GitHub
Email to GitHub,
the easy way
ForwardThis is the simple tool that connects your email to GitHub. Forward any email along with some simple instructions, and it’s handled. Nothing to download, nothing to set up. Works with dozens of your other apps too.
Setup in 30 seconds.
How it works
Connect GitHub
Create a free account and connect GitHub. It takes about 30 seconds, and you only do it once.
Forward an email
Forward any email to your ForwardThis address along with your instructions. One email can ask for several things at once.
Done.
ForwardThis replies when it's done, with a short summary and links to what it made. GitHub has no way to take these back, so anything that cannot be reversed is shown to you first.
Just forward it
to do@forwardthis.io
Fwd: Checkout fails on Safari at the payment step
Open an issue in harbourside/web, label it bug, give it to Ben, and comment on #377 to say it's the same thing.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Three customers this morning couldn't get past the payment step on Safari. Chrome is fine. Can someone pick this up today?
Opened harbourside/web#412
Checkout fails on Safari at the payment step · bug · Ben Alderton
Commented on harbourside/web#377
Same Safari payment sheet failure, now tracked in #412
ForwardThis checks with you before it opens or comments. It cannot be undone afterwards.
Some other examples
- “Close harbourside/web#377 as not planned and say why.”
- “Comment on the open pull request in harbourside/api with what the client asked for.”
- “Which issues in harbourside/web are still open and assigned to me?”
Everything ForwardThis can do in GitHub
Create task
Open an issue
Update task
Close, reopen or edit an issue
Change tags
Change an issue's labels
Add note
Comment on an issue or pull request
Look up tasks
Look up issues
Look up records
Look up pull requests, commits or releases
Read a record
Read an issue or pull request in full
Add CRM record
Open a pull request
Try it with a real email.
Forward any work email to the address below and see what ForwardThis can do. No signup required.
Occasional product emails may follow.
Why you need ForwardThis
Email is messy, every message asking for something different. It means constantly leaving your inbox and juggling tabs. ForwardThis skips all of that: forward an email along with some simple instructions, and it’s handled. Compatible with every email provider, and it works across the apps you’re already using.
Questions
- How do I send an email to GitHub?
- Forward the email to your ForwardThis address with a line saying what you want, like "open an issue in harbourside/web and label it bug". It writes the issue from the email and shows it to you first, with the repository, the title and the labels. Say yes and it opens the issue and replies with the link and the number. The first time, you'll need a free account with GitHub connected, which takes about 30 seconds - that's the entire GitHub email integration.
- Can I forward an email straight into a GitHub issue?
- Yes. Forward it to your ForwardThis address and name the repository, either as owner/repo or just the repo name. In the same line you can set labels, one assignee and a milestone, so "file this as a bug and give it to Ben" happens in one go. You can also close, reopen, retitle or rewrite an issue you already have, found by number like repo#123 or by its exact title.
- Can it comment on or open a pull request?
- Yes. It can comment on a pull request by number or exact title, change the labels on one, read one in full including the latest comments, and open a new pull request in a named repository. Both branches are matched against the real branch list first, and the base defaults to the repository's default branch. It never merges a pull request, and it never pushes code.
- Is there an undo if it gets something wrong?
- No, and that's why it always asks first. GitHub issues cannot be deleted, and closing one is not the same as undoing it: the number, the history and the notifications all stay. So every write here is shown to you before it happens, naming the real repository and the real object, and you can stop it there. Closing a pull request afterwards is only a partial undo too, because the branch and the review notifications remain.
- How is this different from replying to a GitHub notification email, or Zapier?
- Replying to a notification email adds a comment to the thread you were already notified about, which is quick but only ever reaches that one issue. Zapier can do more, but you build a rule for each case first, and it works best when the same email arrives in the same shape every time. ForwardThis uses one address and reads the line you write, so this email opens a labelled bug in harbourside/web and the next one comments on a pull request. What it will never do, whatever the email says, is start code running, deploy, publish a release, commit to a branch, or touch repository settings, secrets or collaborators.