New release: new repository settings to configure pull request access

[moraesc]

Today, we’re introducing two new repository settings that give maintainers greater control over how their projects accept contributions: the ability to disable pull requests entirely, and the option to restrict pull requests to collaborators only.

Open Source is not One-Size-Fits-All

Maintainers are at the heart of GitHub’s ecosystem. You shape your communities, your project’s scope and technical direction, and define what processes contributors should follow. For years, we’ve operated on a default assumption that if a repository is public, it should accept pull requests from anyone. But that’s not how all projects work. Some projects want to share code without managing contributions. Others need to restrict collaboration during critical development phases. Many repositories, like mirrors or read-only reference implementations, simply have no need for pull requests at all.

More granular pull request permissions have been one of our most consistently requested features, and that need has become more urgent as the nature of contributions has evolved. We're committed to supporting maintainers and open source projects of all types, and we're excited to deliver these foundational tools to the community.

What’s New

1. Disable pull requests entirely

Just like you can with issues, wikis, projects, and discussions, maintainers can now turn off pull requests completely from your repository's Settings.

When disabled, the pull requests tab will be not be visible. This means no one can see existing pull requests or open new ones.

2. Restrict Pull Requests to Collaborators

When enabled, the pull requests tab remains visible. All pull requests can be seen, but only collaborators (users with write access) can create new ones. Collaborators can be added or removed by going to the Collaborators tab in a repository’s Settings.

What’s Next

As the open source landscape evolves, we’re committed to evolving our tools to ensure that the important work of open source maintainers remains enjoyable and sustainable. To learn more about some of the ideas we’re exploring, check out our latest blog post.

For teams that need highly customized contribution policies today, Agentic Workflows, a research project from GitHub Next, are designed to enforce virtually any project-specific rules you define. While this approach requires more technical setup and comes with usage costs, it provides significant flexibility. You can explore example workflows here.

Your Feedback Shapes our Roadmap

We’re extremely grateful for the feedback we’ve received from the community. The discussion threads, feature requests, and conversations with maintainers have been instrumental in helping us understand what to build and why it matters.

Now, we’d love to hear how these settings work for your project in practice, what challenges remain, and what additional controls would make managing pull requests easier. Your input will inform our next steps and ensure we’re building the right tools to address your needs.

Thank you so much for your collaboration and helping us improve the open source community on GitHub.