Choosing between site default and user default visibility for new repositories

Goal

Ensure that newly created repositories are not unintentionally exposed as public when administrators want a uniform privacy policy but users may have personal visibility preferences.

Constraints and uncertainty

Forgejo lets administrators set a site‑wide default repository visibility, while individual users can define a personal default that is pre‑selected during repo creation. Organization‑owned repos add another layer, inheriting the organization’s default which may differ from both site and user settings. Changing a default only affects repositories created after the change, so existing repos can stay publicly accessible. The interaction of these defaults varies across Forgejo versions and can be influenced by mirror, fork, or import workflows, making the final visibility uncertain without testing.

Questions

• Should the site administrator’s default visibility override a user’s personal preference for new personal repositories?
• How should organization defaults be treated relative to site and user defaults when a user creates a repo under an organization?
• What verification steps can administrators take to confirm that the intended default visibility is applied without manually checking each new repository?