Add “Favorites” Section to GitHub Web Interface for Parity with Mobile App

[th3-secret]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Code Search and Navigation

Body

The GitHub mobile application includes a highly useful “Favorites” feature that allows users to quickly access repositories and items they have marked for frequent use. However, this functionality is currently missing from the GitHub web interface.

This creates an inconsistency in user experience across platforms and limits productivity for users who primarily work on desktop environments.

Proposed Solution:
Introduce a dedicated “Favorites” section or tab within the GitHub web interface that mirrors the functionality available in the mobile app. This section should allow users to:

• View all favorited repositories or items
• Add or remove favorites directly from the web interface
• Access favorites quickly from a persistent navigation element (e.g., sidebar or top menu)

Benefits:

• Improves cross-platform consistency between mobile and web
• Enhances productivity by reducing time spent searching for frequently used repositories
• Aligns with existing user workflows already established on mobile

Additional Context:
Many users rely on both mobile and desktop environments. The absence of this feature on web creates friction and disrupts workflow continuity.

[Mehrab-Javadzadeh]

I really like this idea. It does feel a little strange that Favorites are available on mobile but not on the web.
Since I spend most of my time using GitHub in a browser, having a dedicated Favorites section would make it much quicker to access the repositories I use most often. At the moment, I rely on search, browser bookmarks, or pinned tabs.
It would also make the experience more consistent across platforms. Hopefully the GitHub team considers adding this feature to the web interface, as I think it would be a useful improvement.

[mohammadrezwankhan]

The web has two partial substitutes today, but neither is the same as a private cross-platform Favorites shelf.

• The Stars page supports search, sorting, language/type filters, and public preview lists. It is also a social signal: starring a repository affects discovery and rankings, so it should not be repurposed as a private bookmark.
• The repository dashboard supports up to 25 saved views across repositories you can access, as described in Viewing all repositories. Those views are query-based and do not cover arbitrary issues, pull requests, discussions, or mobile Favorites.

A web implementation could therefore keep the semantics separate: Star remains public, List remains an optional curated collection, and Favorite is a private shortcut synced with mobile. The minimum useful version would allow any repository/item to be added or removed, provide a compact /USERNAME/favorites view with keyboard navigation, and make clear that favoriting does not star, watch, or notify. That would give desktop users parity without changing the meaning or counts of existing stars.