Does GitHub notify users when someone downloads the ZIP of a public repo of theirs?

Question

Is there any way for GitHub to notify a person, or track when the .zip file from a plugin repo is downloaded from GitHub?

The ZIP that I am referring to is that which is available when viewing a public repository page on GitHub's website.

Answer 1

There are no ways to do it because GitHub delivers only two kinds of notifications:

• Participating:
  • Someone mentions you or a team you're a member of
  • You are assigned to an issue or pull request
  • Someone makes a comment in a conversation you're subscribed to
• Watching
  • Opened issues and their comments
  • Opened pull requests and their comments
  • Comments on any commits
  • Published releases

Answer 2

Although it will not send a notification, you will be able to see if your repo has been cloned by visiting /user-name/repo-name/graphs/traffic. However, you will not be able to identify the user.

Also, downloading a repo using the 'Download Zip' button will not increase the clones/unique clones count.

Answer 3

The code from any repository can be/will be downloaded without the owner getting notified.

Also, this downloading is similar to using git clone which will also not send a notification.