As a full-stack developer relying on GitHub for collaborating on projects both large and small, I utilize issues and pull requests constantly to manage tasks, discuss code changes, and ship new features. GitHub Desktop puts these essential tools directly into its graphical interface—allowing me to create issues and PRs without needing to switch to the browser or command line.
After using GitHub Desktop daily in my workflows for years, I‘m sharing my best practices for crafting issues, proposing pull requests, participating in code reviews, and beyond—all from the convenience of the desktop app. Whether you‘re new to GitHub or just new to the desktop interface, this comprehensive guide will level up your proficiency.
Why Issues and Pull Requests Matter
Before we dive into using GitHub Desktop specifically, it‘s important to understand why issues and pull requests are integral to modern development and how they enable productive collaboration.
The Need for Issues
Issues provide a centralized place for developers to keep track of bugs, internal tasks, feature requests, questions—anything that comes up related to a project. By having a dedicated issue tracking system connected directly to a repository, teams gain:
- Visibility – Everyone has transparency into known problems, planned features, questions from users, etc. in a single place.
- Accountability – Issues are assigned to team members so it‘s clear who is responsible for what.
- Prioritization – Issues can be ordered based on severity, which guides development priorities.
- Progress Tracking – Teams can update and close issues to signal progress to everyone involved.
Without issues, critical information falls through the cracks asteams rely on memory, email chains, stand-up meetings, and more. Modern platforms like GitHub help development move faster by capturing this data on issues.
In fact, GitHub reported 46 million new issues created in repositories in 2021 alone! This staggering number signals that issue tracking drives most major software projects today.
Why Pull Requests Matter
Pull requests (PRs) provide developers a consistent way to review, discuss, and ultimately merge code changes into a main codebase. Rather than developers haphazardly pushing changes on their own, PRs enable:
- Code Reviews – Teams can catch bugs, give feedback, and ensure changes meet standards before merging.
- Awareness – When done reviewing, a PR provides visibility to the entire team on what is being changed.
- Discussion – Developers can comment directly on specific lines of code to question implementations, make suggestions, or get clarification.
Pull requests promote quality through rigorous reviewing while eliminating potential for miscommunication or duplication of work that could happen with informal code merges.
And the numbers speak for themselves—developers on GitHub created over 13 million PRs in 2021, highlighting how integral peer code reviews through PRs now are.
Now that we‘ve established why issues and PRs are essential collaboration mechanisms for development teams of all sizes, let‘s see how GitHub Desktop aims to simplify interacting with them.
GitHub Desktop vs Other Git Clients
As an open source Git client designed exclusively for use with GitHub, GitHub Desktop aims specifically to streamline workflow around GitHub repositories. Its capabilities focus on:
- Git fundamentals like committing, pushing, pulling, branching
- GitHub-specific features like issues, PRs
- Visualizing activity timelines and network graphs
GitHub Desktop stands apart from other desktop Git GUI options by putting GitHub issue/PR management right in the application rather than needing to switch to a browser window.
Comparatively, apps like GitKraken and Fork offer more robust "one stop shop" Git capabilities like rebasing branches, resolving merge conflicts visually, running remote commands via terminal, and connecting non-GitHub repositories.
So while GitHub Desktop prioritizes being a convenient companion to GitHub‘s collaboration tooling, other desktop Git apps target being more fully featured development environments enabling intricate Git workflows.
Understanding these differences allows you to determine if GitHub Desktop fits your needs or if opting for a more robust client like GitKraken may be preferable.
For my projects hosted on GitHub however, I‘ve found GitHub Desktop strikes the right balance between convenience and functionality needed for my daily development. And for me, having issue and PR creation built right in makes collaboration far more seamless.
Creating Issues in GitHub Desktop
Now that we‘ve covered the importance of issue tracking and how GitHub Desktop fits in, let‘s get into actually creating issues from the app.
Step 1: Open Target Repository
Launch GitHub Desktop and open the repository you want to create the issue for. You can access existing repositories you have locally cloned or add a new one via the "Current Repository" dropdown:
With your target repository open, you‘ll see the main repository view listing the project files and activity timeline.
