How do you keep track of your comments on GitHub issues?

Question

I want to find all the GitHub issues that I commented on. I tried searching for commenter:mbigras type:issue like the Searching issues and pull requests GitHub article suggests. But that method returns fewer results than the public activity section of my profile.

See both attached images:

Search method

Doesn't display current results:

Profile method

Gets mixed up with other public activity:

Is there a way to get the full history of my comments on GitHub?

EDIT

author:mbigras type:issue gives wider results but still not the full history:

What I'm looking for is a way to quickly view all my comment/issue history in all issues.

EDIT

I emailed GitHub about this. Search doesn't match the public activity section because search indexes issues by creation date and not last active date.

How do you keep organized about which issues you've commented on?

You only want the issues that you commented ? If no, `author:mbigras type:issue` gives a wider lits. — foobar443, May 12 '16 at 08:44
Maybe the new project feature allows for some filtering? http://stackoverflow.com/a/39525270/6309 — VonC, Sep 16 '16 at 06:49
Being an SE user I went to my profile expecting this information... — FreeSoftwareServers, Mar 15 '19 at 07:47
Searching in a repo for `is:issue commenter:@me` works for me. — Ryan, Feb 11 '20 at 17:40

Toolkit · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-15T11:01:55.350

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Search for commenter:username in the main Github search box.

For example commenter:gavinandresen

To see recent activity, select Recently updated from Sort dropdown

You can also narrow the search: is:issue commenter:gavinandresen

edited Mar 15 '19 at 11:01

answered May 14 '17 at 17:35

Toolkit

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It's really weird that recently updated shows the issue comment I just made but newest doesn't. – jcollum Jul 27 '17 at 15:33
it sorts by issue creation date, not by comment creation date – Toolkit Jul 27 '17 at 19:07
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For those having problem with this: I was able to use this only in the github "root" page, not inside the path of a given repository – fabriciorissetto Nov 13 '17 at 15:46
If you happen to be the first commenter of an issue or the creator of the issue, you must do another search for `author:username` and combine the results manually. – Jānis Elmeris Feb 01 '18 at 07:29
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@Toolkit, This doesn't show the issues **created by others, which you have commented on**. – Pacerier Mar 15 '18 at 11:17
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@Toolkit, You can't find the comment https://github.com/whatwg/url/issues/118#issuecomment-337742987 using the search https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=commenter%3Apacerier&type= . – Pacerier Mar 15 '18 at 12:42
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@Pacerier of course you can, it's on the second page – Toolkit Mar 15 '18 at 12:46
@Pacerier you need to load hidden comments – Toolkit Mar 15 '18 at 12:50
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FYI, my mistake was picking "newest" instead of "recently updated". "newest" refers to "newest issue" not "newest comment". "recently updated" is better but technically also wrong. It will show issues I commented on years ago but that someone else commented on recently since that "issue" was recently updated. There is apparently no way to search for my own comments shown in a newest to oldest order – gman Jul 04 '18 at 04:17
If you want to include issues where you were the *author* too: https://stackoverflow.com/a/68116300/470749 – Ryan Jun 24 '21 at 13:00
`commenter:@me` also works for the top-level search – brianary Apr 04 '23 at 17:37

score 40 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 09 '17 at 21:58

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I have also been very frustrated when I could not find an issue that I have commented on a while ago. I even did not remember the project it was in. I knew only the problem I was referring to.

Then, I went to the Notification settings on Github and saw there is an Include your own updates option that is unchecked by default.

Once you check it, Github will send you an e-mail notification about every comment or PR you make. They you probably want to add an appropriate label and filter for emails so Github messages do not clutter an inbox.

My life has changed since then. Now, every time I want to find something I have written on Github, I just search for it in the e-mail notifications.

answered Feb 09 '17 at 21:58

fracz

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I started including these notifications, and yes, it's really lifechanging. No more fear of forgetting stuff that didn't get replies. Also it's the missing piece for having everything centralized in the emails. – Gras Double Apr 22 '17 at 08:47
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I just wish this was retroactive – Kevin Cooper Apr 25 '17 at 13:27
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see my reply, should just sort by `Recently updated` – Toolkit May 14 '17 at 17:37
@fracz, PR meaning? – Pacerier Mar 15 '18 at 11:18
@Pacerier Pull Request – fracz Mar 15 '18 at 22:28
My lifechange is on hold: they took that button off of the interface! – Dan Jacobson Aug 09 '23 at 07:59

score 20 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 12 '19 at 15:15

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You can view all the issues on Github you have commented on by going to https://github.com/notifications/subscriptions and selecting Reason as Comment.

