Dependency Tracking and Custom Issue Fields

▶ Watch (01:54)

GitHub Issues now ships two features that matter as teams grow. “Blocked by” and “blocking” dependency markers link issues so any team member can see what’s holding what, and a visual indicator surfaces in the project board automatically. Custom Issue Fields let organizations define shared metadata (priority, start date, target date) that appears on every issue across a repo. Setting priority and sorting by it turns a flat list into P0, P1, and P2 work buckets. Both features address the same gap: a simple to-do/in-progress/done board loses the context needed to coordinate across work streams.

Sprint Planning and Copilot Coding Agent Assignment

▶ Watch (03:42)

Sprint fields turn priority buckets into a sequenced roadmap. Bulk-assigning P0 issues to sprint one, P1 to sprint two, and P2/P3 to sprint three takes seconds. Grouping by sprint produces a full iteration view showing which issues sit in each sprint and which are unplanned. From that same view, Evi assigned the Copilot coding agent as assignee (04:55) to a P0 bug no one had capacity to tackle. Copilot takes the first pass at writing the PR. Bulk assignment from Projects is supported, so multiple issues can be handed off at once.

Portfolio View and Hierarchy Drill-Down

▶ Watch (06:15)

The portfolio view groups epics by team (mobile, game experience, website) and surfaces custom fields like trending status and target date alongside subissue progress. Stakeholders can see which team owns each epic, who’s assigned, and how far along the work is without asking anyone.

“Here you will be able to enable a Show Hierarchy View mode.” — Evi Liu

That mode, the most-requested Projects feature, lets anyone drill from an epic down through features to individual tasks. The full nested subissue tree is visible in one view.

Copilot Issue Drafting and Sub-Issue Breakdown

▶ Watch (08:14)

From Copilot chat inside a repository, a PM can type “create an issue for adding player achievements and badges” and get back a structured draft with overview, requirements, implementation considerations, and acceptance criteria. One more prompt breaks it into sub-issues: Copilot generates five sub-issues from one prompt (10:02) by scanning the codebase and pulling context from existing PRs. Both the parent issue and sub-issues are created directly into the project from chat. No manual issue-writing, no separate planning session.

Notable Quotes

you can go from idea to impact even faster. Evi Liu · ▶ 1:01

Here you will be able to enable a Show Hierarchy View mode. Evi Liu · ▶ 7:32

It’s created five sub issues gathering context from other issues from other PRS Evi Liu · ▶ 10:02

Key Takeaways

  • Custom Issue Fields add org-wide priority, date, and status metadata to every issue in a repository.
  • The Copilot coding agent can be assigned to unattended issues directly from a Projects board to draft PRs.
  • Copilot chat drafts structured issues and breaks them into sub-issues by scanning the codebase and open PRs.