Connect GitHub
Every DiceyTable mod is a GitHub repository. There is no server-side blob storage for mod files — your manifest, setup, scripts and assets live in your repo, and everyone who plays your mod (including you, in the editor) reads them from there. Connecting GitHub is what lets the in-app editor push commits on your behalf.
Connecting your account#
Open Edit Mode, then Publish (or the New Mod dialog) and choose Connect
GitHub. This opens a popup that sends you through GitHub's own OAuth consent screen
for a DiceyTable OAuth App — you are never asked to paste a personal access token.
The app requests the repo scope, which is what lets it create commits, branches and
repositories on your behalf. When GitHub redirects back, the popup closes itself and
the editor's connection status updates automatically.
Behind the scenes this is a standard three-step OAuth exchange: the editor asks the server for an authorize URL, GitHub calls the server back with a short-lived code, and the server exchanges that code for an access token and looks up your GitHub username. Nothing about this token — or any file it pushes — passes through another player's browser; it is used only by the DiceyTable server, only to act on your repositories, only when you publish.
If Connect GitHub fails with a "not configured" message, GitHub publishing hasn't been set up on that server deployment yet — see Troubleshooting.
Linking or creating a repository#
Once connected, a new mod (or an existing one that isn't linked yet) offers three choices:
- No repo yet — keep authoring locally. Your work lives in the browser's local storage until you link a repository; it never leaves your machine and can't be checkpointed, published, or played by anyone else in multiplayer.
- Link existing — attach an
owner/namerepository you already control. DiceyTable does not create it and does not change its visibility. - Create new — DiceyTable creates the repository for you under your GitHub account.
Whichever you choose, the repository is saved on the mod's project record on the server the moment you link or create it, so you never have to type it in again.
Why new repositories are created public#
When DiceyTable creates a repository for you, it is created public, and the New Mod dialog says so plainly: "multiplayer peers load mod assets straight from GitHub raw, so the repo must be public."
This isn't a stylistic choice — it's load-bearing. When you play a published mod with
other people, every peer independently downloads the mod's files straight from
GitHub (raw.githubusercontent.com), not from the table host and not from the
DiceyTable server. There is no server-side copy of your assets to fall back to. If the
repository were private, every other player's browser would get an anonymous 404 the
moment it tried to fetch a model, texture, manifest or script — the mod would be
unplayable for everyone except you.
An earlier version of the New Mod dialog implied the opposite — that a linked repository could be kept private. That was incorrect, and the copy has been corrected in the product. Treat any documentation, screenshot or old habit that suggests a private mod repository as out of date.
If you link an existing repository, DiceyTable does not check or change its visibility for you. Linking a private repository will let you author and preview the mod alone (you're authenticated), but it will fail for both the scanner (which reads your manifest anonymously unless the server itself has been given a token) and for every other player at the table. Keep a mod's repository public for the whole time it is meant to be playable in multiplayer.
What DiceyTable can do with your GitHub access#
The repo OAuth scope is broad — it's what GitHub requires for creating commits and
repositories on your behalf, and DiceyTable uses it only for that: creating a
repository when you ask for one, and pushing manifest/setup/script/asset commits when
you save a checkpoint or publish. It does not read your other repositories, open
issues, or act on your account outside the mod-publishing endpoints in the editor.
You can revoke access at any time from Publish → Disconnect, or directly from GitHub's own Settings → Applications page.