How to Remove Commit References from PRs

[isHarryh]

Select Topic Area

Question

Body

I recently encountered an issue where a commit that referenced a PR was deleted via force-push, but the reference still appears in the PR's activity feed (the message "someone pushed a commit that referenced this pull request" remains visible in the PR timeline).

To reproduce:

1. Created a commit that included a reference to the PR using the #PR-number syntax.
2. Later realized the commit was unnecessary and removed it using git rebase -i.
3. Force-pushed the updated branch to GitHub.

Despite these steps, the reference to the deleted commit still appears in the pull request's activity.

I understand that GitHub retains references to old commits for a certain period, but I would like to know:

Is there a way to remove this specific reference from the PR timeline? Or, is there a method to:

• Manually remove or hide the reference to the deleted commit in the PR's activity?
• Trigger GitHub's garbage collection to expedite the removal of such references?

Any guidance on how to handle this situation would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

PS1: I know how to remove sensitive data from GitHub. So the "commits" I mentioned above are all non-sensitive commits.

PS2: Just like "Pull Requests", if the above things happened in "Issues", the reference to the commit will also remain.

[github-actions[bot]]

🕒 Discussion Activity Reminder 🕒

This Discussion has been labeled as dormant by an automated system for having no activity in the last 60 days. Please consider one the following actions:

1️⃣ Close as Out of Date: If the topic is no longer relevant, close the Discussion as out of date at the bottom of the page.

2️⃣ Provide More Information: Share additional details or context — or let the community know if you've found a solution on your own.

3️⃣ Mark a Reply as Answer: If your question has been answered by a reply, mark the most helpful reply as the solution.

Note: This dormant notification will only apply to Discussions with the Question label. To learn more, see our recent announcement.

Thank you for helping bring this Discussion to a resolution! 💬