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Repository rules allow you to easily add scalable protections for branches and tags on your repositories. This feature was recently made generally available , and GitHub Desktop 3.3 now adds support for repository rules in the form of preemptive warnings and errors if your work fails a rule configured by an administrator of your repository. These rules can fail when commits are pushed to GitHub, which may not be ideal if you queue up multiple commits before pushing. Advanced warning allows you to make changes before committing, saving you time and frustration.

Repository rules

Administrators can configure many different repository rules that apply to branches or tags. If a commit fails any of them, you won’t be able to push it to GitHub. This can be frustrating if you have multiple commits queued up, because the whole push will fail and you may have to perform a rebase to fix the failed commits. GitHub Desktop will now preemptively warn you if a commit you’re working on will fail a rule when you eventually try to push it. These warnings happen in several ways.

Branch creation

Specific branch names may be disallowed. You’ll now see an error if you try to create a branch that isn’t allowed.

Metadata rules

GitHub Enterprise Cloud customers can utilize metadata rules that require certain fields to conform to specific values. One example being commit messages, which can be required to match a specific string or a regex pattern. These metadata rules are fully supported in GitHub Desktop 3.3.

Additional rules

Certain rules have remediations that aren’t supported by GitHub Desktop, such as requiring status checks to pass. These rules are bundled into a catch-all error message above the commit button.

Bypassing

Administrators can allow certain apps, roles, or teams to bypass rulesets. If you can bypass rules, the guidance shown is in the form of warnings instead errors, to let you know to be extra careful.

Shout out to our open source contributors

GitHub Desktop is proud to be an open source project and represents both GitHub and the open source community. Thanks to @le0pard for creating the RE2JS library being used for repository rules regex matching.

Automatic updates will roll out progressively, or you can download the latest GitHub Desktop here .

In 3.2.8, GitHub Desktop is shipping two great community contributions of highly requested features — “Check Out a Commit” and “Double Click to Open in Your External Editor”.
Alongside that, we have a nice addition to the clone dialog where you can quickly see if a repository has been archived, as well as many accessibility enhancements.

Check Out a Commit

A big thanks to @kitswas for his work in adding the ability to check out a commit from the history tab, a much asked for feature.

Double Click to Open in Your External Editor

We would also like to give a shout out to @digitalmaster with another highly requested feature add of being able to double click on a file to open it in your external editor, whether that is in the history or changes view.

Quickly Identify Archived Repositories when Cloning

Another great add with this release is being able to tell at a glance which repositories in your cloning dialog are archived and likely not suitable for cloning.

Accessibility

GitHub Desktop is actively working to improve accessibility in support of GitHub’s mission to be a home for all developers .

In so, we have the:
– addition of aria-label and aria-expanded attributes to the diff options button – #17062
– number of pull requests found after refreshing the list screen reader announced – #17031
– ability to open the context menu for the History view items via keyboard shortcuts – #17035
– ability to navigate the “Clone a Repository” dialog list by keyboard – #16977
– checkboxes in dialogs receiving initial keyboard focus in order not to skip content – #17014
– progress state of the pull, push, fetch button announced by screen readers – #16985
– inline errors being consistently announced by screen readers – #16850
– group title and position correctly announced by screen readers in repository and branch lists – #16968
– addition of an aria-label attribute to the “pull, push, fetch” dropdown button for screen reader users – #16839
– aria role of alert applied to dialog error banners so they are announced by screen readers – #16809
– file statuses in the history view improved to be keyboard and screen reader accessible – #17192
– ability to open the file list context menu via the keyboard – #17143
– announcing of dialog titles and descriptions on macOS Ventura – #17148
– announcing of the “Overwrite Stash”, “Discard Stash”, “Delete Tag”, and “Delete Branch” confirmation dialogs as alert dialogs – #17197 , #17166 , #17210
– improvements of contrast in text to links – #17092
– tab panels in the branch dropdown announced by screen readers – #17172
– stash restore button description associated to the button via an aria-describedby – #17204
– warnings in the rename branch dialog placed before the input for better discoverability – #17164
– errors and warnings in the “Create a New Repository” dialog are screen reader announced – #16993

Other Great Fixes

• The remote for partial clone/fetch is recognized. Thanks @mkafrin ! – #16284
• Association of repositories using nonstandard usernames is fixed – #17024
• The “Preferences” are renamed to “Settings” on macOS to follow platform convention – #16907
• The addition of the Zed Preview as an external editor option – #17097 . Thanks @filiptronicek
• The addition of the Pulsar code editor as an external editor option on Windows – #17120 . Thanks @confused-Techie
• Fixing the detection of VSCodium Insider for Windows – #17078 . Thanks @voidei
• The \”Restore\” button in stashed changes is not disabled when uncommitted changes are present. – #12994 . Thanks @samuelko123

Automatic updates will roll out progressively, or you can download the latest GitHub Desktop here.

GitHub Desktop 3.2.3 makes force pushing and fetching through the newly added fetch/pull dropdown menu items as well as adding pull request comment notifications. Since 3.2.1, GitHub Desktop has also released more than 30 accessibility improvements.

