GitHub Issues allows you to track your development work and define tasks that need to be completed. Find out exactly what they are and how to use them.
GitHub is the most widely used service to market the git distributed version control system. Not only does GitHub give you access to git and hosted repositories, but it also includes access control, software feature requests, task management, continuous integration, wikis, and bug tracking.
What are GitHub issues?
A feature you should start using as soon as possible is GitHub Issues, which allows you to create issues from a repository, as well as a task list entry, project note, comment, specific line of code, or URL query. Issues can be created through the web UI, the GitHub Desktop application, the command line, and other sources.
With GitHub issues you can:
- Make trouble.
- Investigation work.
- Stay informed.
- Manage a project.
- To communicate.
- Compare and discuss issues.
Each GitHub issue has a creator and assignees, and is prioritized using the GitHub Project Board. GitHub Issues is free to use with no restrictions.
Don’t confuse GitHub Issues with a bug-hunting tool. Instead, think of it as a general tracking tool for any project, where you can track progress, collaboration, tasks, feature requests, and more. GitHub issues help you keep your work and plans in sync. Each GitHub repository has an associated Issues tool.
If you go to your GitHub main page, you will see an Issues tab at the top (Image A).
Image A
Clicking on the Issues tab will give you a list of all the issues for each project. From that view, you can click to view and work with an issue, but you cannot create an issue. Let’s see how to make one.
What you need
All you need for this is a valid GitHub account and at least one repository. That’s it: let’s create.
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Create an issue with GitHub Issues
The first thing you need to do is log into your GitHub account.
Once you’ve done that, navigate to a repository. You will see the Issues tab (Figure B).
Figure B
Click the Issues tab, and then click New Issue (Figure C).
Figure C
In the resulting window (Figure D), give the song a title, and then type the body text in the Writing tab.
Figure D
The Issue editor accepts markdowns, or you can format text in the body using the toolbar. When formatting from the toolbar, it simply adds the markdown to the text (Figures E).
Figures E
When you’re done writing the issue, click Submit New Issue to save your work.
A few notes about creating your item:
- To mention a team member directly, click the @ symbol in the formatting toolbar.
- To refer to another issue, pull request, or discussion, click the chat icon with a right-pointing up arrow.
- To add a saved answer, click the left-pointing arrow in the formatting toolbar.
- Assigning an Issue is done as soon as the Issue is created.
Assign a problem
Assigning a problem cannot be done in the creation window. Instead, go back to the main Issue tab from your GitHub dashboard. Next, select the check box associated with the issue you want to assign, and then select the Assign drop-down list. Select the team member you want to assign (Figure F).
Figure F
After you assign a problem, the assignee’s profile picture appears in the list.
While you are working through an issue, you can close the issue as completed or unscheduled. The completion as completed means that the issue is closed, resolved, or resolved. The Close if not scheduled option is used when an issue cannot be resolved, reproduced or duplicated, or is out of date.
Get started with Issues now
If GitHub is your developer repository or version control platform of choice, you owe it to yourself to start using Issues. Not only can you better track issues, but you can also better monitor how your project is progressing, keeping all stakeholders involved in the loop.
GitHub issues should be considered a must-use tool. Start using Issues now to improve your GitHub workflow.
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