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Assign people to issues and pull requests

An issue or a pull request needs an owner, and often a different job for each person. For example, Ana must check the tests, and Ben must read the docs. You can assign each person, and give each one a note that says what you ask them to do. A note is optional.

You need write access (the triage role or more) to assign people. You can assign each person who can read the issue or the pull request. A private issue can have only people who can read it.

Assign people on the web

  1. Open the issue or the pull request.
  2. In the sidebar, next to Assignees, click Edit.
  3. In Assign someone, type a username, and pick the person.
  4. If you have a request for this person, type it in What should they do?. For example: "please check the tests".
  5. Click Add. Do steps 3 to 5 again for each other person.
  6. Click Apply.

To change a note, edit the note field under the name of the person, then click Apply. To remove a person, click the X next to the name, then click Apply.

Assign people with src

Assign one person with a note:

src issue assign 42 ana --note "please check the tests"

The command works for a pull request too, because issues and pull requests share their numbers. If you assign the same person again with a new note, the note changes.

Assign or remove people without a note, as in gh:

src issue edit 42 --add-assignee ana,@me --remove-assignee ben
src pr edit 7 --add-assignee ana

@me is you.

Assign people with REST or MCP

Add people. Each entry is a username, or a username with a note:

src api -X POST repos/<owner>/<repo>/issues/42/assignees \
  --input - <<'EOF'
{ "assignees": [{ "username": "ana", "note": "please check the tests" }, "ben"] }
EOF
  • PUT .../issues/{n}/assignees makes the list exact.
  • DELETE .../issues/{n}/assignees/{username} removes one person.
  • The MCP tool is set_item_assignees, with mode set to set, add or remove.

What works at the end

  • The sidebar shows each assigned person, with their note under the name.
  • The timeline shows who assigned whom, with the note.
  • An open issue or pull request shows on the home page of each assigned person.
  • src issue view and src pr view show the assignees and their notes.
  • On a repository that syncs with GitHub, the people go to GitHub too. The notes stay here, because GitHub has no notes. A person who has no GitHub account here cannot be assigned on a GitHub item.