GitHub Slack App: Every /github subscribe Command (Cheat Sheet)

The official GitHub + Slack app: /github subscribe cheat sheet

The official GitHub + Slack app is driven almost entirely by /github slash commands. This is the complete reference — every command you need to subscribe a channel, trim the noise, filter by label, control threading, and turn off link previews — with the gotcha that trips people up on each one.

Each command is explained in depth below. First, the one-time install.

P.S. If you prefer watching a video, here's a link

Install the GitHub + Slack app

1. Install the app from the official GitHub website: https://slack.github.com/

2. Once you've installed the Slack app, it should prompt you to connect your GitHub account.

3. Important: If you want to use the app in a private channel, you need to invite it first by typing /invite @github in that channel. Without this, commands will silently fail.

Subscribe to a repository

• The most useful command to get started is: /github help
  • This will show you the list of available commands.
• To subscribe to a repository:
  • Go to the target Slack channel of your choice.
  • Execute this command in that channel: /github subscribe your-org/your-repo
  • That Slack channel will now be subscribed to that repo's notifications.
• And there you have it, as easy as pie! 🥧

Default and additional features

When you run /github subscribe your-org/your-repo, the following default features are subscribed automatically:

Reducing noise

If the notifications are too much, unsubscribe from specific features:

/github unsubscribe your-org/your-repo [feature]

Example: /github unsubscribe your-org/your-repo issues — this will stop issue notifications.

Adding more visibility

You can subscribe to additional features for more notifications:

/github subscribe your-org/your-repo [feature]

Example: /github subscribe your-org/your-repo comments — this will send notifications for new comments on issues and pull requests.

You can also subscribe to multiple features at once:

/github subscribe your-org/your-repo reviews comments

Available additional features:

How to set it up for pull request notifications

Now let's dive deeper into configuring pull request notifications specifically. The GitHub Slack app offers several ways to fine-tune your pull request notifications based on your team's needs.

Subscribe to pull requests within a specific repository

For targeted notifications, subscribe to pull requests from a specific repository:

/github subscribe your-org/your-repo pulls

This command will only send notifications for pull requests in the specified repository. This is ideal when:

• You want to focus on specific projects
• Different teams work on different repositories
• You want to reduce notification noise

Subscribe to all pull requests in your organization

To get notifications for pull requests across your entire organization:

/github subscribe your-org

This subscribes the current Slack channel to notifications from all repositories within your organization.

A word of caution: Org-level subscriptions are a blunt instrument. You cannot unsubscribe from individual repos within an org-level subscription, and users have reported known limitations. For most teams, subscribing to specific repositories gives you much better control.

Filter by labels

You can filter notifications by labels to only get notified for matching pull requests and issues:

/github subscribe your-org/your-repo +label:"your-label"

For example:

• /github subscribe your-org/your-repo +label:"ready-for-review" — Get notified only for PRs marked as ready for review
• /github subscribe your-org/your-repo +label:"urgent" — Get notified only for urgent pull requests
• /github subscribe your-org/your-repo +label:"frontend" — Get notified only for frontend-related pull requests

Important label filter limitations:

• Only one label filter per repo subscription is supported at a time.
• Setting a new label filter replaces the previous one — they do not stack.
• Label filters apply to pulls, issues, comments, and reviews, but not to commits or branches.
• To remove a label filter: /github unsubscribe your-org/your-repo +label:"your-label"

Default pull request notification types

When you subscribe to pull requests, you'll get notifications for:

• New (opened) pull requests
• Merged pull requests
• Reopened pull requests
• Draft pull requests marked as "Ready for Review"

Understanding threading

By default, the GitHub Slack app groups all activity for a pull request into a single thread under the original notification message. This means comments and reviews will only appear inside the thread, not in the main channel.

If you want comments or reviews to also appear in the main channel, use the "channel" option:

/github subscribe your-org/your-repo reviews:"channel"
/github subscribe your-org/your-repo comments:"channel"

You can also manage threading preferences with /github settings.

Unsubscribing from pull request notifications

If you find the notifications too overwhelming, you can unsubscribe from pull requests:

/github unsubscribe your-org/your-repo pulls

Or unsubscribe from specific activities:

/github unsubscribe your-org/your-repo reviews

Pro tip: Channel-specific configurations

Different Slack channels can have different notification settings. For example:

• #frontend-team channel: /github subscribe your-org/frontend-repo +label:"frontend"
• #backend-team channel: /github subscribe your-org/backend-repo +label:"backend"
• #urgent-reviews channel: /github subscribe your-org/your-repo +label:"urgent"

This allows you to create specialized channels for different types of pull request notifications based on your team's workflow.

Useful commands reference

Here are some handy commands to manage your subscriptions:

Link previews (and how to turn them off)

Pasting any GitHub link in Slack automatically generates a rich preview for pull requests, issues, code snippets (with line numbers), and comments — no extra setup needed, as long as link previews are enabled in your Slack workspace.

Want to disable GitHub link previews? If the unfurled previews are adding noise, run /github settings in the channel and toggle link previews off there. (You can also disintegrate them at the Slack level by removing the GitHub app's unfurl permission, but /github settings is the per-integration switch most teams want.)

Enjoy the sweet ding from those Slack notifications 😁

Frequently asked questions

How do I subscribe a Slack channel to only pull requests? Run /github subscribe your-org/your-repo pulls. The bare /github subscribe your-org/your-repo adds the default features (issues, pulls, commits, releases, deployments), so adding pulls explicitly — or unsubscribing the others — keeps it PR-only.

How do I unsubscribe the GitHub app from a Slack channel? Use /github unsubscribe your-org/your-repo to drop the whole repo, or /github unsubscribe your-org/your-repo [feature] (for example issues or reviews) to turn off just one feature while keeping the rest.

How do I turn off GitHub link previews in Slack? Run /github settings in the channel and toggle link previews off. That controls the automatic unfurling of GitHub URLs without affecting your subscriptions.

Why doesn't /github subscribe work in my private channel? The app has to be in the channel first. Type /invite @github in the private channel, then re-run your subscribe command — otherwise the commands fail silently.

Can I send different repos to different Slack channels with the official app? Only crudely: you run a separate /github subscribe in each channel, but you can't route by reviewer, and org-level subscriptions can't exclude individual repos. Per-repo channel routing and reviewer-only pings are exactly what a tool like PullNotifier adds on top.

Bonus: skip the setup entirely ⭐️

You can skip all of the steps above and just install this free Slack app called PullNotifier.

All you need to do is:

1. Install it in the Slack app marketplace on the Slack UI or just log in through their website directly.
2. Connect GitHub & Slack
3. And boom 💥! You now have Slack notifications for all pull requests on ALL of your repos.

The cool thing is you can also configure different Slack channels for each repository you have (very useful for large teams). If you want the full background on how the github slack integration works, including the limits of the official app and the third-party tools worth knowing, we put together a complete guide.

Here's a video on what PullNotifier does:

  That's it for today! Hope you found the content here useful ❤️

If your team uses Microsoft Teams instead of Slack, the setup is similar — see our GitHub Microsoft Teams integration guide.