[Projects Beta] Milestones Across Repositories

[mitchelsellers]

To fully manage projects, across repositories the concept of a "Shared Milestone" would be far easier to manage. Consider the situation where you have a project that is comprised of multiple repositories, but you are working towards a common target (Q4 2021 Release) for example.

It would be ideal to be able to set a milestone at the organization level, and use it within each of these so that the board could show the milestone column and then you group the board by those items.

[OldManFroggy]

I second this, right now I have to create milestones across repositories which is frustrating and prone to error. and a pretty common use case.

[ArthurTschinkel25]

yes bro

[kaishin]

This must be the aspect I am struggling the most with. For now I have duplicated the same milestones across several repositories but that completely beats the purpose.

[jeremydiba]

Agree on the labels

[mubshrx]

agree for labels

[ignacio-borrajo]

Agree on the milestones and labels

[isanchez-ng]

Agree on the milestones and labels!

[ArthurTschinkel25]

agree on the labels

[EmiliaH]

I also agree with this suggestion! I would really like to be able to assign issues from different repositories to the same milestone!

For example we use submodules in a parent repo, and thus we need attach an issue in the submodule to a milestone in the parent repo.

[ignacio-borrajo]

We also use submodules and the day I realized about the milestones, regret to move all our repos to GitHub

[HHK1]

Is this item in the roadmap going to help solve this issue? github/roadmap#278

[SpoonOfDoom]

Is this item in the roadmap going to help solve this issue? github/roadmap#278

I don't think so, unless I'm misunderstanding it. It still would still mean that I have to duplicate a milestone across all repositories that are involved in a project.

[tleef]

This is the one you want github/roadmap#276

[karlhorky]

I just came here to also offer this as feedback - I would like project-wide (cross-repo) milestones for tracking deadlines and product launches that deal with code in multiple repos.

[karlhorky]

If you just want a column, I realized it's possible to add a column (eg. called "Project Milestone" or "Global Milestone") in the table view now (choose a "Single Select" type):

However, I don't think you can get reports about how many issues are done vs how many open, like regular milestones can show.

[karlhorky]

Just implemented this, and it gets us most of the way to what we want, so far!

[brylie]

Yes, I'm taking this approach as a stop-gap as well.

[shaupt131]

Hmm, interesting approach. Thanks for the suggestion, going to try this out in the meantime.

[ignacio-borrajo]

Yes but no, it is a patch to a real problem I think, no due date, no reports on how many issues are open and close, ...

[thclark]

+1000000. We're desperate for cross-repository milestones - which seem like such a simple thing they should have been done years ago. It's very difficult to implement something satisfactory without multiple actions and third party plugins - and even then there's nothing (even ZenHub) that solves the problem.

Without that, Projects Beta really isn't any more powerful (as far as I can see) than bookmarking URLs of regular projects with different filters activated. With it, Projects beta would become a self-sufficient (although admittedly lightweight) project management tool.

[markborges]

I also think this is a great idea. It seems most of us are using Milestones for controlling Releases, and if a Project can support multiple repositories, then it should definitely support common Milestones among them.

[terracoda]

Definitely need milestones that cross repositories.

[morpheus7CS]

Hi,

we have recently started using Github Projects (Beta). Our aim is to move the entire issue tracking and roadmap and development work management to Github, where our code resides. We love many of the features, but we also have some additional questions that will help us in making this change possible.

Milestones on the organizational level would help us a lot since we are dealing with 3 repository setup (API repository, client app repository, and admin app repository) and many of the changes touch at least two if not all three.

Please implement this soon as it would definitely bring the offering to a whole new level.

Kind regards,
g

[krs13]

Exactly what we're doing - we have multiple repos for different areas of our platform and I would like to tie the issues together in Releases, which is something that cross-repo milestones would accomplish.

[brylie]

As an aside, I think GitHub's lack of cross-repository project management features has been one of the primary factors driving the monorepo trend.

[thclark]

This is very insightful. I hadn't thought of that. But being presently in the middle of a difficult extraction of a monorepo into more sensible pattern, I look back and think yes - that was one of the driving factors in my earlier decision.

