GitHub · Pull requests · Team review requests · Checked October 27, 2026

GitHub: a team review request was replaced by team members

When a team turns on auto assignment in its code review settings, any time the team is requested to review a pull request, the team is removed as a reviewer and a specified subset of its members are assigned in its place (GitHub's managing code review settings for your team, checked October 27, 2026). So a team you asked can vanish from Reviewers, with one or more of its members asked instead.

Team > Settings > Code review > Enable auto assignment
How many team members should be assigned to review?
Routing algorithm      Round robin | Load balance
Never assign certain team members | Child team members | Count existing requests | Team review request

How the members are chosen

How many: the team picks the number of members assigned to each pull request.
Round robin: chooses whoever received the least recent review request, alternating between all members of the team, regardless of how many reviews they already have outstanding.
Load balance: chooses by each member's total number of recent review requests and their outstanding reviews, trying to give each member an equal number of pull requests to review in any 30-day period.
Busy members: members who set their status to Busy are not selected. If all members are busy, the pull request stays assigned to the team itself.
Options: Never assign certain team members always skips the members selected; Child team members includes members of child teams; Count existing requests counts members already requested against the number to assign; Team review request removes the review request from the team when members are assigned.

Code owners and notifications

Code owners: when a team is requested automatically as a code owner, it is still removed and replaced with individuals, unless a branch protection rule requires review from code owners. Then the team request cannot be removed: the individual request appears in addition to the team, and the team is removed once the individual completes their review.
Only notify requested team members: a different setting. It does not reassign anyone: when a specific member of the team is also requested, the rest of the team is not notified.
Large teams: GitHub warns that requesting a review from a large team can notify every member, and suggests auto assignment, or Only notify requested team members together with requesting a specific member (GitHub's requesting a pull request review).

What to do

See who was asked: the members assigned in the team's place appear under Reviewers on the pull request.
Ask a specific person: with write access, click Reviewers and type their username; anyone with read access to the repository can be asked. After changes, you can ask the same reviewer again from Reviewers.
Change who is chosen: on the team page, Settings, then Code review: change the number, the routing algorithm or the options, or deselect Enable auto assignment to turn it off.
Not chosen while busy: a member who wants requests again clears the Busy status.

In IntelliJ IDEA: a team is sent as the team, the requests read back as GitHub holds them

How the GitHub support built into IntelliJ IDEA requests reviews from a team, in its source (checked October 31, 2026; IntelliJ IDEA: GHPRReviewFlowViewModelImpl.kt, GHPRRepositoryDataServiceExtensions.kt, GHPRDetailsServiceImpl.kt, GithubApiRequests.kt, findOrganizationTeams.graphql, pullRequestInfoShort.graphql, pullRequestTimeline.graphql):

Choosing: requesting a review opens a chooser with the pull request's current reviewers already selected. It offers the teams of the organization that owns the repository and, if your account can write to the repository, the collaborators who can push (otherwise the contributors), without the pull request's author.
Sending: the change goes to GitHub's REST requested_reviewers: first the reviewers you removed, then the ones you added, people by login and teams by slug. A team is sent as the team; the IDE does not pick its members itself.
Reading back: it reads the pull request's current review requests (up to 100), each a person or a team, so after GitHub replaces a team request, the requests it reads are the ones GitHub now holds. It also asks the timeline for review-requested and review-request-removed events, with who did it, when, and the person or team.

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 the reviewers and teams GitHub reports as asked to review: after auto assignment, the members assigned in the team's place, and the team only while its request stands. The plugin does not request reviews or change team settings, which 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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