issues

Today’s changelog announces API support for issues advanced search, timeline events for issue types, and an update on issue types settings.

🔍 API support for issues advanced search

You can now use GraphQL and the REST API to perform advanced queries for issues using the AND and OR keywords and nested searches.

For the REST API, you can set the advanced_search parameter to true. Check out the REST API documentation for more details.

http://api.github.com/search/issues?q={query}&advanced_search=true

For GraphQL, you can use the ISSUE_ADVANCED type. Check out the GraphQL documentation for more details.

query {
search(query: "is:issue AND assignee:@me AND (label:support OR comments:>5)", type: ISSUE_ADVANCED, first: 10) {
nodes {
... on Node {
id
}
}
issueCount
}
}

Note that on September 4, 2025, all issue queries will use advanced search by default. This means that after this date:

• You will no longer need to use the advanced_search parameter for the REST API.
• The ISSUE GraphQL type will support advanced search.

🕐 Timeline events for issue types

You can now see events in the issue timeline when issue types are added, updated, and removed from an issue.

🌇 Issue types for private repositories only will be retired

We are retiring the “Private repositories only” setting for issue types. Over the next week, you will no longer be allowed select this setting to specify an issue type for use only in private repositories. All existing issue types with this setting selected that are marked as Private will be removed on March 26, 2025.

In order to continue using these issue types, you will need to unselect the “Private repositories only” setting in the issue types organization settings page before this date. They can then be edited, disabled, or deleted as needed.

✍ Tell us what you think!

Join the discussion within the GitHub Community.

See how to use GitHub for project planning with GitHub Issues, check out what’s on the roadmap, and learn more in the documentation.

Today’s changelog brings you a snappier issue creation flow in projects, the ability to convert checklist items to sub-issues, required fields on private repositories, and important updates on tasklist blocks and single issue templates.

✍️ Improved issue creation flow in projects

Creating a new issue from a project is now easier than ever. Previously, when you started typing in an issue title in a project, the default was to create a draft issue. However, we’ve heard from user feedback that the primary
desired use case is to create an issue instead of a draft. Now, with this update, you can directly create a new issue by pressing Enter or create a draft with Cmd / Ctrl + Enter.

🔒 Required fields on issue forms for private repositories

You can now specify required fields on issue forms in private repositories, which ensures that contributors provide essential information before submitting an issue.

➡️ Convert checklist items to sub-issues

You can now convert checklist items in issues directly to sub-issues, making it easier to turn draft or to-do tasks into actionable work items.

🌇 Tasklist blocks will be retired and replaced with sub-issues

The private preview feature, tasklist blocks, will be retired on April 30, 2025. Your feedback from the private preview has been invaluable, helping us shape the release of sub-issues, the replacement for tasklist blocks.

Sub-issues provide a dedicated section within each issue, making it easier to track related work without relying on Markdown. You can manage up to eight levels of hierarchy within a single issue and monitor progress directly in your projects.

Migrate to sub-issues

We recommend migrating your tasklists to sub-issues before the retirement date.

To migrate, first simply remove the tasklist Markdown syntax to display the list as an issue checklist.

- ```[tasklist]
- - [ ] task 1
- - [ ] https://github.com/github/github/issues/123
- ```
+ - [ ] task 1
+ - [ ] https://github.com/github/github/issues/123

Then, use the Convert to sub-issue feature to convert desired issues or checklist items into sub-issues.

After April 30, 2025, remaining tasklist blocks will no longer be rendered and will instead be converted to raw Markdown. The Tracked and Tracked by fields on projects will no longer be available.

🌅 Single issue templates (ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md) will be retired

The legacy ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md feature will be retired on March 30, 2025. As a replacement, we encourage creating an ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ subdirectory in any of the supported folders to store multiple issue templates. You can then use the template query parameter to specify which template should populate the issue body. For more details, see the documentation.

After March 30, 2025, repositories still using ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md will default to a blank issue form, allowing users to start fresh when creating issues.

✨ Additional improvements

On top of the many bug fixes we’ve shipped, we’ve also introduced the following improvements:

• You can now create new milestones directly from the milestone picker in any issue.
• The issue template selection will now be bypassed if only one template is available and the blank issue template is disabled.
• You can now create and edit iteration fields via the ProjectV2 GraphQL API.
• We’ve introduced a move dialog in Projects, allowing you to rearrange items and views with precision. You can move views from a tab’s view options menu, while items can be moved through the row actions menu. This allows users who rely on screen readers, keyboards, and other assistive technology to use projects more accessibly.