[OldManFroggy]

yeah, I moved from a mono repo once I hit 50+ microservices in different languages, getting things to work dev wise on an isolated microservices cost soo much time and training with developers and tooling it was just not worth it in the end. (mainly due to GO and how it deals with modules, the same for D, and to a lessor case RUST)

but for good high-level product/team/work management milestones across repo's would make GitHub issues one of the top if not the top tool for managing code/issues of complex projects. (really pains me, that I have to use another issue tool and only get pull updates in it, and if someone does a GitHub issue on a repo, it needs 2 way integrations (most svck) or you need to manually sync and move things...

Same goes for a good 20 or so companies I have worked with in the past couple years... all are paying more for another tool, due to this single issue. (inc. myself...)

[KnutResys]

Agreed, we are pushing towards monorepos now much for this reason

[kalanchoej]

Also looking for a project based / cross-repo milestone solution.

[ericnelson]

+1 to this feature. Need it ASAP

[JonBushby77]

+1 Setting up milestones and labels, etc in every repository isn't ideal.

[ghost]

FYI: It’s on GitHub’s public roadmap as github/roadmap#276, currently planned in Future. See Issues-view

Though it already got a lot of traction since 2016! on dear-github/dear-github#93. Actually the most 👍🏿 up-votes (on open issues):

Duplicates

• "Milestones should live at the project level" (#8073)

[gabriel-r]

@mitchelsellers you may want to add links/answer from @DominikGM to your original post so people are encouraged to vote up on the right places.

[aikenka]

Added my vote for this - I'll use the workaround described in the last 2 comments; what's missing in that solution is the ability to provide notes/description for each.
Workaround for that - I'll create a "first issue" for each and put the notes in there.
I can't use parent/child relationships, since an issue can only have one parent, and the issues already have parents in other projects.

[EugenMayer]

Just as a reference, a public roadmap items exist for that github/roadmap#1086 (which superseded github/roadmap#776)

[olekristensen]

I'd love to see them focus on basic features like this. It's been part of GitLab, that I prefer, for ages, but my main customers enforce GitHub.  Imagine how fast these basic features could be released if they put as much energy into them as they do in smearing everything with copilot...

[pepinse]

Upvote!

[ranjanvasudevan]

+1!

[JorritBerendsen]

+1!

[minttraveller]

+1

[mofazzelhmorshed]

Yes, you shared Milestones transform disparate repo task lists into a coherent, measurable project roadmap, i think this feature is essential for high level visibility

[sebastianhorwege]

1

[JRiad]

Please, please, please add this feature! 🙏

[isasmendiagus]

+1

[loeffel-io]

+100

[BBaoVanC]

Please stop posting comments that are purely "+1" -- it clutters up the comment feed, sends a (somewhat useless) notification to everyone that is watching, and is more more visible if you instead just add an upvote and thumbs up reaction to the main post

[claudioLOXO]

I think that, more broadly, having clearer structure in GitHub — especially through milestones across multiple repositories — would actually help us reduce noise and improve alignment overall.

I think that right now we manage issues well inside each repo, but when a feature or release spans multiple repos, it becomes harder to maintain a clear overview. We end up mentally stitching together progress across different boards and PRs. A shared milestone gives us one explicit goal. Even if the work is distributed, the milestone represents a single outcome and makes it much easier to see what’s open, what’s merged, and what might block completion.

I think that milestones also help with scope control. When we define one properly, we’re implicitly agreeing on what belongs to that delivery. If something new appears mid-way, we’re forced to consciously decide whether it fits into the current milestone or should move to the next one. That helps prevent silent scope creep and keeps timelines more realistic.

I think that cross-repo coordination would also improve. Many changes depend on updates elsewhere, and when related issues share the same milestone name, those dependencies become visible instead of implicit.

Overall, I think this isn’t about adding overhead. It’s about creating clarity and reducing friction as complexity grows.
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+1

[Risbo6]

+1

[lucasrabaca]

At this point, GitHub just doesn’t want to compete in project management, because it makes no sense for projects or milestones not to have their own issues independent of a repository—or for milestones to be fragmented across repositories instead of being truly project-level.