[Tutorial] Building a custom Git server with per-branch permissions in 5 Minutes 🐍

Managing secure repository access at a granular level can quickly become a complex infrastructure headache. Building a lightweight solution from scratch usually means wrestling with massive configuration files and intricate access control lists.

Here is how to solve it by building a custom Git server in Python using Dulwich and Paramiko:

The problem:
Standard Git servers lack simple, programmatic controls for fine-grained permissions.

The fix:
We can create an SSH server that runs just two basic commands and intercept operations to enforce per-branch read permissions in a single method.

Why it matters:
Developers gain total control over code access without the overhead of heavy enterprise tooling.

Check out the full technical write-up to see how to implement this architecture:

Write a Git server with per-branch permissions in five minutes - Upsun Developer

Upsun's most basic API is a Git server. Build one in Python with Dulwich and Paramiko, and add per-branch read permissions in a single method.

developer.upsun.com