Question

A developer at your company is pushing a commit to a private repository that has Push Protection enabled. The push is blocked because GitHub detected a string that matches a known secret provider pattern. The developer insists the value is a fake, non-functional API key used only in a mocked unit test and is not a real credential. According to GitHub best practices, what is the MOST appropriate way for the developer to proceed so the push succeeds while maintaining a proper audit trail?

Accepted Answer

Bypass the push block by selecting a bypass reason such as 'It's used in tests', which records the justification in the audit log and allows the push to proceed

Answer

Disable Push Protection for the repository temporarily, complete the push, and re-enable it afterward

Answer

Force-push the commit using --force, which overrides Push Protection because it rewrites branch history

Answer

Delete the repository's secret scanning alert for that pattern so the push is no longer flagged