Would a Repo owner be notified if someone put a new comment on a CLOSED issue in github?

Question

It is a simple question I could not find an answer for by googling and looking at the github documents.

Would a Repo owner be notified if someone put a new comment on a closed issue in github?

Swinish

Answer 1

If a comment is added to a closed issue, notifications are sent to the REPO OWNER assuming the owner is watching that repo.

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Note: There's a subtle but important clarification to notice here: If you create a repo in your personal account, GitHub automatically sets you as a watcher of your repo. Eg. You'll be notified of code pushes, when issues are created/closed, etc. Technically speaking (and being a little pedantic), but being a "repo owner" as the SO question asks, isn't the trigger of notifications. (Ie. You could be a repo owner but just "un-watch" the repo; you'd then miss all subsequent notifications, obviously.) It's being a repo watcher that is important.

With personal accounts, you are automatically set as a watcher on any repo you create.

With organization accounts, you are not. (Eg. If you create a repo in an organization account, GitHub will not automatically set you as a watcher of that repo.) In an organization account, after you create a repo, if you care about its notifications (like issue notifications), you will need to watch it manually. Eg. Click Watch in the upper-right corner:

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Screenshots:

To test, I created an issue, closed it, and then commented against the closed issue (without reopening it; ie. I clicked on the the green "Comment" button). Shortly afterwards, I received this email notification in my inbox:

Note: I am the repo owner and am watching it. Additionally though, when notifications were sent, they were sent to:

• All members subscribed to the repo
• Anyone who's commented on the issue
• The issue's original author
• The person who closed the issue

Whether the issue was opened or closed did not affect the usual notification behavior.

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Edit (7/11/21): I spent an additional hour this afternoon testing how notifications work on closed issues in GitHub and wanted to just add these screenshots for completeness:

• On a closed issue, if you ever commented before on the issue, and another comment is made to the closed issue, you will still receive a notification:

• On a closed issue, if you were the person who closed the issue, and another comment is made to the closed issue, you will still receive a notification:

• On a closed issue, if you ever manually subscribed to the thread, and another comment is made to the closed issue, you will still receive a notification:

Diphenylamine

Thanks for the reference. But is there any way to check if these specifications are still the same as of 2023? – Lenz

I confirmed that they're notified at least as of May 2023. – Lenz