Have you ever wondered how the cool cats of the internet make Markdown checklists in their GitHub repositories, issues, and pull requests? Me too. And I’m here to say: you too can be a cool cat. Markdown checklists are handy for visualizing tasks that need to be done. Beyond that, GitHub can turn these checklists into task lists in your issues and pull requests to make your project tracking easier and better. Let’s learn how to make ‘em! How to create a checklist in Markdown Making a checklist is exactly like making a regular list in Markdown (a – starting each line), but you add [ ] or [x] after the -, like so: A regular list: – This is a list item – This is another list item A checklist: – [ ] This is an unchecked item – [x] This is a checked item When the checklist is rendered, it looks like this: Feel free to use the short Markdown checklist template above to get a list going for yourself. Markdown checklists are a great way to keep track of tasks in your README files. For example, you could mark down which features might be missing or which aspects of your project need contributors. You can also use these checklists for documentation (like for noting docs coverage), notes, issues, or pull requests. The best part: GitHub adds extra functionality to your Markdown checklists — and I’ll get to that right…now! From checklist to task list A task list on GitHub is a glorified Markdown checklist, allowing you to do even more project planning and tracking when it’s in an issue or pull request. For example, let’s say you make an issue to add some features to a project of yours, like so: – [ ] Update dependencies – [ ] Add archiving feature – [ ] Research design system It will render like this in the issue: It might look like a normal checklist, but if you hover over one of the bullet points, you’ll be able to drag and drop each task to re-order them: Or, if you hit the … menu on the right side, you can turn each of the individual checklist items into its own issue, sub-issue, or re-order from there! Turning those checklist items into issues and sub-issues means that you can turn that planned work into tracked tasks. Breaking down your existing issues into smaller pieces might seem daunting, but doing it in this way connects all the pieces together nicely as you break things up into more specific chunks. And let’s just say you did the exact same thing, but in a pull request. You still have the ability to re-order the tasks, and it will render the same way as it does in the issue: But now, because you’ve built this checklist in the pull request, you get more visibility into how many tasks have been completed and how many remain in the list of pull requests for your repository. Look just below the title of your pull request: You can see the status of your project right there! Where can I learn more? Love that you asked that question. Good job. Head over to the GitHub Docs to learn more about task lists on GitHub. Happy coding! The post Video: How to create checklists in Markdown for easier task tracking appeared first on The GitHub Blog. ​ Developer skills, GitHub, GitHub Task Lists, Markdown The GitHub Blog

Software development is filled with repetitive tasks—managing issues, handling approvals, triggering CI/CD workflows, and more. But what if you could automate these types of tasks directly within GitHub Issues? That’s the promise of IssueOps, a methodology that turns GitHub Issues into a command center for automation. Whether you’re a solo developer or part of an engineering team, IssueOps helps you streamline operations without ever leaving your repository. In this article, I’ll explore the concept of IssueOps using state-machine terminology and strategies to help you work more efficiently on GitHub. After all, who doesn’t love automation? What is IssueOps? IssueOps is the practice of using GitHub Issues, GitHub Actions, and pull requests (PR) as an interface for automating workflows. Instead of switching between tools or manually triggering actions, you can use issue comments, labels, and state changes to kick off CI/CD pipelines, assign tasks, and even deploy applications. Much like the various other *Ops paradigms (ChatOps, ClickOps, and so on), IssueOps is a collection of tools, workflows, and concepts that, when applied to GitHub Issues, can automate mundane, repetitive tasks. The flexibility and power of issues, along with their relationship to pull requests, create a near limitless number of possibilities, such as managing approvals and deployments. All of this can really help to simplify your workflows on GitHub. I’m speaking from personal experience here. It’s important to note that IssueOps isn’t just a DevOps thing! Where DevOps offers a methodology to bring developers and operations into closer alignment, IssueOps is a workflow automation practice centered around GitHub Issues. IssueOps lets you run anything from complex CI/CD pipelines to a bed and breakfast reservation system. If you can interact with it via an API, there’s a good chance you can build it with IssueOps! So, why use IssueOps? There are lots of benefits to utilizing IssueOps. Here’s how it’s useful in practice: It’s event-driven, so you can automate the boring stuff: IssueOps lets you automate workflows directly from GitHub Issues and pull requests, turning everyday interactions—from kicking off a CI/CD pipeline and managing approvals to updating project boards—into powerful triggers for GitHub Actions. It’s customizable, so you can tailor workflows to your needs: No two teams work the same way, and IssueOps is flexible enough to adapt. Whether you’re automating bug triage or triggering deployments, you can customize workflows based on event type and data provided. It’s transparent, so you can keep a record: All actions taken on an issue are logged in its timeline, creating an easy-to-follow record of what happened and when. It’s immutable, so you do an audit whenever you need: Because IssueOps uses GitHub Issues and pull requests as a source of truth, every action leaves a record. No more chasing approvals in Slack or manually triggering workflows: IssueOps keeps everything structured, automated, and auditable right inside GitHub. Our quickstart guide to IssueOps Step 1: Define your triggers Identify the actions that should kick off your workflows—like opening an issue, adding a label, or merging a pull request. These events can serve as triggers for GitHub Actions. Step 2: Configure GitHub Actions Use GitHub Actions to define what happens when an event occurs. For example, if an issue is labeled deploy, you could trigger a deployment script. YAML never looked so good. Step 3: Test and iterate Like any good automation, IssueOps workflows should be tested and refined. Start small, see what works, and expand from there. Let’s go: Learn more in our repository. Defining IssueOps workflows and how they’re like finite-state machines Most IssueOps workflows follow the same basic pattern: A user opens an issue and provides information about a request The issue is validated to ensure it contains the required information The issue is submitted for processing Approval is requested from an authorized user or team The request is processed and the issue is closed Suppose you’re an administrator of an organization and want to reduce the overhead of managing team members. In this instance, you could use IssueOps to build an automated membership request and approval process. Within a workflow like this, you’d have several core steps: A user creates a request to be added to a team The request is validated The request is submitted for approval An administrator approves or denies this request The request is processed If approved, the user is added to the team If denied, the user is not added to the team The user is notified of the outcome When designing your own IssueOps workflows, it can be very helpful to think of them as a finite-state machine: a model for how objects move through a series of states in response to external events. Depending on certain rules defined within the state machine, a number of different actions can take place in response to state changes. If this is a little too complex, you can also think of it like a flow chart. To apply this comparison to IssueOps, an issue is the object that is processed by a state machine. It changes state in response to events. As the object changes state, certain actions may be performed as part of a transition, provided any required conditions (guards) are met. Once an end state is reached, the issue can be closed. This breaks down into a few key concepts: State: A point in an object’s lifecycle that satisfies certain condition(s). Event: An external occurrence that triggers a state change. Transition: A link between two states that, when traversed by an object, will cause certain action(s) to be performed. Action: An atomic task that is performed when a transition is taken. Guard: A condition that is evaluated when a trigger event occurs. A transition is taken only if all associated guard condition(s) are met. Here’s a simple state diagram for the example I discussed above. Now, let’s dive into the state machine in more detail! Key concepts behind state machines The benefit of breaking your workflow down into these components is that you can look for edge cases, enforce

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