Collaboration tools

A new version of the commit details page is now available in public beta!

This new page, which is enabled by default, lets you quickly understand and navigate the changes in a commit with improvements to filtering, commenting, and keyboard navigation.

What’s new 🎉

Here are a few of the noteworthy changes:

• Floating comments: Code comments float over the diff when selected. To select, click on the commenter’s avatar to the right of the line.
• Comment counts: To help you identify files with comments, the number of comments for a file now appears in the file tree.
• Keyboard navigation within diffs: You can now navigate around changed lines in the diff using the up and down keys on your keyboard. A new context menu also makes it easier to comment, copy, and select.
• Quick view switching: Switching between unified and split views no longer reloads the page.
• Filter by file extension: Easily filter changed files by file extension in the diff to see the content most relevant to you.
• Filtered out diffs hidden: When filtering the file tree, diffs are filtered as well, allowing you to reduce distraction and see the files you care about most.

Next steps 📣

To give feedback, ask questions, or report a bug join us in the feedback discussion.

To opt out of the preview, go the Feature Preview dialog on your profile, select New Commit Details Page, and click Disable.

To learn more about viewing commits, see About commits.

The pull request commits page has been refreshed to improve performance, improve consistency with other pages, and to make the experience more accessible!

To minimize disruptions, the capabilities of the classic commits page have been maintained, with a few exceptions: you can now use arrow keys to navigate the list of commits (instead of j and k) and focus indicators have been improved for better visual distinction.

Opt out

To switch back to the classic commits page, disable the “New Pull Request Commits Experience” feature preview (learn more).

Feedback

To provide feedback, ask questions, learn about known issues, visit the GitHub Community feedback discussion!

We’re thrilled to introduce improvements to Repo Insights!

New Enhanced Repo Insights Views

With this update, you’ll find significant enhancements to two of our repository insights views—Contributors and Code Frequency. Both now utilize an SVG-based solution, offering improved focus navigation for precise, point-by-point interaction. You can also hide a series by interacting with the chart legend and view or download the data in both table format and as PNGs. Let’s dive into the details!

Contributors

• Date Range Filter: While the click-and-drag date range selection was a handy feature, it was also a hidden feature. The new date range filter is always visible and fully navigable by keyboard, making it more accessible and easier to use.
• Clear Date Range Display: The current date range is now explicitly listed under the heading, giving you a clear and immediate understanding of the data timeframe.
• Responsive Contributor Cards: Previously locked to a two-column view, contributor cards are now more responsive on small screens, seamlessly wrapping to a single-column layout for a better viewing experience.

Code Frequency

• Enhanced Axes Differentiation: The two different axes are now distinguished not just by color but also by line style, making it easier to interpret the data at a glance.
• Detailed Tooltips: Data points are now navigable and display more details in a tooltip. Previously, you could only visually reference data against the axes. Now, you get more information directly from the chart itself.

Explore the new features and let us know what you think! Join the discussion within the GitHub Community.

To revert this update, click on your profile picture in the top right corner of the page, go to the feature preview menu, select “Enhanced Repo Insights Views” and click disable. If you choose to turn this feature off – please let us know why using the link listed above!

We’re excited to bring an updated repository list view experience and the ruleset merge queue rule to general availability, as well as an update to the status check and workflow rules.

Finding repositories in your organization is now easier

With the introduction of custom properties earlier this year we wanted to make it easier to find repositories across your organization. With the new organization repository view and advanced filtering you find repositories based on common parameters like visibility and language, but also custom properties, size, license and a host of additional values.

Repository Rules updates

Repository ruleset merge queue rule is now generally available

In addition to being able to manage your merge queue via rules, you can now see all the pull requests that merged in the same group along with the checks needed for the queue with rule insights.

Learn more about merge queues in our documentation and repository rules REST API

Avoid required status checks and required workflows when creating branches

Applying status check and actions workflow rules to newly created branches has been a point of friction in rulesets. When creating a new branch will fail unless you add bypass actors or create an intermediate unprotected branch. To alleviate this friction there is a new option available prevent checks and workflows from running on new branches.

Learn more about status check rules and required workflows rules in our documentation.

Join the discussion within GitHub Community.

We are excited to announce new keyboard behavior for navigating and dismissing hovercards without the need for a mouse! This enhancement is designed to make our platform more user-friendly for everyone, particularly those who rely on keyboard navigation.

How It Works

When you focus on a link with a hovercard, you can now press Alt + Up to make the hovercard appear and move focus inside it. This ensures that you can interact with the hovercard content without leaving your keyboard. Focus is trapped within the hovercard, similar to how it would be in a dialog box. To dismiss the hovercard and restore focus to the link, press Esc.

Customizable Settings

In response to both community and internal feedback, we have also introduced a new user setting that allows you to disable all hovercards. This option can be found under Accessibility Settings.

Send us Feedback

You can reach out to us at GitHub Community. Your feedback is invaluable as we strive to create an inclusive and accessible environment for all users.

GitHub Desktop 3.4 lets you reset back to a specific commit quickly with “Reset to Commit” and improves discoverability of key application controls.

Resetting to Commit

With Reset to Commit, it takes one click to set your local history back to your latest pushed commit, with all of the reverted changes landing back into your changes list. While similar to using the undo function, Reset to Commit allows for resetting more than one commit at a time. By adding a new way to modify your history, Reset to Commit fits right along side undoing, reverting, amending, squashing, reordering, and cherry-picking features.

Improved Accessibility: Diff Checkmarks and Underlined Links

GitHub and the Desktop team are committed to making GitHub Desktop a tool for all developers. With GitHub Desktop 3.4, links are underlined by default and checkmarks are used in the diff to indicate whether a line is selected to be committed. These changes are aimed to enhance discoverability, be keyboard-accessible, and be semantically marked up to enable interaction with assistive technologies.

For users who want to opt out of these changes, check out the new Accessibility settings pane to customize your experience.

Automatic updates will roll out progressively, or you can download the latest GitHub Desktop here.

Repository Updates April 30th, 2024

• Deploy keys are now supported as a bypass actor in repository rules, allowing additional granularity for your automations. Previously for deploy keys to bypass a ruleset the Repository Administrator role was required.
• Webhooks and GitHub Actions will no longer be run for any push that includes over 5000 branches. Clients will now receive the following warning indicating they have reached this limit. remote: warning: No webhooks or actions will be performed for this push as it updates more than 5000 branches.

Join the discussion within GitHub Community.