GitHub now lets owners of public repositories cap active pull requests from users without write access. The setting helps teams that must sort through a flood of repetitive, weak, or random edits. So maintainers gain a more direct way to manage incoming volume.
How the New Limit Works
An administrator can set the maximum number of open pull requests per contributor. Once a user reaches that cap, the next step is clear. The author must close an existing request or wait for it to merge into the main branch. Only then can they open a new one. Draft pull requests do not count toward the total.
A Bypass List for Trusted Contributors
Maintainers can also build an exception list. Developers on that list may exceed the limit. Importantly, they do not receive full repository access in exchange. GitHub expects the measure to reduce unnecessary code reviews. It should also ease the load on automated builds and tests.
Why GitHub Added This
The volume of pull requests keeps growing for open-source maintainers. AI tools have made creating a pull request easier than ever. Reviewing one, however, still takes a human about as long as before. As a result, low-quality and drive-by edits can bury the contributions that deserve attention. You can read the full details in the GitHub changelog. Note that pull requests opened by Copilot or another AI agent do count toward the limit.
Part of a Wider Push for Maintainer Control
This limit is not GitHub’s first move on the problem. Back in February 2026, the platform added settings to disable pull requests entirely or restrict them to collaborators. In April, GitHub also introduced Stacked PRs. That mechanism handles chains of related pull requests. It helps break large changes into small parts and speeds up review.
The new limit solves a different problem, though. It protects the review queue from a stream of requests by a contributor without write access. Together, these tools give maintainers finer control over how their projects accept outside code.
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