a display name, which comes from the display name in the source repository. Mannequins do not have organization membership or repository access. Mannequins always use the same avatar, a ghost octocat, and include a mannequin label following the display name. Reclaiming is optional and can happen any time after a migration is finished. For this reason, you can allow your team to begin working in migrated repositories before reclaiming. Authorship for Git commits is not associated with mannequins and cannot be attributed to GitHub users by reclaiming mannequins. Instead, commit authorship is attributed to user accounts on GitHub based on the email address that was used to author the commit in Git. How can I reclaim mannequins? You can reattribute the history for each mannequin to an organization member with the GitHub CLI or in your browser. If you use the GitHub CLI, you can reclaim mannequins in bulk. For instructions, see Reclaiming mannequins for GitHub Enterprise Importer or Completing your live migration from GitHub Enterprise Server to GHE.com . By default, reclaiming a mannequin will send an attribution invitation to the target user. The target user can choose to accept or reject the invitation. After a user accepts an attribution invitation, all contributions previously attributed to the mannequin will be attributed to the user instead. In future migrations to the same organization, any contributions from the same mannequin will be automatically reclaimed for the same user. If your organization uses Enterprise Managed Users and you choose to reclaim mannequins with the GitHub CLI, you can optionally skip the invitation process, immediately reclaiming the mannequin without the user's approval. Back to top Help and support Was this Doc helpful? Yes No Help us make GitHub Docs great! All Docs are open source. See something that's wrong or unclear? Submit a pull request. Make a contribution Still need help? Ask the GitHub community Contact support Expert services Blog GitHub Inc. © 2026 Terms Privacy Status Pricing