# GitHub Issues 29 Hacker News commenters recommended GitHub Issues and 28 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Recommended for quick, CLI-friendly tracking tied to code, milestones and pull requests. Common caveat: fewer workflow features than Jira. ## Why people recommend it - Easy to query from the CLI (5 comments): "They are easily queryable/filterable from the cli, can be attached to milestones, and automatically closed by attaching a PR to it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50244362)) "I've had success with just using gh issues and agents are pretty good at looking for new issues and closing them when done." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46078289)) "I'm using GitHub issues and GitHub Projects with `gh` cli and I find it works well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48515812)) - Lives with code, no extra tools (4 comments): "They work great for this. You can copy and paste code, images and references to code in repos to them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46989456)) "Removing the friction of opening a browser actually changed how consistently I maintain my list." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47786499)) "But it's better than spinning up an ephemeral web site, or hooking into Slack or Telegram" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49122788)) - Works as an agent task board (4 comments): "I've had success with just using gh issues and agents are pretty good at looking for new issues and closing them when done." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46078289)) "Gh issues works surprisingly well as an agent board. Labels for state, one issue per feature." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48519244)) "A major benefit of this is that agents can look up prior prompt instructions as needed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49800098)) - Fine for small projects (2 comments): "I personally, use GH Issues for my own work, but there's hardly any, so it's not a burden." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46463551)) "it totally works for my N<10 users" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49393879)) ## What people warn about - Lacks triage and separate lists (4 comments): "It all stems from the fact that all issues are in this one large pool rather than there being a completely separate list" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46463569)) "github issues is crap. Most bug trackers have ways to triage submissions." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46463068)) "Creating an issue for things that aren't issues is fundamentally broken." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46466941)) - Fewer features than Jira (3 comments): "If GitHub had the same level of integration that other ticket systems achieve with their automation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46469443)) "GitHub issues doesn't let you do all the arcane nonsense Azure DevOps' boards let you do." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46950736)) "i often whish gh issues had more of the features jira has" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48516522)) - Vendor lock-in and outages (2 comments): "vendor lockin + slow network calls (+ GitHub is down sometimes)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46509034)) "been getting nothing but trouble the last few weeks from having github manage the project/issues" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48014848)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Linear](https://hackerapproved.com/p/linear.md): 148 recommend - [Jira](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jira.md): 128 recommend - [git-bug](https://hackerapproved.com/p/git-bug.md): 36 recommend - [Epiq](https://hackerapproved.com/p/epiq.md): 19 recommend - [JetBrains YouTrack](https://hackerapproved.com/p/youtrack.md): 14 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://github.com/platform) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "GitHub Issues", https://hackerapproved.com/p/github-issues/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).