Dismissing reviews on Pull Requests
Pull request reviews are a great way to share the weight of building software. Using protected branches to block merging when pull requests have reviews that request changes helps your…

Pull request reviews are a great way to share the weight of building software. Using protected branches to block merging when pull requests have reviews that request changes helps your team maintain quality, bug-free code. However, this requirement can sometimes block your team’s progress without good reason. If someone leaves a review that requests changes and then goes on vacation or runs into computer problems, your pull request could be blocked for days, even after you’ve addressed the reviewer’s concerns.
To improve this workflow, we’re adding the ability for pull request collaborators to dismiss reviews. When someone leaves a review that requests changes, dismissing the review changes it from a review that requests changes to a review comment. This will unblock your pull request, freeing you up to merge it!
You can also dismiss an approving review. This is useful when your pull request has changed significantly since the approval, and you think it’s important to get another review.
When one of your team members dismisses a review, they’ll have to leave a reason why. This keeps people from simply bypassing the protected branch review requirement out of convenience.
Written by
Related posts
GitHub Universe 2026: Evolving every layer of the stack
Today, we laid out our vision for GitHub as the most comprehensive, end-to-end software delivery system in the world.
Octoverse: Commits, pushes, reach new highs in 2026 as developers build with agents
See how a record year of growth reached every industry, every field, and every kind of builder in the 2026 Octoverse report.
The next developer interface is ambient intelligence
AI, agents, voice, and physical controls are shifting software development from operating tools to expressing intent—and helping developers stay focused on building.