Quick access to merge status anywhere in pull requests [public preview]

[ebndev]

We are rolling out the pull request merge status at the top of every pull request page! Check merge readiness from anywhere in the pull request experience, including the new "Files changed" page. Click to open the details so you can quickly identify blockers, missing approvals, and get your pull request ready to merge.

If you're still using the classic "Files changed" page, you'll need to opt into the new experience to view the merge status from this page. Learn more by checking out our changelog about the new experience.

Merge.status.button.mp4

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Join the discussion and leave feedback in the comments below!

[opti]

Did it intend to remove "Update with rebase" option from PR show page?

[broksonic21]

We’ve seen the update branch via rebase option disappear since this was released. See related thread on this: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/188567

Can this be addressed? Thanks!

[ebndev]

Hi @opti and @broksonic21, we appreciate you reaching out to report this issue! 

The GitHub team is aware of this and is working on a solution. We'll provide details when they're available in this discussion.

Please subscribe to that post to receive real-time notifications on updates. If you have further questions or additional details about your experience, please comment directly there as well.

[mpiorowski]

Love it! Dont need to scroll down everytime somethings change / breaks

[wagoodman]

This is great --one nit pick: I have a lot of vertical realestate but there is a small window which checks show up in, so I need to scroll to see all of them. I realize you're probably re-using the same component UI-wise, however, it would be much better if this component would eliminate the need to scroll so much in a small nested i-frame-like-thing to see all checks.

[vanessa-kalu]

Thanks for sharing this! We'll add this to our roadmap

[asherone0]

Did this change remove the Edit button that allows changing the base branch for a pull request?

[vanessa-kalu]

@asherone0 we replaced the edit button with a pencil icon (next to the PR number). When you select the pencil icon, you can also edit the base branch

[asherone0]

Found it, thanks

[Euan-McVie]

@vanessa-kalu - Maybe the tooltip on hover should be updated to state that it edits both title and target branch as its not obvious due to its placement and current tooltip.

[kostasmanionis]

Had to come here to figure out how to change the base branch.

[ianh-apheris]

Also struggled to find this - wasn't obvious from the UI

[josemfche]

Useful 👍🏽

[Zalathar]

This change is visually awful.

For the repositories I interact with, it just means that there is now a giant distracting red X at the top of every single PR, which conveys no useful information and is not actionable.

Please bear in mind that some repositories use an alternative mechanism to approve merges, and this change hurts anyone involved with those repositories.

[Zalathar]

Unfortunately this is not the first design change to shove a gigantic unhelpful red element in the user's face. We had similar problems with the overhaul of the merge status box at the bottom of the page.

[Zalathar]

Also the CSS for this new button is a total mess, making it impractical to perform any kind of client-side accessibility adjustment.

[Zalathar]

Having this slowly-loading item animate in the corner of the page also makes the PR page unusable for several seconds.

That causes every PR page load to be substantially slower in practice, which is very frustrating.

[gps035]

If there's room on the screen, I think the status of more checks should be displayed. It seems odd to require scrolling the in list of checks when there's a lot of whitespace below the merge button

[Camaromelt]

Nice change.

[fishmonger45]

Minor copy: When a PR is missing a review the language is forwardly geared to "Awaiting approval". It should perhaps be something neutral like "Awaiting review"?

[trongtai37]

Combining this view with the Overview info of the PR would be better

[rneatherway]

I like this change so far, thank you for working on this. One suggestion: as a reviewer I would like to be able to submit my review from this widget too. It feels natural that as it says Awaiting approval that I should be able to do this here.

[PranjalManhgaye]

it's really nice

[Wirone]

This change is nice, BUT would be much more helpful if the button was visible all the time when scrolling (within the banner containing PR's status, title etc). Right now you can jump into checks when you're either top of the page (button triggering side panel) or bottom (widget). When you're in the middle, you just have to jump top/bottom anyway, and lose the current context you're in.

PS. it works like this in diff tab, but not in conversation tab.

[SCLD-GHettinger]

The Edit button that is usually there isn't there anymore. I had to "switch to classic experience" I need that edit button to rebase the PR to a different base branch.

