Solo developers can finally organize GitHub issues with custom types and fields—without moving their repositories into an organization.
On November 11, 2026, GitHub made issue types and issue fields generally available for repositories owned by personal accounts. That means a personal project can distinguish a bug from a feature and track priority or effort in a structured way.
What can you configure?
- Issue types: GitHub starts with Bug, Task, and Feature. You can customize these and create up to 25 types.
- Issue fields: The defaults are Priority, Effort, Start date, and Target date. You can create up to 25 fields.
- Field formats: Text, number, date, single-select, and multi-select.
- Flexible placement: Pin fields to particular issue types or make them available even when an issue has no type.
Try it on your personal repository
- Open your personal GitHub account settings.
- Under Planning, find Issue types and Issue fields.
- Start with the defaults. Add only fields your project actually needs—for example, a Priority field for bugs.
- Create a new issue or open an existing one, then assign its type and fields.
- Use the information in GitHub Projects to build custom views or bulk-update issues.
GitHub also supports managing these types and fields through REST and GraphQL APIs and webhooks, useful if you already automate issue triage. The announcement does not require you to install an extension or run a CLI command.
One more small improvement
While editing an issue, you can now create a missing label or milestone directly from the issue interface instead of leaving the page to manage repository settings.
Is this worth using?
For a side project with a growing backlog, yes: a simple Bug/Feature distinction plus Priority can make planning much clearer. For a tiny repository, ordinary labels may still be enough.
Caveat: These are issue-planning fields, not automatic project management. You still need to define sensible values and keep them updated. The announcement applies to personal-account-owned repositories; don’t assume identical settings or limits in every organization.