GitHub introduces sub-issues, issue types and advanced search

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall sentiment

  • Many welcome sub-issues, types, and better search as long-overdue steps toward a real bug tracker.
  • Others see it as the start (or continuation) of “GitHub becoming Jira/ServiceNow,” with creeping complexity and loss of earlier simplicity.
  • Several commenters think GitHub is still far from suitable for large commercial project management, though closer than before.

Sub-issues and hierarchy

  • Sub-issues are praised as more flexible than Jira’s rigid Epic/Task/Subtask hierarchy and similar to how people already use markdown task lists.
  • Users like that you can create sub-issues ad hoc and nest arbitrarily (issues all the way down).
  • Some ask about interoperability: upgrading existing task lists to sub-issues and exporting sub-issues as markdown checklists.
  • Others argue basic dependency tracking and “meta-bugs” (with notifications when dependents close) are still missing or unclear.

Issue types, labels, and workflows

  • Issue types are seen as overlapping with labels; some wonder why types weren’t implemented as label namespaces or built on existing labels.
  • Lack of multi-repo label/milestone management and richer workflow/state transitions (e.g., enforced QA steps, explicit resolutions) are called out as major gaps.
  • Some note types are org-only, not repo-level, and question whether this is product design or upsell.

Search and filtering

  • Advanced search is welcomed, but many complain basic search (especially code search) has been unreliable for years.
  • Several want better sorting (e.g., by date), duplicate-issue suggestions, and a generally more functional notification and triage experience.

UI, performance, and accessibility

  • New issues UI is described as slower, with more skeleton loading, broken back-button history, and mandatory JavaScript in more places.
  • Replacing simple dropdown filters with a typed query box is seen as a regression, especially for mobile and accessibility.

Comparisons and broader direction

  • Frequent comparisons to Jira, Bugzilla, GitLab, Azure DevOps, Zenhub, Linear, Height, etc.; some say those still do project management better.
  • Multiple comments lament “Microsoftization/enshittification,” Copilot UI pushiness, and focus on enterprise at the expense of OSS maintainers’ needs (spam control, notifications, code review ergonomics).