GitHub · Pull requests · Reviews · Checked October 27, 2026

GitHub: changes requested, and dismissing a review

A reviewer chooses one of three decisions: Comment, Approve, or Request changes, which flags feedback that the author should address before merging. When a branch requires reviews and a person with admin permissions chooses Request changes, that person must approve the pull request before it can be merged. If a reviewer who requested changes is not available, anyone with write permissions for the repository can dismiss the blocking review (GitHub's about protected branches and pull request reviews, checked October 27, 2026).

PUT /repos/OWNER/REPO/pulls/PULL_NUMBER/reviews/REVIEW_ID/dismissals
{"message": "REASON", "event": "DISMISS"}

Dismissing a review

Who: repository administrators or people with write access can dismiss a review, for example when the pull request has changed since it was reviewed and the person who requested changes is not available to approve it.
What it does: dismissing changes the status of the review to a review comment. You must add a comment explaining why, and the comment is added to the conversation of the pull request.
Where: on the Conversation tab, next to the summary of reviews, open the reviews; next to the review, open its menu and click Dismiss review, type the reason, then click Dismiss review (GitHub's dismissing a pull request review).

When dismissing is refused

A protected branch can limit it: branch protection can restrict the ability to dismiss pull request reviews to specific people or teams. To dismiss a review on a protected branch, you must be a repository administrator or be in that list.
Through the API: message is required. GitHub documents 404 (resource not found) and 422 (validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed) (GitHub's REST API for pull request reviews).

Dismissed without anyone asking

Stale approvals: with "Dismiss stale pull request approvals when new commits are pushed", an approving review is dismissed as stale when the diff changes after it, for example after a push, Update branch, or a related pull request merged into the target branch (see approval of the most recent push).

What to do

The reviewer is there: address the feedback and ask them to review again. When a person with admin permissions requested changes on a branch that requires reviews, the merge waits for that person to approve.
The reviewer is away: someone with write access, or someone the protected branch allows, dismisses the review with a reason.
Still blocked: other required reviews or checks may hold the merge too (see why the merge was refused).

In IntelliJ IDEA: a request for changes is shown per reviewer, and there is no Dismiss

How the GitHub support built into IntelliJ IDEA shows and handles a request for changes, in its source (checked October 31, 2026; IntelliJ IDEA: pullRequestInfoShort.graphql, GHReviewersUtils.kt, GHPRReviewerStateUIUtil.kt, GHPRStatusChecksComponentFactory.kt, GHPRReviewFlowViewModelImpl.kt, GHPRMergeabilityStateBuilder.kt, GHPRDetailsActionsComponentFactory.kt, CodeReviewDetailsActionsComponentFactory.kt, GHPRTimelineEventComponentFactoryImpl.kt, GithubBundle.properties, CollaborationToolsBundle.properties):

Each reviewer: it loads the last 100 reviews of the pull request and, for each reviewer other than the author, takes the newest submitted review that is not a plain comment: an approval, a request for changes, or, when that review was dismissed, comments only, so an older request for changes does not come back. A reviewer who is asked to review again shows as asked again instead. The status panel reads "name is waiting for updates" for a request for changes, and otherwise "name approved review", "name left comments", "Re-requested review from name" or "Waiting for review from name".
The pull request as a whole counts as approved once enough reviewers approve: the number the branch rule requires when GitHub reports the merge as blocked, you may push to the branch and no required check is failing, otherwise one. Only short of that does it follow GitHub's reviewDecision, where CHANGES_REQUESTED means waiting for updates. So once there are enough approvals, another reviewer's request for changes does not change it. Whether Merge can be pressed still depends on GitHub's merge state.
For the author, while it is waiting for updates: Re-request Review… when nobody is asked to review at the moment, Request Review… when someone is, and the merge buttons under Merge Review… in the more-actions menu instead of a main button. Re-request Review… asks again everyone who has reviewed; each reviewer's menu in the status panel also has Re-request Review from name. Both are on only for the author or an account with Triage permission or above, and send GitHub's REST request for reviewers. A refusal goes only to the IDE's log, where showing it is marked as still to do.
There is no Dismiss in the IDE: none of its requests to GitHub dismisses a review, and its review popup offers only Approve, Request Changes and Comment, so dismissing is done on GitHub. In the timeline, every dismissal reads "dismissed name's stale review", with the message below when GitHub returns one, whether GitHub dismissed it as stale or a person did.

GitHub pull requests in IntelliJ IDEA

Pull Request Inbox for GitHub, a plugin by Lesstep for JetBrains IDEs 2024.1 or later, shows a pull request's reviews, checks and conversations next to the diff, and merges it with the methods the target branch allows. It lists everyone asked to review and where each one's review stands (approved, changes requested, asked to review, on an earlier commit); a dismissed review counts neither as an approval nor as a request for changes, and its merge checks name who requested changes and say that the request stands until they approve, or someone with write access dismisses the review on GitHub (a protected branch can limit who may). Dismissing a review is done on GitHub. The review inbox, diffs and conversations are free; approving, commenting, resolving and merging are Pro (US$1.50 a month, with a 30-day trial).

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