Advanced Issue Search

The search_issues MCP tool uses GitHub's issue search query format for cross-repo searches, supporting implicit-AND queries, date ranges, and metadata filters (but not explicit OR/NOT operators).

When to Use Search vs List vs Advanced Search

There are three ways to find issues, each with different capabilities:

Decision guide:

• Single repo, simple filters (state, labels, recent updates): use list_issues
• Cross-repo, text search, author/assignee, issue types: use search_issues
• Issue field values (Priority, dates, custom fields) or complex boolean logic: use gh api with advanced_search=true

Query Syntax

The query parameter is a string of search terms and qualifiers. A space between terms is implicit AND.

Scoping

repo:owner/repo       # Single repo (auto-added if you pass owner+repo params)
org:github            # All repos in an org
user:octocat          # All repos owned by user
in:title              # Search only in title
in:body               # Search only in body
in:comments           # Search only in comments

State & Close Reason

is:open               # Open issues (auto-added: is:issue)
is:closed             # Closed issues
reason:completed      # Closed as completed
reason:"not planned"  # Closed as not planned

People

author:username       # Created by
assignee:username     # Assigned to
mentions:username     # Mentions user
commenter:username    # Has comment from
involves:username     # Author OR assignee OR mentioned OR commenter
author:@me            # Current authenticated user
team:org/team         # Team mentioned

Labels, Milestones, Projects, Types

label:"bug"                 # Has label (quote multi-word labels)
label:bug label:priority    # Has BOTH labels (AND)
label:bug,enhancement       # Has EITHER label (OR)
-label:wontfix              # Does NOT have label
milestone:"v2.0"            # In milestone
project:github/57           # In project board
type:"Bug"                  # Issue type

Missing Metadata

no:label              # No labels assigned
no:milestone          # No milestone
no:assignee           # Unassigned
no:project            # Not in any project

Dates

All date qualifiers support >, <, >=, <=, and range (..) operators with ISO 8601 format:

created:>2026-01-01              # Created after Jan 1
updated:>=2026-03-01             # Updated since Mar 1
closed:2026-01-01..2026-02-01   # Closed in January
created:<2026-01-01              # Created before Jan 1

Linked Content

linked:pr             # Issue has a linked PR
-linked:pr            # Issues not yet linked to any PR
linked:issue          # PR is linked to an issue

Numeric Filters

comments:>10          # More than 10 comments
comments:0            # No comments
interactions:>100     # Reactions + comments > 100
reactions:>50         # More than 50 reactions

Boolean Logic & Nesting

Use AND, OR, and parentheses (up to 5 levels deep, max 5 operators):

label:bug AND assignee:octocat
assignee:octocat OR assignee:hubot
(type:"Bug" AND label:P1) OR (type:"Feature" AND label:P1)
-author:app/dependabot          # Exclude bot issues

A space between terms without an explicit operator is treated as AND.

Common Query Patterns

Unassigned bugs:

repo:owner/repo type:"Bug" no:assignee is:open

Issues closed this week:

repo:owner/repo is:closed closed:>=2026-03-01

Stale open issues (no updates in 90 days):

repo:owner/repo is:open updated:<2026-01-01

Open issues without a linked PR (needs work):

repo:owner/repo is:open -linked:pr

Issues I'm involved in across an org:

org:github involves:@me is:open

High-activity issues:

repo:owner/repo is:open comments:>20

Issues by type and priority label:

repo:owner/repo type:"Epic" label:P1 is:open

Issue Field Search

Reliability warning: The field.name:value search qualifier syntax is experimental and may return 0 results even when matching issues exist. For reliable filtering by field values, use the GraphQL bulk query approach documented in issue-fields.md.

Issue fields can theoretically be searched via the field.name:value qualifier using advanced search mode. This works in the web UI but results from the API are inconsistent.

REST API

Add advanced_search=true as a query parameter:

gh api "search/issues?q=org:github+field.priority:P0+type:Epic+is:open&advanced_search=true" \
  --jq '.items[] | "#\(.number): \(.title)"'

GraphQL

Use type: ISSUE_ADVANCED instead of type: ISSUE:

{
  search(query: "org:github field.priority:P0 type:Epic is:open", type: ISSUE_ADVANCED, first: 10) {
    issueCount
    nodes {
      ... on Issue { number title }
    }
  }
}

Issue Field Qualifiers

The syntax uses dot notation with the field's slug name (lowercase, hyphens for spaces):

field.priority:P0                  # Single-select field equals value
field.priority:P1                  # Different option value
field.target-date:>=2026-04-01     # Date comparison
has:field.priority                 # Has any value set
no:field.priority                  # Has no value set

MCP limitation: The search_issues MCP tool does not pass advanced_search=true. You must use gh api directly for issue field searches.

Common Field Search Patterns

P0 epics across an org:

org:github field.priority:P0 type:Epic is:open

Issues with a target date this quarter:

org:github field.target-date:>=2026-04-01 field.target-date:<=2026-06-30 is:open

Open bugs missing priority:

org:github no:field.priority type:Bug is:open

Limitations

• Query text: max 256 characters (excluding operators/qualifiers)
• Boolean operators: max 5 AND/OR/NOT per query
• Results: max 1,000 total (use list_issues if you need all issues)
• Repo scan: searches up to 4,000 matching repositories
• Rate limit: 30 requests/minute for authenticated search
• Issue field search requires advanced_search=true (REST) or ISSUE_ADVANCED (GraphQL); not available through MCP search_issues