diff --git a/.github/CODEOWNERS b/.github/CODEOWNERS
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..96a0234
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/CODEOWNERS
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Require maintainer's :+1: for changes to the .github/ repo-config files
+# mainly due to https://github.com/probot/settings privilege escalation
+.github/* @pages-themes/maintainers