Editing an issue

Learn how to make changes to an existing issue.

Who can use this feature?

Issue authors, people with write access or higher in repositories owned by an organization, and collaborators in repositories owned by a personal account can make changes to issues.

In this article

Editing an issue title

You can edit an issue's title. The change to the title is added to the issue's timeline.

  1. Navigate to the issue you want to edit.

  2. To the right of the issue title, click Edit.

    Screenshot of an issue header, the "Edit" button is highlighted with an orange outline.

  3. Type your new title.

  4. Click Save.

Editing an issue description

You can also make changes to the issue description. The edit history is available unless the author or a person with write access removes it. See Tracking changes in a comment.

  1. Navigate to the issue you want to edit.

  2. At the top right of the issue description, click .

    Screenshot of an issue description. The "Issue body actions" button is highlighted with an orange outline.

  3. In the menu, click Edit.

  4. Type your changes to the issue description.

  5. Click Save.

Adding or changing the issue type

You can add an issue type or make changes to an existing issue type.

  1. Navigate to the issue you want to edit.

  2. To the right of the issue, in the sidebar, click Type.

    Screenshot of an issue sidebar. The "Add issue type" button is highlighted with an orange outline.

  3. In the list, select a new issue type.

  4. Click Save.

Editing an issue with GitHub CLI

GitHub CLI is an open source tool for using GitHub from your computer's command line. When you're working from the command line, you can use the GitHub CLI to save time and avoid switching context. To learn more about GitHub CLI, see About GitHub CLI.

Editing a single issue

To edit an issue, use the gh issue edit subcommand with the issue number or URL.

gh issue edit ISSUE-NUMBER --title "TITLE" --body "ISSUE-DESCRIPTION"

Editing multiple issues

You can pass multiple issue numbers to apply the same change to several issues at once.

gh issue edit ISSUE-NUMBER-1 ISSUE-NUMBER-2 --add-label "LABEL"

Editing the issue type

To set or remove the issue type, use the --type or --remove-type flag.

gh issue edit ISSUE-NUMBER --type "ISSUE-TYPE"
gh issue edit ISSUE-NUMBER --remove-type

Editing the parent issue

To set or remove the parent issue, use the --parent or --remove-parent flag. The parent can be specified by issue number or URL.

gh issue edit ISSUE-NUMBER --parent PARENT-ISSUE-NUMBER
gh issue edit ISSUE-NUMBER --remove-parent

Editing sub-issues

To add or remove sub-issues, use the --add-sub-issue or --remove-sub-issue flag with a comma-separated list of issue numbers or URLs.

gh issue edit PARENT-ISSUE-NUMBER --add-sub-issue SUB-ISSUE-NUMBER
gh issue edit PARENT-ISSUE-NUMBER --remove-sub-issue SUB-ISSUE-NUMBER

Editing dependencies

To manage dependencies, use the --add-blocked-by, --remove-blocked-by, --add-blocking, and --remove-blocking flags. Each accepts a comma-separated list of issue numbers or URLs.

gh issue edit ISSUE-NUMBER --add-blocked-by BLOCKED-BY-ISSUE-NUMBER --add-blocking BLOCKING-ISSUE-NUMBER

Further reading