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How do I assign a GitHub issue to more than one person?

I have work in project with my colleagues using GitHub repository. If I create an issue I can assign it to one user, but sometimes I need to assign it to multiple people.

random
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sergio
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  • Better for either [Web Apps](http://webapps.stackexchange.com) (since it has no coding element) or direct to GitHub:Support – random Jan 07 '14 at 16:00

4 Answers4

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You could assign the issue to one of them and @-mention the GitHub usernames of the others, which will subscribe them to updates for that issue. If you have groups of people who will often be assigned together, you could also create teams within an organization to mention them all at once.

UPDATE: GitHub just shipped multiple assignees, so, now you can!

Ash Wilson
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  • In this way I can add another people subsribers, but I'm trying to find a way to assing on miltiple, is there another posibilities? – sergio Jan 06 '14 at 20:06
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    GitHub's issues are fairly minimal, so nope, you can't "assign" to multiple people. Even in the API, "assignee" is singular and can't be assigned to a team: http://developer.github.com/v3/issues/#get-a-single-issue – Ash Wilson Jan 06 '14 at 20:12
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    I am missing this function as well. Still, what Ash Wilson has recommended is quite a good option in my opinion. I am using the @-mentions as well. – patrick Jan 07 '14 at 02:12
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    Note that multiple assignees aren't included in GitHub's free organization plan. https://help.github.com/en/github/getting-started-with-github/faq-about-changes-to-githubs-plans#if-i-downgrade-from-github-team-or-a-legacy-plan-to-github-free-what-features-will-i-lose – twhb Jun 06 '20 at 00:49
  • Does the `Team` plan allow to have multiple assignees in private repos? – radek Jan 20 '21 at 14:44
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Here is the info on Multiple assignees on Issues and Pull requests

I couldn't find any update on the topic, but it seems that Github changed the assignees' policy and now in the public projects you can assign up to 10 people:

Assignees form for public repos

But on the private projects you are limited back to a single person:

Assignees form for private repos

So basically, you need to do the already mentioned approach (with @ in the issue text)

mPrinC
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6

Use labels. Create a label for each member of your team and use these to assign team members to tasks. This is not functionally as intended but it works well!

You can add scope: person:A, person:B, etc to search and read it more easily

mPrinC
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Daniel Power
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0

Another approach, which is not limited to 10 people, is to define a parent issue with a task list

Since June 2021, you can reference other issues (each one can be assigned one to 10 people) and:

  • Create task lists of issues and pull requests
  • Quickly convert text into issues
  • Track status of tasks with progress indicators
  • See which issues another issue is being tracked in
  • Automatically update the status of a task when the tracked issue is closed

https://i1.wp.com/user-images.githubusercontent.com/22751162/123090900-4ea44e00-d3ee-11eb-85cb-cad7c0894224.png?ssl=1

So if you need to assign multiple people to one issue because there is a lot to do, you can transform that issue into a "parent" issue, from which you refer to sub-tasks issues.


See also (Sept. 2021) "Managing code review assignment for your team".

VonC
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