title	tags	image
How to Bulk Transfer Github Issues to Another Repository	git github programming how to	https://gist.github.com/assets/45643901/4bd8c681-9ab0-4ec3-a73e-44f85f725116

How to Bulk Transfer Github Issues to Another Repository

Click to watch the video 👆

Here’s a simple command you can run in your terminal to transfer all the issues from one Github repository to another!

Pre-requisites:

1. Make sure you have Github CLI installed:

$ brew install gh - (Mac)

2. Make sure you are “authenticated” through Github CLI:

$ gh auth login

3. Make sure that the repository you’re transferring from & to have the same labels, fields, etc.

NOTE: I didn't actually test step #3 above... maybe it's not a problem.

Just test it first if you're worried and LMK in the comments if it matters!

Now you’re ready to bulk transfer your issues!

Bulk Transfer your Issues CLI

1. Open your terminal & run the command below

Just make sure to replace the `organization/repository` name syntax with the ones that you want.

In my example, those are:

• devinschumacher/repository-a
• devinschumacher/repository-b -R devinschumacher/repository-a

gh issue list -s all -L 500 --json number -R devinschumacher/repository-a | \
    jq -r '.[] | .number' | \
    while read issue; do
        gh issue transfer "$issue" devinschumacher/repository-b -R devinschumacher/repository-a
        sleep 3
    done

Note: Adjust the sleep <number> number at your own risk. I started without sleep and have seen account rate limits so far with 0 wait, 1 second, and even 2 seconds. It only happened once on 2 seconds but the repo had 80+ issues. So now i've changed it to 3.

Note:

• "repository-a" is the source repository - aka where you want to transfer (move) your issues FROM
• "repository-b" is the destination repository - aka where you want to transfer (move) your issues TO

It does not COPY them it moves them.

Bulk transfer only the ACTIVE issues (skip the closed/archived ones)

gh issue list -s open -L 500 --json number -R devinschumacher/repository-a | \
    jq -r '.[] | .number' | \
    while read issue; do
        gh issue transfer "$issue" devinschumacher/repository-b -R devinschumacher/repository-a
        sleep 3
    done