microsoft
Allow commenting on lines not changed in a PR
I often find myself wanting to comment on lines that haven't changed in a PR. This is typically to call out other places that need updating based on the changes in the PR, but that had been missed.
From what I can tell, the existing behaviour only allows comments to be added on lines that were changed in the PR?
This is actually a GitHub limitation. They don't provide a way to add comments in a PR outside of the lines surrounding the change.
We would also be very interested in this feature. The limitation forces us into very bad patterns, such as leaving a general comment referencing file and line (as if we did not have a UI for reviews)
We do have a way to make a file level comment, but GitHub still doesn't allow us to leave a comment on a specific line that's outside of a PR:
I and most everyone I know would also like to see this feature made available
FWIW, here’s a simple hack I follow:
I select multiple lines in the file (even if they are not part of the current PR). When you select lines, the URL in the browser updates to include the selected line numbers. If you copy this URL and open it in another tab, you'll see the selected lines highlighted.
This way, when you share the link with someone (for example, while reviewing a PR), they will see the same lines highlighted.
You can copy this URL and put in comment section of that particular file.
GitHub made it available recently!
https://github.blog/changelog/2025-09-25-pull-request-files-changed-public-preview-now-supports-commenting-on-unchanged-lines/
By the way, alex was right about that part, i don't know why some people were booing her, it was just a fact:
Yes, we are looking into it! GitHub hasn't yet made API available for this, but they're working on it. Soon ™️.