How to Require Code Owner Reviews With CODEOWNERS

CODEOWNERS maps paths to owners, and branch protection can require an approving review from an owner of every changed path.

Create .github/CODEOWNERS mapping globs to teams or users, then enable "Require review from Code Owners" so a pull request touching those paths needs owner sign-off.

Steps

Create .github/CODEOWNERS mapping path globs to owners.
Enable "Require review from Code Owners" in branch protection.
Owners are requested automatically on matching pull requests.

CODEOWNERS

Terminal

# .github/CODEOWNERS
*                 @org/maintainers
/frontend/        @org/web-team
/infra/           @org/platform
*.sql             @org/dba

Require it

Settings

Settings > Branches > main
  [x] Require a pull request before merging
      [x] Require review from Code Owners

Gotchas

The last matching pattern in CODEOWNERS wins, so order specific rules after broad ones.
An invalid CODEOWNERS entry is ignored silently; check the Owners tab renders it as expected.

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