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GitHub Integration — Ideas

How the GitHub integration works with Canny Ideas — direct Idea-to-issue linking, 2-way status sync, and the GitHub Projects requirement.

Written by Canny

Overview

Link ideas directly to GitHub issues with full 2-way status sync. When a GitHub issue changes status, the linked idea in Canny updates automatically — keeping your product planning in sync with your engineering workflow.

The GitHub integration is available on Pro and Business plans.


Setting up the integration

  1. Go to your GitHub settings page in Canny and click Install GitHub.

  2. Install the Canny app in GitHub, select the organization or profile with the repositories you want to link, and choose which repositories Canny can access.

  3. Complete the installation back in Canny.


Status mapping

Map GitHub statuses to Canny idea statuses from your GitHub settings page in Canny. Available statuses are pulled from all GitHub projects in your organization — statuses with the same name across projects are deduplicated.


Linking an idea to a GitHub issue

To link a GitHub issue to an idea:

  1. Open an idea from the Ideas tab.

  2. Find the Linked issues section in the right sidebar of the idea details panel.

  3. Search for and select an existing GitHub issue to link.


Linking rules

  • One-to-one: Each idea can only be linked to one GitHub issue.

  • Project required for status sync: The linked GitHub issue must be part of a GitHub project for status syncing to work. If the issue is not in a project, status sync is skipped — add the issue to a GitHub project to re-enable it.

  • Single company ownership: If the same GitHub installation is connected to multiple Canny workspaces, only one workspace can link a specific issue to an idea.

  • Merging ideas: When two ideas are merged, the links from the merged idea are dropped.

  • Deleted issues: If a linked GitHub issue is deleted, the idea–issue link will also be removed.


Things to note

  • A GitHub issue must be added to a GitHub project for status syncing to work.

  • The GitHub link is visible only to Canny admins.

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