At the moment, Zenhub uses GitHub Issues as a foundation to build Boards. As a result, if you need to delete an Issue, you'll need to delete this using GitHub's native delete functionality. If you delete an Issue, we cannot bring it back! 


What happens when you delete an Issue:

  • Any dependencies linked to this Issue get removed
  • This Issue will be auto-removed from any reports it's part of
  • If it's assigned to a sprint, it'll be removed from the sprint
  • It'll be removed from any assigned Epics. 
  • Link to the deleted Issue across other Issues will be deleted

Deleting an Issue dissolves all existing connections as if the Issue was never created.


This action cannot be undone.


How to delete Issues

If you have the right permissions, on the side of the Issue you'll see a link, Delete Issue. 


NOTE: This is only available in the extension.

At the moment, the delete Issue functionality is only available in native GitHub Issue interfaces, as well as in the Zenhub Extension. The Zenhub web app uses a different interface for Issues, which doesn't port in native GitHub delete functionality at this time.




GitHub prompts a reminder that this final, and references will be removed. 



When visiting any historic URL references that point to a deleted issue, users will see a message stating that the issue is deleted. 




Permissions needed to delete an Issue

  • User accounts: Issues in a repository can be deleted if your user account is the owner of the repo. You cannot delete Issues owned by another user's account.
  • Organizations: If the Issue is in a repo that is part of an Organization, an organization owner must enable deleting Issues, and you must have admin or owner permissions in the repo where you want to delete. 


Epics' old behavior


In a previous version of Zenhub, Epics lived on the board and were based on a GitHub Issue. The same deletion button would appear for Epics, and the workflow is the same. However, deleting an Epic will dissolve it, so ensure you first want to convert this to a regular Issue before making any final change.


In this first version, if it's an Epic, and you delete the GitHub Issue the Epic is built on, the Epic gets converted back to an Issue, so any progress tracked and bundled will be lost - no other Issues in that Epic will be deleted, but they'll no longer roll-up to the Epic.