How to have a private repository with public issue tracker on GitHub?

Question

I am going to release some beta version of my application to the community. Project is stored on GitHub in the private repository.

I would like to allow this community to report bugs and place them directly on GitHub Issues tab - it's not provided by GitHub right now. Do you have any idea, how to cover this flow ?

Langlois

It doesn't really make sense. Issues on GitHub are meant to be able to link directly to Pull Requests (as Issues and PRs are overlapping concepts), source files, revisions, etc. GitHub Issues just aren't made for this scenario, so I suggest trying a different tack. You could just make a public repo for issues. – Teak

@Teak it absolutely makes sense. When I reference a public repo issue in a private repo issue that relation shows up to me when viewing the public repo issue but not for others. It is possible to hide PR and commit references for an outsider viewer just as it is already done in cases like I mentioned. I think the original poster's use-case is a common scenario. – Westwardly

@CsabaToth Good stuff! You're responding to a 9 year old comment (on a 9 year old question), so I probably don't hold the same view as I did before. – Teak

@Teak I didn't want to be too critical. I ended up here because even after 9 years GitHub doesn't seem to provide a solution for this (like BitBucket). – Westwardly

@CsabaToth Understood <3 And yeah, you do seem to be right. The passage of time is funny. In the decade since my comment, I actually spent 4 years working at GitHub. And yet this still hasn't changed. – Teak

@Teak I realized that 9 years ago those features I referred to may have not existed. I also understand that GitHub needs to be profitable, so we cannot get everything for free. – Westwardly

Answer 1

Bitbucket provides this. You can keep the code private but make tracker public (anyone can view, create, and comment on issues).

Perchance

And it's free. ;-) Thank you ! – Langlois

Damn! but is so ugly! I need this in Github – Lassitude

Answer 2

Not possible as of 2019-09 as documented at: https://help.github.com/articles/issues-only-access-permissions/ (archive):

GitHub does not provide issues-only access permissions, but you can accomplish this using a second repository which contains only the issues.

They suggest that you create a separate public repository just for the issues instead.

Possible same request: Github-like hosting, with private source, public ticketing system

Tithonus

Answer 3

Use the API access and program some minimal frontend yourself - https://docs.github.com/en/rest/issues

Bram

While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - From Review – Mothy