GitHub Enterprise Server 2.21: Draft PRs, linked issues, and a new notification hub
GitHub Enterprise Server 2.21 is now available, bringing updates across pull requests, issues, notifications, and API functionality, along with performance improvements for backup and restore workflows.
Converting pull requests to drafts
Draft pull requests were previously limited to newly opened PRs. With this release, any existing pull request can be converted to draft status at any time. This gives developers more flexibility to signal when work is incomplete without having to close and reopen a PR.
Multi-line code suggestions
Building on last year’s addition of multi-line comments, reviewers can now attach code suggestions to multiple adjacent lines in a pull request. The change is designed to speed up the review cycle by letting developers propose and apply comprehensive changes without breaking them into single-line edits.
Linking issues to pull requests
Previously, connecting an issue to a PR relied on closing keyword references in the PR description. Now, any user can manually link an issue to a pull request (or vice versa) using the new linked pull request and linked issue sections on each page. The relationship is bidirectional: links made from an issue appear on its linked PR, and links made from a PR appear on the issue.
Project board cards also expose these connections. Expanded issue cards now show linked pull request status, so board owners can see work in progress without navigating away to check a developer’s progress.
Notifications redesigned for throughput
GitHub reports that early testing of the new notifications interface on GitHub.com produced dramatic improvements: users were roughly two and a half times more likely to read a received notification, and mentions were read an average of 15 hours faster.
On Enterprise Server, the new experience brings default and custom filters, designed to help contributors manage subscriptions across multiple repositories, organizations, and teams. Team members can build focused views for the work most relevant to them.
Faster backup and restore
Operations administrators get improvements to backup-utils in 2.21. Backup and restore processes have been parallelized, and new controls let admins tune the process for even greater speed depending on their infrastructure.
API and permission updates
Organization admins can now assign the triage and maintain repository roles through the GitHub REST API, and users sitting in those roles can call the endpoints that match their permission level. Previously the roles could only be granted through the web UI.
Other API changes in 2.21.0 include support for deleting deployments, scaling updates to the Teams and Reactions APIs, and removal of legacy GitHub Apps webhook events and endpoints ahead of the anticipated general availability of the GitHub Apps API.
Release notes
For a complete list of changes, bug fixes, and API modifications, consult the GitHub Enterprise Server 2.21 release notes.
