GitHub Keyboard Shortcuts: Navigate Repos, Review PRs and Triage Issues Faster
The GitHub.com keyboard shortcuts worth knowing, organized into Basics, Intermediate and Advanced — from jumping between tabs and finding files to reviewing pull requests and triaging issues.
Why learn GitHub shortcuts
Almost every page on GitHub.com has keyboard shortcuts, but most people never press anything beyond Cmd + Enter. Learning a handful of them makes the daily loop — find a file, open a pull request, leave a review, label an issue — noticeably faster.
This guide groups the GitHub.com shortcuts into three levels: Basics, Intermediate and Advanced. Everything here comes from GitHub's own keyboard shortcut documentation. Press ? on any GitHub page to see the shortcuts available there.
Most GitHub shortcuts are single keys or two-key sequences. For a sequence like g c, press g, release it, then press c.
The five to learn first
- t — Open the file finder in a repository
- s or / — Focus the search bar
- g p — Go to the Pull requests tab
- y — Turn the current URL into a permanent link
- . — Open the repository or pull request in the github.dev editor
y is the one people wish they had known sooner. It rewrites the URL to point at the exact commit, so a link to a line of code never breaks when the branch moves on.
Basics: moving around
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| s or / | Focus the search bar |
| ? | Show the shortcuts for this page |
| g c | Go to the Code tab |
| g i | Go to the Issues tab |
| g p | Go to the Pull requests tab |
| g a | Go to the Actions tab |
| g w | Go to the Wiki tab |
| g n | Go to your notifications |
Basics: browsing code
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| t | Activate the file finder |
| l | Jump to a line |
| w | Switch branch or tag |
| y | Expand the URL to its permanent (commit) form |
| b | Open the blame view |
| . | Open in the github.dev editor |
| > | Open in the github.dev editor in a new tab |
Intermediate: writing comments
These work in any comment box — issues, pull requests and review comments.
| Action | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Bold | Cmd + B | Ctrl + B |
| Italic | Cmd + I | Ctrl + I |
| Inline code | Cmd + E | Ctrl + E |
| Insert link | Cmd + K | Ctrl + K |
| Quote | Cmd + Shift + . | Ctrl + Shift + . |
| Numbered list | Cmd + Shift + 7 | Ctrl + Shift + 7 |
| Bulleted list | Cmd + Shift + 8 | Ctrl + Shift + 8 |
| Toggle Write / Preview | Cmd + Shift + P | Ctrl + Shift + P |
| Submit comment | Cmd + Enter | Ctrl + Enter |
A small trick: select text in someone's comment and press r to quote it in your reply.
Intermediate: issues and pull requests
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| c | Create an issue (from the issue list) |
| o or Enter | Open the selected issue |
| a | Set an assignee |
| l | Apply a label |
| m | Set a milestone |
| q | Request a reviewer |
| x | Link an issue or pull request from the same repository |
Advanced: reviewing pull requests
On the Files changed tab of a pull request:
| Action | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Filter changed files | t | t |
| Open the commits menu | c | c |
| Submit a review comment | Cmd + Shift + Enter | Ctrl + Shift + Enter |
| Comment on multiple lines | Click, then Shift + click | Click, then Shift + click |
Advanced: notifications and Actions
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| e | Mark notification as done |
| Shift + u | Mark as unread |
| Shift + i | Mark as read |
| Shift + m | Unsubscribe |
| g f | Go to the workflow file (Actions run page) |
| Shift + t | Toggle timestamps in logs |
| Shift + f | Toggle full-screen logs |
How to make them stick
Because GitHub shortcuts are mostly single letters, they are easy to press and easy to forget. Pick the three that match what you do most — t for reading code, g p and Cmd + Shift + Enter for reviewing — and use them deliberately for a week before adding more.
For why testing yourself works better than rereading a list, see How to memorize keyboard shortcuts.