Step 2: Initialize New Issue
Navigate to Repository > Create Issue on GitHub from the menu bar:
This will automatically open your default browser to start filing an issue on the repository within github.com.
Pro Tip: Make sure you have the repository you want to create the issue for selected rather than just github.com‘s dashboard before choosing this option.
Step 3: Fill In Issue Details
You will now see GitHub‘s new issue form. Start by giving your issue a descriptive title summarizing the bug, question, proposal, or task:
Then in the body, describe the issue with as much useful detail and context as possible.
- For bug reports, include:
- Specifics on the unexpected/broken behavior
- Step-by-step reproduction instructions
- Screenshots, logs, or errors encountered
- For new proposals, describe:
- What you want to add or change
- Reasoning for the request
- Any helpful mockups or supplemental context
Provide enough information upfront for others to grasp the crux of this issue on first read. Those details will assist whoever picks up responsibility for moving this issue forward.
Step 4: Submit New Issue
With a descriptive title and detailed explanation written up, submit the issue by clicking Submit new issue:
And that‘s it! GitHub will now create an issue in the repository and you can start tracking progress on it.
Step 5: Manage Newly Created Issue
Now back in your repository‘s main Issues tab, you can see the issue you just created:
Start managing this issue by:
- Assigning it to a developer to own handling this issue
- Labeling it based on type (bug, proposal, question, etc.)
- Commenting with any clarification needed
- Referencing it from project boards or milestones
And when work begins on addressing this issue, update the status by closing it or keeping comments and progress updates flowing.
By creating this issue directly from GitHub Desktop, initiating and tracking this task is now far simpler without having to switch between applications.
Best Practices for Effective Issues
Now that you understand how to create GitHub issues using the desktop app, let‘s discuss best practices to create effective issues optimized for collaboration.
Follow these guidelines in your issue creation process:
Be clear and concise in summaries – Use issue titles that quickly communicate the core topic so others grasp context at a glance during triage.
Follow templates if available – Some repositories provide issue templates covering specific information to include. Use these to standardize your reports.
Explain from your audience‘s perspective – Consider what your cross-functional team needs to understand this issue and provide those details upfront. Don‘t make them hunt through discussion threads or code.
@mention relevant contributors – If you know specific people that should provide input on this issue, @mention them in the description or assign them so they receive notifications.
Link related issues/PRs – If this issue relates to other existing tickets, paste links between them for better visibility into dependencies and overall status.
Use labels intentionally – Categorize this issue with existing labels that allow the appropriate specialities to triage and prioritize accordingly.
By keeping these points top of mind while reporting issues from GitHub Desktop, you‘ll maximize response time and accuracy. Your teammates will appreciate issues created thoughtfully with their needs in mind!
Initiating Pull Requests
In addition to issue management, GitHub Desktop provides built-in functionality for initiating new pull requests—another essential collaboration mechanism.
As a refresher, pull requests allow developers to propose code changes and request that collaborators review, give feedback, and ultimately approve merging those changes into the main codebase.
Let‘s explore how to start that PR process from GitHub Desktop.
Step 1: Make Code Changes
Before you can request merging changes in, you first need to make changes locally!
In GitHub Desktop, switch to the branch you want to modify. Then open your editor and code editor of choice and start making updates:
Modify existing files or add completely new source files as needed.
Step 2: Commit Your Changes
Once you have changes ready for review, return to GitHub Desktop.
You‘ll now see your modifications listed in the Changes view. Review the files you altered, and create a descriptive commit summary before committing changes:
Pro Tip: Make frequent, small commits addressing logical groupings of changes rather than one giant commit. Smaller commits simplify both your local Git history and reviewing proposed changes in pull requests.
Keep committing additional rounds of changes as you make more updates.
Step 3: Push Commits to Remote
To allow collaborators to see your changes online, push your local commits up to the central GitHub repository:
After pushing, you‘ll see your branch on GitHub will now be ahead of the main base branch you branched from by however many commits you pushed.
