TFS Licensing - GIT repository access

Question

Quick question - is TFS CAL required for users to access only the TFS GIT source code repository? Assuming they will access only the source-code using Git Bash, and they won?t use any other TFS features and never even login to TFS website.

Our understanding is that Git is an open source system based on GNU license, so accessing it should not require any license.

Answer 1

Actually, No.

There should be a server git repository and local git repository. For local git repository , you just need to make sure the user have windows folder permission. However, for server git repository, which is also host on TFS server. To access server side GIT repository, you also need TFS access.

To license TFS , you’ll need a TFS server license and a Windows operating system license (Windows Server is best) for each machine running TFS, plus a client access license for each person connecting to TFS. Client access licenses (CALs) aren’t required for people who just access work items – assign them “Stakeholder” access, which is free.

Only the Stakeholder access is free and no need a CAL. GIT repository access is also belong to Code feature which at least need Basic access

More details about access levels please refer this tutorial in MSDN.