# Autolinked references and URLs

References to URLs, issues, pull requests, and commits are automatically shortened and converted into links.

## URLs

GitHub automatically creates links from standard URLs.

`Visit https://github.com`

![Screenshot of rendered GitHub Markdown showing how a URL is displayed as a blue clickable link, "Visit https://github.com."](/assets/images/help/writing/url-autolink-rendered.png)

For more information on creating links, see [Basic writing and formatting syntax](/en/get-started/writing-on-github/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax#links).

## Issues and pull requests

Within conversations on GitHub, references to issues and pull requests are automatically converted to shortened links.

> \[!NOTE]
> Autolinked references are not created in wikis or files in a repository.

| Reference type                                                   | Raw reference                                    | Short link                                                                             |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Issue or pull request URL                                        | <https://github.com/jlord/sheetsee.js/issues/26> | [#26](https://github.com/jlord/sheetsee.js/issues/26)                                  |
| `#` and issue or pull request number                             | #26                                              | [#26](https://github.com/jlord/sheetsee.js/issues/26)                                  |
| `GH-` and issue or pull request number                           | GH-26                                            | [GH-26](https://github.com/jlord/sheetsee.js/issues/26)                                |
| `Username/Repository#` and issue or pull request number          | jlord/sheetsee.js#26                             | [jlord/sheetsee.js#26](https://github.com/jlord/sheetsee.js/issues/26)                 |
| `Organization_name/Repository#` and issue or pull request number | github-linguist/linguist#4039                    | [github-linguist/linguist#4039](https://github.com/github-linguist/linguist/pull/4039) |

If you reference an issue, pull request, or discussion in a list, the reference will unfurl to show the title and state instead. For more information about task lists, see [About tasklists](/en/get-started/writing-on-github/working-with-advanced-formatting/about-tasklists).

## Labels

When referencing the URL of a label in Markdown, the label is automatically rendered. Only labels of the same repository are rendered, URLs pointing to a label from a different repository are rendered as any [URL](/en/get-started/writing-on-github/working-with-advanced-formatting/autolinked-references-and-urls#urls).

The URL of a label can be found by navigating to the labels page and clicking on a label. For example, the URL of the label "enhancement" in our public [docs repository](https://github.com/github/docs/) is

```markdown
https://github.com/github/docs/labels/enhancement
```

> \[!NOTE]
> If the label name contains a period (`.`), the label will not automatically render from the label URL.

## Commit SHAs

References to a commit's SHA hash are automatically converted into shortened links to the commit on GitHub.

| Reference type            | Raw reference                                                                                                                                                                  | Short link                                                                                                          |
| ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Commit URL                | [`https://github.com/jlord/sheetsee.js/commit/a5c3785ed8d6a35868bc169f07e40e889087fd2e`](https://github.com/jlord/sheetsee.js/commit/a5c3785ed8d6a35868bc169f07e40e889087fd2e) | [a5c3785](https://github.com/jlord/sheetsee.js/commit/a5c3785ed8d6a35868bc169f07e40e889087fd2e)                     |
| SHA                       | a5c3785ed8d6a35868bc169f07e40e889087fd2e                                                                                                                                       | [a5c3785](https://github.com/jlord/sheetsee.js/commit/a5c3785ed8d6a35868bc169f07e40e889087fd2e)                     |
| User\@SHA                 | jlord\@a5c3785ed8d6a35868bc169f07e40e889087fd2e                                                                                                                                | [jlord@a5c3785](https://github.com/jlord/sheetsee.js/commit/a5c3785ed8d6a35868bc169f07e40e889087fd2e)               |
| `Username/Repository@SHA` | `jlord/sheetsee.js@a5c3785ed8d6a35868bc169f07e40e889087fd2e`                                                                                                                   | [`jlord/sheetsee.js@a5c3785`](https://github.com/jlord/sheetsee.js/commit/a5c3785ed8d6a35868bc169f07e40e889087fd2e) |

### Troubleshooting referencing commit SHAs

When referencing a commit from a private repository inside of a commit message, the commit SHA will only be shortlinked if at least one of the authors or committers of the commit have at least read access to the referenced commit.

## Custom autolinks to external resources

If custom autolink references are configured for a repository, then references to external resources, like a JIRA issue or Zendesk ticket, convert into shortened links. To know which autolinks are available in your repository, contact someone with admin permissions to the repository. For more information, see [Configuring autolinks to reference external resources](/en/repositories/managing-your-repositorys-settings-and-features/managing-repository-settings/configuring-autolinks-to-reference-external-resources).

## Avoiding backlinks to linked references

By default, references generate a backlink. For example, manually linking to an issue in a pull request will automatically generate another link from the issue *back* to the pull request.
To avoid this behavior, you can use `redirect.github.com` instead of `github.com` when constructing the URL in your reference. If you do use a `redirect.github.com` URL in your reference link, no pop-up window will appear when hovering over it.

> \[!NOTE]
> This method is not supported in GitHub Enterprise Cloud with Data Residency (`ghe.com`).

## Further reading

* [Basic writing and formatting syntax](/en/get-started/writing-on-github/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax)