Issue fields [Private preview] · community · Discussion #175366 (original) (raw)

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We are excited to introduce the private preview of issue fields, a new way for your teams to capture and manage structured data directly in GitHub issues. Issue fields make it easier to add, organize, and standardize important information across your repositories using custom fields such as priority, impact, effort, or any other category your team needs.

About issue fields

What are issue fields

Issue fields are customizable fields you can add to issues, enabling you to collect consistent metadata and details relevant to your workflow. Fields can be managed centrally at the organization level by organization admins, making it simple to apply the same structure across multiple repositories.

Why use issue fields

• Make issue tracking more organized by using standardized fields across repositories and projects
• Help your team quickly find and prioritize issues by field values
• Reduce manual work and data duplication when triaging or planning work
• Ensure important information like priority or dates is always visible and consistent

Project custom fields can still be used to track information relevant to a specific project.

How to request early access?

If you would like to try Issue fields in private preview, simply post a comment in this discussion with a brief description of your use case and the Organization you would like this enabled for. Our team will get back to you about getting you sorted with access.

Features included in the private preview ✅

Please expand this section to see the details:

Details

The following features are available as part of the private preview:

Managing issue fields

By default, three issue fields will be added to your Organization to help you get started: Priority, Start date and Target date. These fields are fully customizable and can be configured in your organization's settings in the "Issue fields" section under "Planning".

Organization admins can add up to 25 issue fields to the organization as a way of standardizing issue metadata collection.

Admins can choose from several field types to meet the organization's needs:

• single-select fields let you choose one option from a predefined list for quick categorization and standardization;
• text fields capture free-form text with automatic URL detection and clickable links;
• number fields accept numeric input, including decimals, to track values and measurements;
• date fields provide a date picker for easy selection, with the ability to clear the field or edit directly from the issue sidebar.

Pinning issue fields to types

Admins can associate issue fields with specific issue types, so only the most relevant fields appear when viewing or creating issues of that type. For instance, priority and severity can be linked to bugs, while impact and effort can be linked to epics. When a type is selected, the relevant fields automatically show up.

Applying issue fields to issues

Issue fields are prominently displayed when you view or create issues, making it easy to capture key information for each issue. Their appearance is consistent with system fields such as assignees, labels, and type, so they blend seamlessly into the issues sidebar.

Only users with triage and above roles are able to modify issue fields on the issue.

Search

Issue fields are fully integrated into issue search within repositories. You can filter, sort, and find issues based on issue field values, enabling new and powerful use cases for your team. For example, you can identify high-priority issues that are overdue by combining searches for priority and target date fields.

You can also search for issues by effort estimates, impact scores, owner, or any other issue field your team uses. This makes it easy to monitor progress, prioritize work, track deadlines, and surface actionable insights across all your repositories.

Projects support

Issue fields are fully integrated with projects across your organization, providing a seamless experience for managing and analyzing work. All issue fields are available for use in any project, and you can choose which fields to add to each project view based on your team's needs. This flexibility allows you to group, filter, and search issues by issue field values, making it easier to prioritize, track progress, and uncover insights.

You can tailor each project to your workflow by selecting the most relevant issue fields. Keep in mind that projects support up to 50 fields in total, and issue fields will count toward this limit.

Timeline events

Issue field updates are shown in the timeline, so viewers can see exactly what metadata changed, when it changed, and who made the change.

API support

Issue fields have full REST and GraphQL API support for managing settings and values across repositories. You can automate creation, updates, bulk edits, filtering, and sync with external tools.

REST:

• Issue field settings
• Issue field values

GraphQL: add header GraphQL-Features: issue_fields to fetch schema and run queries or mutations.

🆕 Webhooks and Actions:

• Issues webhook actions: field_added, field_removed
• Updating field values currently emits field_added with previous values in changes
• GitHub Actions trigger example:

on: issues: types: - field_added - field_removed

Migrating to issue fields

If you are using labels or project custom fields to track information, you can migrate to using issue fields by:

• Bulk editing values in a project table by copying/pasting or dragging and dropping values. Check out the documentation and the video below.
• Leveraging the REST or GraphQL API Expand to see video Screen.Recording.2025-11-21.at.4.38.58.PM.mov

Features not included in the private preview ❌

Please expand this section to see the details:

Details

There are several features that are not included in the private preview but might be added to the issue fields experience based on customer feedback and demand.

• Issue forms integration: It is not currently possible to embed issue fields directly into .yml issue forms
• Pull requests integration: Issue fields are limited to issues and cannot be applied to pull requests
• Mobile apps: Issue fields are not currently supported in GitHub iOS and Android applications.
• CLI support: Issue fields are not currently supported in CLI.

Recent improvements ✨

• Compact issue fields that are taking up 40-50% less vertical space in the sidebar
• Pin Issue fields to issues without a type
• See pinned field counts when selecting a Type

Feedback

We want to gather feedback, learn from your use cases, and continuously improve issue fields. Please share any feedback, issues, or suggestions you have. Your input helps us shape the future of issue fields and deliver features that best support your workflows.