Estimation on GitHub
Planning poker in GitHub: what your options are
If your backlog lives on a GitHub Project, you have probably noticed the gap. GitHub will happily store an estimate. It gives you nowhere to agree on one.
What GitHub gives you out of the box
GitHub Projects supports custom fields: text and number fields, dates, single select fields with up to 50 options, and iterations. A Number field named something like Estimate holds story points fine, and GitHub can show the sum of that field per column, so you can see what a sprint adds up to.
What isn’t there is the part that produces the number. There is no voting, no face-down reveal, no moment where eight people commit to an answer at once. GitHub gives you the field. The conversation is your problem.
That gap is why every option below exists, and the honest way to compare them is by asking one question: when the team finally agrees on a number, how much work is it to get that number onto the board?
The four ways teams estimate on a GitHub board
- 1
Type the number in yourself
Add a Number field to the Project and fill it in during the meeting.
Free and immediate. But whoever says a number first anchors everyone else, which is the exact bias planning poker exists to remove. Fine for a team of two, rough at eight.
- 2
Run poker in a separate tool, copy the results across
Estimate in any standalone planning poker app, then transcribe the agreed numbers onto the board afterwards.
Works with any tool you like. You now maintain the estimate in two places, and the transcription step is where numbers quietly go missing at the end of a long session.
- 3
A commercial GitHub-integrated tool
Zenhub offers planning poker through its GitHub browser extension, with story point estimates given directly on the GitHub Issue and estimates applied automatically once consensus is reached. It can also queue several issues for estimation from the Zenhub board view.
Tight GitHub integration, and it brings a whole project management layer with it. Zenhub's planning poker page advertises a 14-day free trial rather than a free tier, so check current pricing against your team size.
- 4
Self-host an open-source app
Several open-source planning poker apps exist and can be deployed on your own infrastructure.
Free, private, and yours to run. Most are standalone voting rooms rather than GitHub integrations, so you're usually back to copying results onto the board by hand, plus you own the hosting.
What “writes back” actually means
Most estimation tools stop at the number. The room agrees on 5, the tool displays 5, and then somebody has to go and put 5 on the board. That last step sounds trivial and is where estimates rot: it happens at the end of a long meeting, on tickets nobody can quite remember the order of, and it is the first thing dropped when the session runs over.
Writing back means the tool does it. The agreed number lands on the Project field you chose, on the issue you were voting on, at the moment the facilitator confirms it. No transcription step, no second backlog, and the board stays the one place anyone has to look.
It is worth checking this specifically when you evaluate anything on this page, because “integrates with GitHub” covers everything from a genuine write-back to a link in a sidebar.
How Repoker does it
Repoker is the fifth option, and it is built around that last step rather than bolted on after it.
You link a GitHub Project and Repoker pulls the tickets in directly. Your team picks cards at the same table and votes stay face-down until the facilitator reveals, so the loudest voice never sets the number. On reveal you get the average, the median, and the spread between the highest and lowest cards, with the outliers named so you know who to ask. Agree on a number, confirm, and Repoker writes it to your Project field.
Decks are Modified Fibonacci, plain Fibonacci, T-shirt sizes, powers of 2, or a custom deck you type in, set per room. Number keys cast a vote without touching the mouse, which matters more than it sounds when you are screen-sharing. Anyone with the room link can vote, so estimation can happen asynchronously in a pull request rather than in a meeting. And if you want a sanity check, the AI helper will suggest a card and a reason privately, to you alone; it never votes and the room never sees it.
Two constraints worth knowing before you start. Your board has to be an organization Project, because GitHub doesn’t let apps read personal ones. And Repoker reads issues, metadata and the Project itself, never your code.
The Chrome and Firefox extensions add a Point in Repoker button to GitHub issues and boards, so a session starts from the ticket itself. They’re optional; everything works in a normal tab.
The setup guides walk through connecting an organization, adding the estimate field, and pointing your first ticket.
Questions, answered
Does GitHub have built-in planning poker?+
No. GitHub Projects lets you add a Number or single select field to hold an estimate, and it can sum that field per column, but there's no voting, no reveal, and no way for a team to agree on a number inside GitHub. The field is there; the ceremony isn't.
Can I run planning poker on a personal GitHub project?+
Not with Repoker, and not with any GitHub App. GitHub only lets apps read organization Projects, not user-owned ones, so a board under your personal account can't be reached. Moving the board under an organization is the fix.
Do I need a browser extension?+
No. Repoker works entirely in its own tab. The extension adds a Point in Repoker button to GitHub issues and boards so you can start a session without leaving the ticket, but everything works without it.
What gets written back to my board?+
Only the final number the table agrees on, to the Project field you nominate, on the issue you were voting on. Nothing else on the issue changes. Repoker reads issues, metadata and the Project itself, and never reads your code.
Which card decks can we use?+
Modified Fibonacci (0, ½, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, ? and coffee), plain Fibonacci, T-shirt sizes, powers of 2, or a custom deck you type in yourself. The deck is set per room.
Can people vote at different times?+
Yes. Anyone with the room link can pick a card, so you can drop the link in a pull request or a channel and let people vote when they get to it. Votes stay face-down until the facilitator reveals.
Point your next sprint on the board you already have
Link a GitHub Project, deal a hand, and let the agreed number land on the board itself.
Repoker is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by GitHub, Inc. “GitHub” and the GitHub logo are trademarks of GitHub, Inc. Zenhub is a trademark of its respective owner; the description above reflects that product’s own published material at the time of writing and may have changed since.