// asset recovery, the friendly kind

Your code should live
in your account.

The professional norm for client work: the repository belongs to the client, and the developer works in it as a collaborator. If your project lives in your developer’s personal account, here’s a copy-paste email that fixes it without making anything weird.

template — edit the brackets, then send

Subject: Moving the repository to my account

Hi [name],

Quick housekeeping item — I'd like to move the project repository so it's
owned by my account, with you added as a collaborator with full write access.
Nothing changes about how you work; it's the standard setup for client
projects, and it keeps ownership of the code aligned with who's paying for it.

On GitHub it's a two-minute job: Settings → General → Transfer ownership,
transfer to [my username / my organization], and I'll add you back as a
collaborator the moment it lands.

Happy to hop on a call if it's easier. Thanks!

[you]

// three things worth knowing

This is a routine request. Professional developers do this transfer all the time; on GitHub it genuinely takes about two minutes and nothing about their workflow changes.
Add them back immediately. The goal is ownership, not exclusion — your developer keeps full write access as a collaborator and works exactly as before.
If they refuse, that’s information. There are occasionally legitimate reasons (billing for CI, template repos), but a flat refusal to put paid-for code in your name is a red flag worth taking seriously.

Then run your first report — free

Your code should livein your account.

// three things worth knowing

Your code should live
in your account.