Step 4: Open Pull Request
With your changes now reflected on GitHub, you can request to merge them into the stable main (or master) branch.
Like creating issues, GitHub Desktop allows initiating pull requests without switching applications via:
Repository > Create Pull Request on GitHub
This will open a browser window to begin a new pull request. GitHub will automatically load a compare view showing the delta between your branch and the base branch you select to merge into.
Step 5: Submit Pull Request
Review the changes shown between your branch and main. Provide a descriptive title and explanation of the purpose and implementation of your changes:
Include any helpful details, notes, or questions for reviewers. With information submitted, click Create pull request.
And you‘re done—you‘ve now notified your team of changes ready for their feedback!
GitHub will email collaborators, and the pull request will now be visible in your repository‘s Pull Requests tab for anyone to review:
The true power of initiating pull requests now comes from interacting with teammates to provide feedback and ultimately merge in approved changes.
Managing Pull Requests
With the PR created, developers and stakeholders can now review proposed updates, give implementation suggestions, ask clarifying questions, and ultimately sign off on changes.
Managing collaboration on pull requests involves:
- Reviewing diff chunks – Navigate file diffs line-by-line commenting on specific sections. Discuss potential improvements, identify bugs, or ask for reasoning behind implementations.
- Answering questions – Reply to any questions left on the overall PR or specific lines of code.
- Making additional commits – If changes are requested, switch locally to make updates, commit, and push new commits to automatically add them to the open PR.
- Requesting changes if updates are still needed or approving when satisfied.
- Merging to main once enough reviewers approve and testing passes.
GitHub Desktop simplifies continually pushing new commits as you address feedback by handling synchronizing your local development environment with the remote pull request.
And after merging, you can easily pull down the now-updated main branch to stay in sync.
By handling pull request workflows natively in the app, GitHub Desktop removes much of the manual context switching traditionally needed. Instead you can focus on the collaborative process of improving, discussing, and ultimately shipping quality code.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
While having issue and PR functionality embedded right in GitHub Desktop makes participating in these collaborative processes far easier, it‘s not without the occasional hiccup.
Based on my years of daily use, here are some common frustrations I‘ve run into and how to address them:
Browser won‘t open when creating issue/PR – First, ensure you have GitHub Desktop configured to use your computer‘s default browser in Preferences > Integrations. If already set, try force quitting all browser processes and relaunch GitHub Desktop before attempting to create another issue or PR.
Wrong repository initializing – Double check you have your intended repository selected in GitHub Desktop‘s repository selector before attempting to create issues or PRs. Accidentally initializing processes on the wrong repository easily leads to confusion down the line.
New commits not showing in PR – If new commits pushed locally don‘t show up updating your pull request on GitHub, try force pushing your branch to override the remote history. Force pushing essentially does a clean overwrite which will synchronize the PR. (Note – Don‘t force push on shared branches as this can overwrite teammates‘ work.)
Staying ahead of situations like these where GitHub Desktop doesn‘t behave as expected eliminates frustration. Follow standard troubleshooting methodology – double check configurations, restart applications, and research obscure error messages. And always reach out on community forums if an resolution isn‘t apparent!
Wrapping Up
Between its deeply ingrained issue and pull request initiation features and robust companion GitHub functionalities, GitHub Desktop removes major headaches in your collaboration workflows—allowing you to focus efforts on solving problems and shipping great software.
I hope this comprehensive guide from a full-stack developer‘s perspective clearly demonstrates workflows for leveraging GitHub Desktop daily to coordinate with teammates. By mastering issues and pull requests right from your desktop, you can transform how you participate in the highly collaborative software projects relied upon across every industry.
Now that you know how to technically use GitHub Desktop for issues and PRs, remember to apply best practices around communicating effectively and intentionally fostering healthy, respectful collaboration skills. Code is simply a means to an end—but an empowered, aligned team is what truly determines transformational success.
So dive in, collaborate freely, develop actively in the open, engage in healthy debates, value diverse perspectives, merge changes gracefully, and push our shared human progress forward every single pull request at a time!