Force-pushing and Fetching

In GitHub Desktop 3.1.5 , we added the ability to force-push and fetch to the Repository menu item when applicable. Now, when those menu items would be available, the pull/push/fetch button becomes a dropdown so users can easily force push or fetch.

Pull Request Comment Notifications

If you have been enjoying our Pull Request notifications on your repositories, you will be happy to hear we have expanded those notifications to include when someone has commented on your pull request as well so that you can keep up to date on the latest conversations happening on your pull request.

Accessibility

GitHub Desktop is actively working to improve accessibility in support of GitHub's mission to be a home for all developers .

GitHub Desktop 3.2.1

• Misattributed warning is announced in 'Git' preferences/options by screen readers – #16239
• The Preferences/Options dialog content is still visible when zoomed at 200% – #16317
• Up/down arrow can be used to navigate autocomplete lists like emoji again – #16044
• Focus history and changes list when accessed via keyboard shortcut or menu – #16360
• On Windows, app level menu bar and menu items are announced by screen readers – #16315
• Keyboard shortcuts for resizing app sidebar and file lists – #16332
• Misattributed commit popover does not clip when app is zoomed – #16407
• Accessibility improvements for the co-authors input – #16335
• Commit completion status is announced by screen readers – #16371 , #16340
• Improve accessibility of dialogs for screen reader users – #16350
• Accessibility improvements for autocompletion suggestions – #16324
• Learn more links are descriptive for screen readers – #16274
• Popover titles are announced by screen readers – #16270
• Show offset focus ring for buttons, vertical tabs etc – #16288
• Application main menu on Windows doesn't clip when zoom is set to 200% – #16290
• Button and text box contrast bumps – #16287
• Other email input in "Git" preferences/Options and misattributed popover email select have a screen readable label – #16240
• Add/remove co-authors button is now keyboard accessible – #16200

GitHub Desktop 3.2.3

• NVDA reads number of suggestions when an autocompletion list shows up – #16526
• The undo commit confirmation modal message is screen reader announced – #16472
• Clipping and overlapping of the changes list is fixed at 200% zoom – #16425
• The commit message avatar is now a toggle tip making the commit author details keyboard accessible – #16272
• The commit length hint is keyboard and screen reader accessible – #16449
• The changes list header checkbox tooltip description is announced by screen readers – #16457
• The changes list header checkbox tooltip is keyboard accessible – #16487
• Announce a file's state of inclusion in the commit on the changes list – #16420
• Display focus ring around focused control after dismissing a dialog – #16528
• Identify the changes list and history commit list as the changes and history tab panels for screen readers – #16463
• Windows title bar controls do not interrupt screen readers in browse mode – #16483
• Make radio theme selection look like radio buttons. – #16525
• Improve accessibility of GitHub Enterprise login flow – #16567"
• Screen readers announce sign in errors – #16556"

Automatic updates will roll out progressively, or you can download the latest GitHub Desktop here.

In GitHub Desktop 3.1, we introduced viewing the diff of changes across multiple commits. This allows you to be certain there are no unintended changes in the group of commits you are about to push. Taking that feature to the next level, GitHub Desktop 3.2 allows you to Preview your Pull Request – see a diff of all the changes being introduced by your feature branch into your repository's default branch.

Learn more about GitHub Desktop here.

GitHub Desktop 3.1.5 improves support for force pushing and fetching through the newly added Repository menu items as well as supporting pull request notifications on forks. This release also comes with many great contributions (12 changelog entries! ✨ ❤ ✨ ) from our open source contributors.

Force-pushing and Fetching

Previously, a user could only force push after an action such as rebasing. Now, when users find their branch in any diverged state, they can opt to use the force push Repository menu item. For example, a user can force push when commits exist on the remote that they are sure they want to overwrite.

Similarly, a user may find themselves in a new local branch they are not ready to publish, yet they want to fetch to see if there are any new changes on their main branch they would want to merge in. Instead of having to switch branches, they can use the Repository menu item to fetch those changes.

Notifications for Forks

If you have been enjoying our Pull Request notifications on your repositories, you will be happy to hear that with 3.1.5 those same notifications are supported on forks.

Open Source Contributions

We love the help we get from the open source community, providing many fixes and improvements for everyone to enjoy.

Thank you @angusdev for contributing all these fixes:

• Hide window instead of hiding the app on macOS
• The repository change indicator is visible if repository list item is selected and in focus
• Tooltips are positioned properly if mouse is not moved
• Tooltips of long commit author emails wrap to multiple lines
• Clone repository progress bar no longer hidden by repository list
• Close repository list after creating or adding repositories

Thank you @tsvetilian-ty for adding support for JetBrains Toolbox and JetBrains Fleet editor for Windows.

Thank you @zipperer for adding support for emacs editor.

Thank you @patinthehat for adding support for JetBrains PhpStorm and WebStorm editors

Thank you @daniel-ciaglia for adding support for VSCodium as an external editor.

Thank you @Shivareddy-Aluri for adding the ability to copy tag names from the commit list.

Thank you @j-f1 for improving the the diff view by adding highlighting to Arduino's .ino files as C++ source.

Learn more about GitHub Desktop here.