If you maintain a popular open-source repo, you know the drill: someone files a bug, you search, find three existing issues saying the same thing, close it as a duplicate, and move on. Repeat, forever. GitHub is now taking a direct swing at this with two updates to GitHub Issues: real-time duplicate detection in the issue creation form, and full read/write access to issue fields via the GitHub MCP server.
Catch duplicates before they happen
Duplicate issues are one of the biggest time sinks for maintainers: triaging the same bug filed multiple ways, closing duplicates, and linking back to the original. For large repositories, this can take up hours every week.
As a first step to reduce maintainer triage time, issue creation now flags potential matches against existing issues in the repository as issue details are being populated. If potential matches are found, they appear inline in the issue creation form with up to three suggestions. You can review the suggested issues or continue creating your issue.
The key design choice here is timing: the check happens while you are filling out the form, not after you submit. That means the person filing the issue sees the suggestions and can self-serve, rather than a maintainer having to close it after the fact. The reporter can either link to the existing issue or decide their case is genuinely different and proceed.
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