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

GitHub: you cannot push to a pull request branch in a fork

To commit to a pull request branch created from a fork, you need push access to the base repository, permission from the pull request creator, and a user-owned fork without branch restrictions that prevent your push. Only the pull request creator can allow edits to their fork (GitHub's committing changes to a pull request branch created from a fork, checked October 27, 2026).

What has to be true

Push access upstream: the author can give maintainers of the upstream repository, that is anyone with push access to it, permission to commit to the compare branch.
Allow edits from maintainers: on a user-owned fork, the author selects it when creating the pull request, or later on the pull request page. If the fork contains GitHub Actions workflows, the option is Allow edits and access to secrets by maintainers: it also lets a maintainer edit the fork workflows, which can potentially reveal values of secrets and grant access to other branches (GitHub's allowing changes to a pull request branch created from a fork).
A fork owned by an organization: push permissions cannot be given to a fork owned by an organization; only a fork in a personal account offers the option (GitHub's permissions of forks).
Rules on the branch: push rules apply to the entire fork network, so the push rulesets of the upstream repository apply to the fork as well, and only the people with bypass permissions in the root repository can bypass them (see push rules).
In the API: the pull request field maintainer_can_modify indicates whether maintainers can modify the pull request (GitHub's REST API endpoints for pull requests).

Pushing to the fork

Clone the fork: clone the fork where the pull request branch was created, check out the compare branch shown at the top of the pull request, commit, then git push origin BRANCH. The new commits appear on the original pull request.
Not refs/pull/: the head GitHub keeps for every pull request is under refs/pull/, which is read-only; pushing there fails with deny updating a hidden ref (see pull request not checked out).

What to do

Ask the author: only the person who opened the pull request can select Allow edits from maintainers.
When it cannot be allowed: for a fork owned by an organization, or an author who does not answer, fetch the pull request by its number, push your own branch, and open a new pull request with the changes. GitHub says the changes of a pull request whose author is unresponsive, or has deleted their fork, can still be merged through a new pull request (GitHub's modifying an inactive pull request locally).

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. Its Checkout fetches a pull request from a fork from the head GitHub keeps for it, into a local branch named after the pull request, such as pr/42-fix-login, in the repository you cloned and not in the fork, so commits pushed from it do not reach the pull request. The branch has no upstream, so a push from the IDE offers a new branch of its own name, which can be opened as a new pull request; to commit to the fork branch, clone the fork as above. 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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