Add events to trigger a workflow when a issue is linked or unlinked to to a PR.

[damianh]

Why are you starting this discussion?

Question

What GitHub Actions topic or product is this about?

General

Discussion Details

We have a requirement that all PRs are linked (in the "Development" section) to a PR before merging and wish to enforce this with a workflow check. Currently we can check the PR has a linked issue using this step:

    - name: Check for linked issues in Development section
      env:
        GH_TOKEN: ${{ steps.generate-token.outputs.token }}
      run: |
        echo "Checking PR #${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} for linked issues..."
          
        # Get linked issues from the Development section
        LINKED_ISSUES=$(gh pr view ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} \
          --repo ${{ github.repository }} \
          --json closingIssuesReferences \
          --jq '.closingIssuesReferences | length')
          
        echo "Found $LINKED_ISSUES linked issue(s)"
          
        if [ "$LINKED_ISSUES" -eq 0 ]; then
          echo "::error::This PR must have at least one issue linked in the Development section."
          echo "::error::Please link an issue by adding it to the Development section on the right side of the PR page."
          echo "::error::After linking an issue, manually re-run this check from the Actions tab or push a new commit."
          exit 1
        fi
          
        echo "✓ PR has linked issues in Development section"

However I can only trigger via pull_request types: [opened, edited, synchronize, reopened]. None of these will retrigger when the PR is linked to an issue though.

Cheers.

[Mohamed-dev1]

You’re running into a platform limitation here. Linking or unlinking an issue in the Development section does not emit a pull_request event, so there’s nothing for Actions to react to automatically.

Right now, the only ways to re-evaluate this are exactly what you’ve already mentioned: pushing a new commit, editing the PR description, or manually re-running the workflow from the Actions tab.

One workaround is to use a required status check and make it clear in the failure message that the check needs to be manually re-run after linking the issue. Another option is adding a lightweight label-based flow and trigger on the label, but that still requires a manual action.

Unfortunately there isn’t a webhook or event today for “Development section updated,” so this can’t be fully automated with Actions alone at the moment.

[damianh]

Well yes which is why I created this discussion / feature request ;)

[krishparmar22242]

If your repo supports it (Public repos or GitHub Enterprise):

Path:
Settings → Code and automation → Rules → Rulesets

Enable the built-in rule:

Require linked issues
If You Must Use GitHub Actions (Workflow-Based Workaround)

Since GitHub doesn’t emit an event for “Issue Linked”, you need a manual event nudge that does fire.

1️⃣ Label Toggle Trigger (Most Common Hack)

Extend your workflow triggers:

on:
pull_request:
types:
[opened, edited, synchronize, reopened, labeled, unlabeled]

2️⃣ ready_for_review Trigger (Clean Team Flow)

If your team uses Draft PRs:

on:
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, ready_for_review]

3️⃣ Use a Dedicated Action (Optional)

There are community actions like Verify Linked Issue that wrap the API logic for you.
However, they still suffer from the same trigger limitation, so you’ll still need one of the trigger strategies above.

[damianh]

Yeah there are some work arounds, and manual re-trigger is what we're doing. But still... they're work-arounds.

Require linked issues

Don't see that option.

[krishparmar22242]

Hey! I looked into that PR issue-linking problem.
The bad news is you're right—GitHub doesn't fire a notification when someone links an issue in the sidebar, so the Action never knows it needs to re-run.
Here are the two best ways to fix it:
The 'Modern' Way: Check your Repo Settings for 'Rulesets'. GitHub actually added a built-in rule called 'Require linked issues' recently. If you turn that on, you don't even need the workflow anymore; GitHub handles the enforcement natively in the UI.
The 'Workflow' Way: If you want to keep your script, add labeled and unlabeled to your on: pull_request types. Then, if a dev forgets to link the issue, they can just link it and then add/remove a label to 'force' the check to run again.
It's a bit of a workaround, but until GitHub adds a linked_issue event, toggling a label is the fastest way to poke the Action!

[krishparmar22242]

If your repo supports it (Public repos or GitHub Enterprise):

Path:
Settings → Code and automation → Rules → Rulesets

Enable the built-in rule:

Require linked issues
If You Must Use GitHub Actions (Workflow-Based Workaround)

Since GitHub doesn’t emit an event for “Issue Linked”, you need a manual event nudge that does fire.

1️⃣ Label Toggle Trigger (Most Common Hack)

Extend your workflow triggers:

on:
pull_request:
types:
[opened, edited, synchronize, reopened, labeled, unlabeled]

2️⃣ ready_for_review Trigger (Clean Team Flow)

If your team uses Draft PRs:

on:
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, ready_for_review]

3️⃣ Use a Dedicated Action (Optional)

There are community actions like Verify Linked Issue that wrap the API logic for you.
However, they still suffer from the same trigger limitation, so you’ll still need one of the trigger strategies above.

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