How can I automate the movement of issues between project columns using GitHub Actions?

[Suhebdevtechnosys]

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Issues

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Can I make GitHub automatically move an issue from one column to another based on some event, without doing it manually? For example, move an issue from ‘To Do’ to ‘In Progress’ when someone starts working on it.

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• I have read the above statement and can confirm my post is relevant to the GitHub feature areas Issues and/or Projects.

[yoter-k]

Yes, you can automate moving issues between columns using GitHub Actions or GitHub Project Automation.

1. Built-in Project Automation

• If you’re using Projects (Beta) or classic Kanban boards, GitHub allows you to set automation rules per column:
• “Move issues when status changes”
• “Move issues when PR is opened / closed”
• You can configure this directly in the project board column settings.

2. GitHub Actions
   You can create a workflow that listens to events like issues, issue_comment, or pull_request and moves the issue using the GitHub REST API
   or Projects API.

Example snippet using gh CLI in Actions:

on:
  issues:
    types: [opened, assigned, labeled]
jobs:
  move_issue:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Move issue to "In Progress"
        run: gh issue edit ${{ github.event.issue.number }} --add-project "My Project/In Progress"

✅ TL;DR

• Use built-in project automation if the event matches existing rules.
• For custom events, use GitHub Actions + API or gh CLI to move issues automatically.

[GafelSon]

Thanks to the previous answer for outlining the key options — built-in project automation and custom Actions workflows.
I’ve used this setup in one of my recent projects, and it worked flawlessly for automatically moving issues between columns (for example, from “To Do” → “In Progress” when an issue is assigned).

Option 1 – Built-in Automation

In Projects (v2), go to your project’s Settings › Workflows and enable automations that update a Status field (e.g., “To Do”, “In Progress”, “Done”).
Then group your board by that field — when Status changes, cards move visually.

Docs: Official docs – Built-in project automation

Limitation: Built-in rules can’t trigger on custom events like assignment or labeling. For those, use Actions.

---

Option 2 – GitHub Actions (for custom triggers)

For flexible event-based moves (e.g., when someone is assigned to an issue),
use the official actions/add-to-project Action.

name: Auto-Move Issue to “In Progress” on Assignment

on:
  issues:
    types: [assigned]

jobs:
  move_issue:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      issues: write
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - name: Move assigned issue to “In Progress”
        uses: actions/add-to-project@v2   # Latest stable (Oct 2025)
        with:
          project-url: https://github.com/orgs/YOURORG/projects/123
          column-id: 456                  # Column ID from your board URL
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

How it works:
When someone is assigned to an issue, this workflow adds or moves that issue into the “In Progress” column in your Project (v2).
Runs in ~10 seconds and works across org-level or repo-linked projects.

---

Quick Tips

• Change the trigger (e.g. opened, labeled) for other flows.
• Use a PAT with projects:write for org-level access.
• Check the Actions logs if movement doesn’t occur.
• You can extend this to notify Slack or update related PRs.

---

✅ TL;DR

• Use built-in workflows for simple, predefined events.
• Use Actions + API for full control and assignment-based automation.
• Tested and reliable on latest GitHub Projects (v2).

Works smoothly for multi-repo orgs and scales with future GitHub Project updates.

[github-actions[bot]]

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