The post introduces a now-unmaintained tool for importing GitHub Issues into Discourse, designed to help teams migrate discussion-heavy issues away from GitHub’s tracker to Discourse’s forum environment. cpradio explains the simple four-step process: authenticate with GitHub, select a repo and issues, enter Discourse credentials, and start the import. calmh questions the utility, noting GitHub’s strengths as an issue tracker. erlend_sh counters that overloaded trackers—like Atom’s—benefit from moving “Discussion” and “Enhancement” issues to Discourse. Robert_Lee_Louviere sarcastically suggests a Dropbox/Notepad alternative, later proposing GitHub oneboxing Discourse threads to avoid fragmentation [9]. codinghorror clarifies the goal: reduce “bike-shedding” by moving discussions off GitHub, where quoting and moderation are poor [12]. Robert_Lee_Louviere outlines four problematic outcomes of splitting threads, arguing moderation is easier if kept on GitHub. codinghorror points to Discourse’s own workflow—code on GitHub, discussion here—as proof it’s feasible. Robert_Lee_Louviere concedes, acknowledging Discourse’s improvements and agreeing to disagree. The thread highlights tension between GitHub’s structured issue tracking and Discourse’s rich discussion features, with the Discourse team advocating separation to improve focus and moderation.
The Discourse Team and I are pleased to announce our Import GitHub Issues into Discourse tool. The idea behind it is fairly simple, authenticate with GitHub, select the issues you wish to import, and then provide your Discourse credentials and let it do the rest (as shown in the screenshots below)!
If you have repositories that have open issues and you have a Discourse instance where you would like these issues to reside, please give it a go!
We would love to hear any feedback to your experience with the tool, any improvements that may be useful, and more importantly if you encounter any issues or errors in this topic.
The most common use case is when an issue tracker gets overburdened with “Discussion” and “Enhancement” issues. Atom.io provides a very relevant case study:
Lock the GitHub ticket. Lose the ability to ask for pertinent additional information unless you unlock the thread.
Do the OP suggestion. Leave the GitHub open. The conversation splits and bike-shedding happens on the ticket anyway.
Do the OP suggestion. Lock the GitHub thread. Sort through all the bikeshedding on here for pertinent information, pushing the problem back 1 step to obscurity.
OR the MOST LIKELY THING. Do the OP suggestion. Lock the GitHub thread. Ignore any further pertinent information on Discourse because you put a barrier up to it.
Either way you’ll have to moderate. So, why not keep the conversation on GitHub and moderate it there. If you have to lock the thread, someone can PM you here and you can post it on that thread.
You can see how we do it right here with Discourse. All our discussion is here, yet the code is on github. It isn’t some kind of magical impossibility to achieve.
This tool is no longer maintained. Check out Discourse Code Review instead.
The GitHub issue tracker is … an issue tracker, with