Exporting backlog items to GitHub Issues

If your engineering team lives in GitHub Issues, send backlog items straight there. The GitHub Issues integration is export-only: Pilea creates an issue in the repository you choose, and never imports anything from GitHub as feedback.

What you’ll need

• Admin access in Pilea to connect the integration (only admins can change integration settings)
• A GitHub account with access to the repositories you want to export to

How to connect GitHub Issues

1. In Pilea, go to Integrations in the sidebar under Data Sources.
2. Find GitHub Issues in the grid and click Connect.
3. Click Connect in the dialog. You’ll be redirected to GitHub to authorize access.
4. Approve the connection in GitHub. Once you’re back in Pilea, you’ll see Connected successfully!

Credentials are encrypted at rest, and you can disconnect anytime from the integration’s config dialog.

ℹ️ Note: GitHub Issues connects at the organization level, so every workspace in your organization can export to it once it’s connected.

How to export a backlog item

1. Open the backlog item you want to hand off to engineering.
2. Go to the item’s Details tab.
3. Under Export to Issue Tracker, choose the GitHub export option.
4. In the export dialog, pick the repository the issue should be created in.
5. Confirm, and Pilea creates the issue in GitHub.

Once an item’s been exported, it shows a link to the GitHub issue instead of the export button - one click to jump to it, and no accidental duplicates.

💡 Tip: Because you pick the repository per export, one Pilea backlog can feed several repos. Frontend bug? Export to the web repo. API request? Export to the backend repo. Same flow either way.

What Pilea does and doesn’t do

• Does: create a GitHub issue from a backlog item, in the repository you pick, when you click export.
• Doesn’t: import your existing GitHub issues as feedback, or modify issues on its own.

Troubleshooting

The repository I need isn’t in the export dialog Make sure the GitHub account or app installation used to connect has access to that repository. If access changed after connecting, disconnect and reconnect GitHub Issues from the Integrations page.

I can’t change the integration settings Only admins can change integration settings. Ask a Pilea admin in your organization for help.

Looking to give Pilea’s AI read access to your code instead of exporting issues? That’s a separate integration - see the next article.

Next: Connecting GitHub repositories