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Viewing a pull request in GitHub Desktop

You can open a pull request branch in GitHub Desktop to view the commit history, run checks, or make changes.

About pull requests in GitHub Desktop

Pull requests let you propose changes to projects, provide feedback and reviews, and merge changes into projects. For more information, see "À propos des demandes de tirage (pull requests)."

When someone creates a pull request, they make changes on a "head branch" and suggest these changes to a "base branch," such as main. In GitHub Desktop, you can open (or "check out") the head branch of a pull request to view the changes a contributor is suggesting. For example, you can see a history of the commits that the contributor has made, and see which files the commits modified, added, or deleted.

Checking out the head branch can be useful if you want to make changes to the branch that are too complex for you to leave as suggestions in a review. For example, you might want to make structural changes to some content, add or remove files, or resolve a merge conflict that is too complex to resolve on GitHub. From GitHub Desktop, you can view the branch in your preferred editor to view any changes or make additional updates.

Alternatively, you might just want to view information such as commit history and status checks in an environment you're familiar with, without needing to navigate to the pull request on GitHub. If checks have been enabled in your repository, GitHub Desktop will show the status of the checks on the pull request and allow you to re-run checks. For more information, see "Working with a pull request in GitHub Desktop."

You cannot comment on a pull request from GitHub Desktop. After reviewing changes in a pull request, you can give feedback on GitHub. For more information, see "À propos des révisions de demande de tirage" and "Viewing a pull request on GitHub."

Opening a pull request branch in GitHub Desktop

  1. Dans GitHub Desktop, cliquez sur Branche actuelle.

    Capture d’écran de la barre du dépôt. Un bouton, intitulé « Current Branch » avec une flèche vers le bas indiquant un menu déroulant, est encadré en orange.

  2. En haut du menu déroulant, cliquez sur Requête de tirage.

    Capture d’écran du menu déroulant « Branche actuelle ». Un onglet intitulé « Demandes de tirage » est mis en évidence avec un encadré orange.

  3. Dans la liste des demandes de tirage, cliquez sur la demande de tirage que vous souhaitez afficher.

    Optionally, to refresh the list of pull requests, click .

    Screenshot of the "Pull Requests" tab. A button, labeled with an icon of two arrows forming a circle, is highlighted with an orange outline.

Lorsque vous avez ouvert une branche de demande de tirage, vous pouvez afficher le contenu de la branche dans un éditeur, afficher les l’historique des différences et validations des mises à jour du contributeur, puis afficher et réexécuter les vérifications. Pour plus d’informations, consultez « Utilisation d’une demande de tirage dans GitHub Desktop ».

Opening a pull request branch in GitHub Desktop from GitHub

  1. Sous le nom du référentiel, cliquez sur Demandes de tirage.

    Capture d’écran de la page principale d’un dépôt. Dans la barre de navigation horizontale, un onglet intitulé « Demandes de tirage » est indiqué en orange foncé.

  2. In the list of pull requests, click the pull request that you would like to open in GitHub Desktop.

  3. To the right of the title of the pull request, click Code, then, on the Local tab, click Checkout with GitHub Desktop.

    Screenshot of a pull request on GitHub. The "Code" dropdown menu is expanded, and a button, labeled "Checkout with GitHub Desktop" is outlined in orange.

Lorsque vous avez ouvert une branche de demande de tirage, vous pouvez afficher le contenu de la branche dans un éditeur, afficher les l’historique des différences et validations des mises à jour du contributeur, puis afficher et réexécuter les vérifications. Pour plus d’informations, consultez « Utilisation d’une demande de tirage dans GitHub Desktop ».

Working with a pull request in GitHub Desktop

When you have checked out a pull request branch, you can use GitHub Desktop and your local editor to view the contributor's changes or make further changes to the branch. For example, you can:

Open the branch in your editor

If you want to look at changes in context or make additional updates to a pull request, you can view the contents of the branch in your local editor.

  1. In the "GitHub Desktop" menu bar, select Repository.

  2. Click Open in EDITOR.

    Screenshot of a menu bar on a Mac. Under the open "Repository" dropdown menu, a cursor hovers over "Open in Visual Studio Code", highlighted in blue.

For more information, see "Configuring a default editor in GitHub Desktop."

View the commit history

You can view the commit history of the branch if you want to see how the contributor arrived at the set of changes they're suggesting.

  1. Dans la barre latérale gauche, cliquez sur Histoire.

    Capture d’écran de l’onglet « Historique » dans la barre latérale. Au-dessus d’une liste de validations, le bouton d’onglet, intitulé « Historique » est mis en évidence avec un contour orange.

  2. In "Select Branch to Compare...", search for and select the base branch of the pull request.

  3. Click the Ahead tab.

    Screenshot of the "History" tab. Above a list of commits, "main" is entered as the branch to compare, and a tab labeled "Ahead" is outlined in orange.

For more information, see "Viewing the branch history in GitHub Desktop."

View and re-run checks

You can view the status of checks that have run against the pull request branch. Failed checks may indicate problems with the proposed changes, which could prevent the branch from merging. You can re-run checks from GitHub Desktop. For more information, see "Viewing and re-running checks in GitHub Desktop."

Viewing a pull request on GitHub

To add comments to a pull request, leave a review, or merge the pull request, you will need to navigate to the pull request on GitHub. When you have checked out a pull request branch in GitHub Desktop, you can quickly open the corresponding pull request on GitHub.

  1. In the GitHub Desktop menu bar, click Branch.

  2. Select View Pull Request on GitHub.

    Screenshot of the menu bar on a Mac. The "Branch" dropdown menu is expanded, and the cursor hovers over "View Pull Request on GitHub".