Users can now choose whether merging linked pull requests automatically closes the issue

[tuves]

Linking a pull request to an issue makes it easy for collaborators to see that work for the issue is underway. Today, when a linked pull request is merged, the associated issue is automatically closed.

But for many teams, merging a PR doesn’t mean the work is done—there might be QA, validation, or follow-up steps before an issue is truly resolved. With this new repository setting, you can choose whether merging a pull request should automatically close its linked issues.

Repository admins and maintainers can manage this setting under Repository settings → General → Issues. It's enabled by default to preserve existing behavior.

This ship addresses one of our most popular Community requests--thank you for your feedback and helping make our products better together 🚀

[alexwilson1]

Thank you @tuves & team! What a great feature. Is it possible to enable this on an organizational level by default?

JFYI the image is broken, seems like it's possibly linking to a previously uploaded image on a private repository.

[tuves]

Thanks @alexwilson1, image has been fixed!

[JSoet]

Thanks for implementing this! Any idea when this will be available in GitHub enterprise?

[Ayokanmi-Adejola]

This sounds like a very useful addition, Will there be any visual indication on the issue or PR that it's linked but won't auto-close upon merge?