✍ Tell us what you think!

Join the discussion within the GitHub Community.

See how to use GitHub for project planning with GitHub Issues, check out what’s on the roadmap, and learn more in the documentation.

Today’s changelog brings you GraphQL and webhook support for project status updates and project custom field changes directly in the webhook event!

⚙ Using GraphQL and webooks with project status updates

Following our release earlier this year for project status updates, you can now interact with project status updates using GraphQL and webhooks. This unlocks new ways to automate how you provide and gather project status update information.

GraphQL

There is a new ProjectV2StatusUpdate GraphQL object to interact with project status updates, so you can view, create, update, and delete status updates.

Below is an example query to create a new project status update.

mutation {
  createProjectV2StatusUpdate(
    input: {projectId: "0123456", body: "We wrapped up our bug bash following the beta rollout. We're back on track for our GA date in August! 🚀", startDate: "2024-06-03", targetDate: "2024-08-09", status: ON_TRACK}
  ) {
    statusUpdate {
      id
      startDate
      targetDate
      body
      bodyHTML
      status
    }
  }
}

Webhooks

Project status updates are included in the new projects_v2_status_update webhook event, so you can understand and be notified when a new project status update is provided.

You must be subscribed to this event from the organization settings page to receive this information.

Below is an example of a webhook event.

{
    "action": "edited",
    "projects_v2_status_update": {
        "id": 32633,
        "node_id": "PVTSU_lADOBH2n9s4Ajp6VzX95",
        "project_node_id": "PVT_kwDOBH2n9s4Ajp6V",
        "creator": {
          ...
        },
        "body": "We've kicked off this project and are feeling confident in our rollout plan. More updates and demos to come next week!",
        "start_date": "2024-06-24",
        "target_date": "2024-08-16",
        "status": "ON_TRACK",
        "created_at": "2024-06-24T20:27:48Z",
        "updated_at": "2024-06-24T20:30:47Z"
    },
    "changes": {
        "body": {
            "from": "We're still planning this out and are kicking off soon.",
            "to": "We've kicked off this project and are feeling confident in our rollout plan. More updates and demos to come next week!"
        },
        "status": {
            "from": "INACTIVE",
            "to": "ON_TRACK"
        },
        "start_date": {
            "from": null,
            "to": "2024-06-24"
        },
        "target_date": {
            "from": null,
            "to": "2024-08-16"
        }
    },
    "organization": {
        ...
    },
    "sender": {
        ...
    }
}

➕ Using webhooks for project custom field changes

Project custom field changes are now included directly in the project_v2_item webhook event when a project item’s fields are edited, removing the need to send an additional GraphQL query. This gives you the previous and current field values to understand how project fields change over time and how long they have a particular value, allowing you to understand how long an item was In progress before moving to Done status.

Below is an example of the webhook which includes the previous and current value for single select, text, number, iteration, and date project custom fields using the changes parameter.

"changes": {
    "field_value": {
        "field_node_id": "PVTSSF_lADOBH2n9s4Aje1Izgb1kEs",
        "field_type": "single_select",
        "field_name": "Status",
        "project_number": 18,
        "from": {
            "id": "f75ad846",
            "name": "Todo",
            "color": "GREEN",
            "description": "This item hasn't been started"
        },
        "to": {
            "id": "47fc9ee4",
            "name": "In Progress",
            "color": "YELLOW",
            "description": "This is actively being worked on"
        }
    }
},

✨ Bug fixes and improvements

• Added the convertProjectV2DraftIssueItemToIssue GraphQL mutation to convert drafts to issues
• Fixed an error message when resizing columns in the table layout
• Fixed errors when migrating a classic project to the new Projects experience
• Fixed a bug where updating an issue in the project side panel didn’t reflect in the project view
• Fixed the rendering of special characters in a single-select field description from the table layout cell dropdown
• Fixed a bug where a space could not be added in project chart titles

✍️ Tell us what you think!

Join the conversation in the community discussion to share your feedback.

See how to use GitHub for project planning with GitHub Issues, check out what’s on the roadmap, and learn more in the documentation.