Committing changes to a pull request branch created from a fork

You can commit changes on a pull request branch that was created from a fork of your repository with permission from the pull request creator.

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You can only make commits on pull request branches that:

  • Are opened in a repository that you have push access to and that were created from a fork of that repository
  • Are on a user-owned fork
  • Have permission granted from the pull request creator
  • Don't have branch restrictions that will prevent you from committing

Only the user who created the pull request can give you permission to push commits to the user-owned fork. For more information, see Allowing changes to a pull request branch created from a fork.

Note

You can also make commits to a pull request branch from a fork of your repository through GitHub.com by creating your own copy (or fork) of the fork of your repository and committing changes to the same head branch that the original pull request changes were created on. For some general guidelines, see Creating a pull request from a fork.

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the fork (or copy of your repository) where the pull request branch was created.

  2. Above the list of files, click Code.

    Screenshot of the list of files on the landing page of a repository. The "Code" button is highlighted with a dark orange outline.

  3. Copy the URL for the repository.

    • To clone the repository using HTTPS, under "HTTPS", click .

    • To clone the repository using an SSH key, including a certificate issued by your organization's SSH certificate authority, click SSH, then click .

    • To clone a repository using GitHub CLI, click GitHub CLI, then click .

      Screenshot of the "Code" dropdown menu. To the right of the HTTPS URL for the repository, a copy icon is outlined in dark orange.

  4. Open TerminalTerminalGit Bash.

    Tip

    If you prefer to clone the fork using GitHub Desktop, then see Cloning a repository.

  5. Change the current working directory to the location where you want to download the cloned directory.

    cd open-source-projects

  6. Type git clone, and then paste the URL you copied in Step 3.

    git clone https://github.com/USERNAME/FORK-OF-THE-REPOSITORY

  7. Press Enter. Your local clone will be created.

    $ git clone https://github.com/USERNAME/FORK-OF-THE-REPOSITORY
> Cloning into `FORK-OF-THE-REPOSITORY`...
> remote: Counting objects: 10, done.
> remote: Compressing objects: 100% (8/8), done.
> remove: Total 10 (delta 1), reused 10 (delta 1)
> Unpacking objects: 100% (10/10), done.

    Tip

    The error message "fatal: destination path 'REPOSITORY-NAME' already exists and is not an empty directory" means that your current working directory already contains a repository with the same name. To resolve the error, you must clone the fork in a different directory.

  8. Navigate into your new cloned repository.

    cd FORK-OF-THE-REPOSITORY

  9. Switch branches to the compare branch of the pull request where the original changes were made. If you navigate to the original pull request, you'll see the compare branch at the top of the pull request.

    In this example, the compare branch is test-branch:

    git checkout TEST-BRANCH

    Tip

    For more information about pull request branches, including examples, see Creating a pull request.

  10. At this point, you can do anything you want with this branch. You can push new commits to it, run some local tests, or merge other branches into the branch. Make modifications as you like.

  11. After you commit your changes to the head branch of the pull request you can push your changes up to the original pull request directly. In this example, the head branch is test-branch:

    $ git push origin test-branch
> Counting objects: 32, done.
> Delta compression using up to 8 threads.
> Compressing objects: 100% (26/26), done.
> Writing objects: 100% (29/29), 74.94 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.
> Total 29 (delta 8), reused 0 (delta 0)
> To https://github.com/USERNAME/FORK-OF-THE-REPOSITORY.git
> 12da2e9..250e946  TEST-BRANCH -> TEST-BRANCH

Your new commits will be reflected on the original pull request on GitHub.com.

Further Reading