How To Link Pull Requests to Issues Using GitHub

Learn how to link PR and MR to issues using Github and auto-closing keywords to improve your engineering metrics reporting.

Thomas Williams
Thomas Williams LinkedIn
• 5 min read
How To Link Pull Requests to Issues Using GitHub

You can link a pull request (PR) to an issue in a Git repository to show that a fix is in progress and to automatically close the issue after merging pull requests.

Keypup uses context inference and link detection to automatically enrich your datasets, populate new fields and simplify your reporting. Linking pull requests to issues in your development tools (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) using auto-closing keywords allows Keypup and third-party tools to access and expound the information.

How Linking Pull Requests to Issues Benefits Your Reporting in Keypup

Linking issues to pull requests allows Keypup to populate and improve the following fields:

  • Issues & Pull Requests > Due on: When a pull request is linked to one or more issues, Keypup automatically infers the due date by taking the soonest of all due dates across the pull request and its related issue(s).

  • Issues & Pull Requests > Resolution State: This field is only applicable to issues. It infers the implementation status of the issue by looking at the associated pull requests. The field can have the following values:

  • None: The issue has no attached pull requests. It is not being implemented.

  • In progress: The issue has at least one open pull request attached to it.

  • Implemented: All attached pull requests are merged or closed.

These two fields can be used to refine your metrics and/or drill down on specific data (e.g., retrieve the list of overdue issues that are not being currently resolved by a pull request).

Moreover, your links between issues and pull requests are automatically grouped in your card insights. Each card is populated with the references of issues and pull requests, cross-app comments, due dates, global timeline, etc. This way, you have a single point of entry to see everything related to your linked issues and pull requests, and you can even track your average pull request size.

Image

Linking Issues to Pull Requests Using GitHub

Option 1: Via the pull request title

To link a Jira issue such as PROJ-123 or a GitHub issue such as my-org/my-project#475 to a PR, you can set your pull request title to:

  • [PROJ-123] Resolve problem with login button
  • [my-org/my-project#475] Resolve problem with login button

Option 2: Via the pull request body or a commit message

To link issues to PRs using a body or commit message, the reference or URL of your issue must be prefixed by an auto-closing keyword, such as “fixes,” “resolves” or “closes.” For instance:

Linking Issues to Merge Requests (MR) Using GitLab

Option 1: Via the merge request title

To link a Jira issue such as PROJ-123 or a GitLab issue such as my-org/my-project#475 to a MR, you can set your merge request title to:

  • [PROJ-123] Resolve problem with login button
  • [my-org/my-project#475] Resolve problem with login button

Option 2: Via the merge request body or a commit message

To link issues to merge requests via a MR body or commit message, the reference or URL of your issue must be prefixed by an auto-closing keyword, such as “fixes,” “resolves” or “closes.” For instance:

  • This MR updates the handler attached to the login button. Fixes PROJ-123.
  • Fix login button. Closes https://myorg.atlassian.net/browse/PROJ-123.
  • Fix the login. Closes my-org/my-project#475.
  • This is a fix. Resolves https://gitlab.com/my-org/my-project#475.

Linking Issues to Pull Requests Using Bitbucket

Option 1: Via the pull request title

To link a Jira issue such as PROJ-123 or a BitBucket issue such as my-org/my-project#475 to a PR, you can set your pull request title to:

  • [PROJ-123] Resolve problem with login button
  • [my-org/my-project#475] Resolve problem with login button

Option 2: Via the pull request body or a commit message

To link issues to pull requests using a PR body or commit message, the reference or URL of your issue must be prefixed by an auto-closing keyword, such as “fixes,” “resolves” or “closes.” For instance:

‍

Ready to Transform Your Analytics?

Join teams already using AI to make data-driven decisions faster than ever.

Most Recent Articles

Merge Hell: How Long-Lived Branches Quietly Slow Down Enterprise Delivery

Merge Hell: How Long-Lived Branches Quietly Slow Down Enterprise Delivery

Your median cycle time looks healthy, yet every release still ends in merge conflicts, rebases and big-bang reviews. Learn what engineering leaders on Reddit say about long-lived branches and the trunk-based vs GitFlow debate at enterprise scale, and how Keypup MCP uses pull request dates, target branches, commits, reviews and mergeability to measure branch lifetime, find where branches live longest and land aging work before it drifts into conflict.

Stephane Ibos
6 Best Engineering Metrics Tools for Benchmarking (2026)

6 Best Engineering Metrics Tools for Benchmarking (2026)

Compare the 6 best engineering metrics tools for multi-team benchmarking in 2026 — Keypup, LinearB, Swarmia, Jellyfish, Faros and Appfire Flow — on cross-team benchmarking, org-level rollups, DORA Metrics, Git-to-ticketing linking, custom KPIs, AI capabilities and data security. See how to compare teams on equal terms and find where your delivery process is broken.

Liam Davis
The PR Graveyard: How Much Engineering Work Dies Before It Merges?

The PR Graveyard: How Much Engineering Work Dies Before It Merges?

In large engineering organizations, thousands of pull requests are closed without merging or left to go stale every year, and nobody measures the cost. Learn what engineering leaders on Reddit say about abandoned pull requests, and how Keypup MCP uses pull request state, review, size, mergeability and Jira link data to size the PR graveyard, find where work dies, and triage stale pull requests before they are lost.

Arnaud Lachaume