This will show all the issues that you've commented on.

You can also filter the issues by selecting other reason such as Assign, Author, Manual, Mention, etc. but you can select only one reason at a time. Also, you can filter the issues by repository by selecting the concerned repository from dropdown after clicking Repository

answered Mar 12 '19 at 15:15

Rounak

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For those looking to get to this page organically: from your notifications page, find "Manage notifications" in the left sidebar and click on the link to display a dropdown list, select "Subscriptions" – UncaughtTypeError Feb 26 '20 at 20:17
If you want to include issues where you were the *author* too: https://stackoverflow.com/a/68116300/470749 – Ryan Jun 24 '21 at 13:01

Ahmad Ismail · Answer 4 · 2021-03-01T02:49:20.667

Search All GitHub using the search term is:issue author:@me

You can also check the following links.

For all your subscriptions https://github.com/notifications/subscriptions

For all your issues https://github.com/issues

For all your pull requests https://github.com/pulls

In case someone is interested to know how to find these links, go to github's resi api documentation. The URL's are not explicitly described there. However, look for the page names bellow REFERENCE.

If you lowercase the relevant word (for example Issues become issues, Pulls become pulls) and put that after https://github.com/, you most probably will find what you are looking for.

If you want to also include issues where you were a *commenter* (in addition to issues where you were the original author): https://stackoverflow.com/a/68116300/470749 — Ryan, Jun 24 '21 at 13:01

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 21 '19 at 06:36

This might be a little late, but there's also another way to find what issues/PRs you have participated in. This method also brings in a lot more things you might be interested in too!

When you are on the website main page, on github.com, use the keyboard shortcuts as described here to open your pull requests or issues. The shortcut for these is in particular [g, i] for issues and [g, p] for pull requests (I remember g by go, but whatever works for you.)

After you go to the page directed by these shortcuts you are greeted by an entire screen of goodies you can use! The search bar can be edited and the buttons can be used to make your experience fast!

A. Milto · Answer 6 · 2021-10-24T20:32:36.843

Type involves:<your username> in the search box on the GitHub's main page. This will find all the issues that you commented on, was assigned to or mentioned in.

For example, if your username on GitHub is unclebob, the search query should look like:
involves:unclebob
Or if you're logged in to GitHub, then simply:
involves:@me

Note the difference between involves and similar search qualifiers - author and commenter:

author will find only the issues that were started by you; if you comment on the issue that was started by someone else, author query won't return it in the search results.
E.g., compare involves:unclebob and author:unclebob type:issue.
commenter will find only those issues where you commented second or later (creator of the first comment in an issue is considered its author and not a commenter); if you start an issue and then never comment on it, the commenter query won't return it in the search results.
E.g., compare involves:unclebob and commenter:unclebob.

In other words, when it comes to searching comments, author and commenter return only a subset of involves' results. So I recommend using involves not to miss anything.

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered May 12 '20 at 12:27

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If you want to search for multiple users in a single search, use it like in the global search bar without the OR logical conjugation:

commenter:FantomX1 commenter:FantomX1-github

since the similar google way approach with 'OR' would not work

commenter:FantomX1 OR commenter:FantomX1-github

answered May 12 '20 at 12:27

FantomX1

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Note that trying this for `author:` doesn't work (as the first [gets overridden](https://stackoverflow.com/a/61618255/632951)) if you use searchbar at /pulls. GH is really screwed in ignoring bugs for years. – Pacerier Jul 18 '23 at 23:24

Pacerier · Answer 8 · 2018-03-15T11:48:08.027

Also, since Github is on the web, any HTTP search engine works, eg Google, Bing, etc. This works to the extent of your search engine's quality and the uniqueness of the writer name.

(Indeed, I actually do this all the time when I need to find any previously written web (engine)-accessible publication, including those on StackExchange. Names I use are 1 in probably an infinity, so Google often works better than forum search options.)

(Sample Google link.)

How do you keep track of your comments on GitHub issues?

Search method

Profile method

8 Answers8

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