[chetangudisagar]

@SCLD-GHettinger Looks like it has been moved next to the PR number.

[SCLD-GHettinger]

That only edits the title of the PR, it doesn't give you the drop down to change the base branch

[reactive-firewall]

@SCLD-GHettinger 🙈 On the desktop web UI it still works for me via the icon by the PR number; See this demonstration on a dependabot PR from today (March 11 2026):

EDIT: 🤔 looks like another unintuitive tooltip 🤷
also @vanessa-kalu FYI: here is a demo for all the other users

[SCLD-GHettinger]

Oh, now I see, thanks. I was looking for the edit button on the right, since that's what GitHub's official documentation/instructions say for re-basing a PR to a different base branch, and thus what Google's AI says as well. Obviously this is a preview of a new UX, but still confusing nonetheless when the new UX preview is the default. I don't know how I missed that drop down, but I guess my eyes were looking to the right for the edit button and didn't see the drop down for the branch.

Yeah, so basically, I'd click the pencil button, my eyes would go to the right to look for the edit button, then clicked the cancel button, then my eyes would return to the left before seeing the branch drop down.

Also, I'm used to that pencil button only doing edit title, and as you have noted, the tooltip says "Edit Title" not "Edit title or base branch".

In fact, maybe my memory is fuzzy, I don't change base branches that often, but I thought I remembered the drop down to change the base branch just always being there, and not having to hit any edit button for it to show up, or at least that's how I think it should work to make things quicker/easier. Or at least put an edit branch/base button next to where the copy button is next to the line that has the base/child branch names.

[maximilianruesch]

Like the change, small nit: Whenever you enter a PR page, the GitHub icon in the tab receives a status indicator according to the merge status (which makes it really useful to keep GitHub tabs open when waiting for some PRs). When opening and closing the sidebar via the new button, this indicator in the tab vanishes and only reappears when reloading the page. Not super vital, but a bit annoying nonetheless.

[sydneyjodon-wk]

This is awesome!! Would it be possible to make it full height though because there's a bit of empty space at the bottom of the drawer where it would be nice if it would show more CI checks - see:

[forddavis]

This blocks the "Submit Review" button and for that reason is confusing. Would be better if "Submit Review" were added to this modal since it is blocking the disabled "Merge" button which is included.

[rogier-stegeman]

Exactly. If I requested changes or even just clarification, and I see them on this page, I don't want to open the file diff just to approve the PR.

[mschoettle]

This is great!

What would be nice is if it was also possible to approve a PR right within this quick access panel.

[justinmchase]

Please for the love of god let me approve PR's without having to switch to the Code panel.

Especially in this day and age of AI...

[LukeCarrierCopilot]

Meh, it's okay I guess. It seems an incredibly wasteful use of screen real estate in most repositories and somehow very cluttered in others with large numbers of check results.

I'd much rather see GitHub focus on your chronic availability issues. You have been offline for more than six hours every week of this year...

[biast12]

I really love this feature tbh, tho i would really love if we're able to see the information about an auto merge, right now do we have to disable the auto merge to check the commit title and description and then enable it again

[gdamalis]

This change will improve time I spend checking PRs now that we have agents commenting and the scroll is not longer to get to checks, this is magnific!

[mmatheson]

For those of us programmatically merging PRs, is there a way to get this information from the API?

[woody-woods]

Can we get more information when changes are requested? Like great I can see it up top, but with only the persons name and no reference to the comment makes it very useless.
This is a problem everywhere too. If someone requested changes give me links to those requests so I can quickly navigate to them please.

[bishop335]

Run auto fix and merge pull request to draft and rename it to Rakgoale Ai Developer Services

[willywil548]

Lot's of good comments :) I"m just seeing this or maybe noticing it :)

"Unable to Merge" verbiage is a bit strong when checks are running. Maybe a better status can be given. Instead of Unable to Merge, Running Checks or something?

Also, PR is ready to be merged, but still says "Unable to Merge".

[alenmeister]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but could you refactor the View checks button so that it opens a new tab?

[bric3]

this would be practical in GH mobile app as well.