Participating in a discussion

You can converse with the community and maintainers in a forum within the repository for a project on GitHub.

Who can use this feature?

People with read access to a repository can participate in discussions and polls in the repository. People with read access to the source repository for organization discussions can participate in discussions and polls in that organization.

In this article

About participation in a discussion

GitHub Discussions is an open forum for conversation among maintainers and the community for a repository or organization on GitHub. For more information, see About discussions.

In addition to starting or viewing discussions and polls, you can:

  • Comment in response to the original comment from the author of the discussion
  • Create a comment thread by replying to an individual comment that another community member made within the discussion
  • React to comments with emoji
  • Upvote discussions and top-level comments to give them more visibility

You can block users and report disruptive content to maintain a safe and pleasant environment for yourself on GitHub. For more information, see Maintaining your safety on GitHub.

Prerequisites

GitHub Discussions must be enabled for the repository or organization for you to participate in a discussion in the repository or organization. For more information, see Enabling or disabling GitHub Discussions for a repository and Enabling or disabling GitHub Discussions for an organization.

Creating a discussion

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository or organization where you want to start a discussion.

  2. Under your repository or organization name, click Discussions.

    Screenshot of the tabs in a GitHub repository. The "Discussions" option is outlined in dark orange.

  3. On the right side of the page, click New discussion.

  4. Select a discussion category by clicking Get started.

    Screenshot of the "Select a discussion category" page. A button, labeled "Get started", is outlined in dark orange.

  5. Under "Discussion title", type a title for your discussion, and under "Write", type the body of your discussion.

    Screenshot of the text fields for the title and body for a new discussion.

  6. Click Start discussion.

Creating a poll

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.

  2. Under your repository or organization name, click Discussions.

    Screenshot of the tabs in a GitHub repository. The "Discussions" option is outlined in dark orange.

  3. In the list of categories, click Polls.

    Screenshot of the categories section in the "Discussions" tab. The "Poll" category is outlined in dark orange.

  4. On the right, click New discussion.

  5. Under "Discussion title", type a title and optionally, under "Write", type a body for your poll.

    Screenshot of the page to start a new poll.

  6. Under "Poll question", type a question for your poll.

  7. Under "Poll options", type at least two options for your poll.

  8. Optionally, to add an extra poll option, click Add an option.

    Screenshot of the page to start a new poll. The plus icon and "Add an option" are outlined in dark orange.

  9. Click Start poll.

Marking a comment as an answer

Discussion authors and users with the triage role or greater for a repository can mark a comment as the answer to a discussion in the repository. Similarly, discussion authors and users with the triage role or greater for the source repository for organization discussions can mark a comment as the answer to a discussion in the organization.

You can mark a comment in the discussion as an answer to the discussion if a discussion is within a category that accepts answers. For more information, see "About discussions."

When you mark a question as an answer, GitHub will highlight the comment and replies to the comment to help visitors quickly find the answer.

Screenshot of a comment marked as the answer to a discussion.

You can also mark a threaded comment (in response to a comment) as the answer to a discussion. You can't mark a minimized comment as the answer to a discussion.

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository or organization.

  2. Under your repository or organization name, click Discussions.

    Screenshot of the tabs in a GitHub repository. The "Discussions" option is outlined in dark orange.

  3. In the list of discussions, click the unanswered discussion you want to mark as answered.

    Screenshot of the list of discussions with an unanswered discussion.

  4. In the discussion, find the comment you want to mark as the answer.

  5. Below the comment, click Mark as answer.

    Screenshot of a discussion comment. A button, labeled "Mark as answer", is outlined in dark orange.

  6. Optionally, to unmark a comment as the answer, click Unmark as answer.

Upvoting a discussion

You can upvote discussions to give more visibility to the topics that matter to you, and sort discussions to see which have been upvoted the most. For more information on sorting discussions, see Collaborating with maintainers using discussions.

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.

  2. Under your repository or organization name, click Discussions.

    Screenshot of the tabs in a GitHub repository. The "Discussions" option is outlined in dark orange.

  3. In the list of discussions, find the discussion you want to upvote.

  4. To the left of the discussion, click the upvote arrow.

    Screenshot of the discussion list. A button, labeled with an upwards arrow and "5", is outlined in dark orange.

  5. Optionally, click the upvote arrow again to remove your upvote.

Upvoting a comment

You can upvote top-level comments in discussions, and sort top-level comments to see which comments have been upvoted the most. For more information on sorting comments, see Collaborating with maintainers using discussions.

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.

  2. Under your repository or organization name, click Discussions.

    Screenshot of the tabs in a GitHub repository. The "Discussions" option is outlined in dark orange.

  3. In the list of discussions, click the discussion you want to view.

  4. In the discussion, find a top-level comment you want to upvote.

  5. Click on the upvote arrow at the bottom left of the comment.

    Screenshot of the top-level comment on a discussion. A button, labeled with an upwards arrow and "1", is outlined in dark orange.

  6. Optionally, click the upvote arrow again to remove your upvote.