Creating an issue or pull request from Desktop

You can create an issue or pull request to propose and collaborate on changes to a repository.

Who can use this feature?

Anyone can create an issue in a public repository that has issues enabled. Anyone with read permissions to a repository can create a pull request, but you must have write permissions to create a branch.

Platform navigation

In this article

About issues and pull requests

You can use issues to track ideas, bugs, tasks, and other information that's important to your project. You can create an issue in your project's repository with Desktop. For more information about issues, see About issues.

After you create a branch and make changes to files in a project, you can create a pull request. With a pull request, you can propose, discuss, and iterate on changes before you merge the changes into the project. You can create a pull request in your project's repository with Desktop. For more information about pull requests, see About pull requests.

Prerequisites

Before you create a pull request, you'll need to push changes to a branch on .

Creating an issue

  1. In the menu bar, select Repository, then click Create Issue on .

    Screenshot of the menu bar on a Mac. In the expanded "Repository" dropdown menu, the cursor hovers over "Create Issue on GitHub".

    Screenshot of the "GitHub Desktop" menu bar on Windows. In the "Repository" dropdown menu, the "Create Issue on GitHub" option is outlined in orange.

  2. On , click Get started to open an issue template or click Open a blank issue.

Note

If issue templates aren't enabled in your current repository, Desktop will direct you to a blank issue on .

Creating a pull request

  1. Click Preview Pull Request. Desktop will open a preview dialog showing the diff of the changes between your current branch and the base branch.

    Screenshot of the "No local changes" view. A button, labeled "Preview Pull Request", is highlighted with an orange outline.

    Screenshot of the "No local changes" view. A button, labeled "Preview Pull Request", is highlighted with an orange outline.

    Alternatively, to go straight to to create your pull request, select the dropdown icon and click Create Pull Request.

  2. Confirm that the branch in the base: dropdown menu is the branch where you want to merge your changes.

    Screenshot of the "Open a Pull Request" dialog window. A button with a dropdown icon, labeled "base: development", is outlined in orange.

    Desktop will advise you whether the current branch can be automatically merged into the base branch.

    Screenshot of the "Open a Pull Request" dialog window. A status label stating "Can't automatically merge" is highlighted with an orange outline.

  3. Click Create Pull Request. Desktop will open your default browser to take you to .

  4. Type a title and description for your pull request.

  5. To create a pull request that is ready for review, click Create Pull Request. To create a draft pull request, use the drop-down and select Create Draft Pull Request, then click Draft Pull Request. If you are the member of an organization, you may need to request access to draft pull requests from an organization owner. See About pull requests.

Further reading