GitHub Projects: Single-select Default not applied to auto-added Issues

[kanari-k]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Issues

Body

Hello GitHub Community,

I’m experiencing an issue with GitHub Projects (Projects v2).

Expected behavior:

I have a custom Single-select field with the option “None” configured as the Default.

According to GitHub documentation, this default value should automatically be applied to newly added Project items.

Actual behavior:

• New GitHub Issues are automatically added to the Project using the built-in Auto-add workflow.
• The built-in workflow also sets Status to “Todo”.
• However, the custom Single-select field remains empty (“Choose an option”).
• I confirmed that the Default setting is still correctly configured.
• The field remains empty even more than 20 minutes after the Issue was added.
• The issue has occurred repeatedly in October 2026.
• A separate read-only GraphQL query also shows no value for the field.

Questions:

1. Should Single-select Default values automatically apply to Issues added through the built-in Auto-add workflow?
2. Is there a known bug or limitation involving Default values and Auto-add?
3. Could another built-in workflow that sets Status interfere with the Default value?
4. Is there a recommended way to diagnose or resolve this without overwriting manually selected field values?

I would prefer to use GitHub’s native functionality rather than a custom GitHub Actions workaround.

Documentation:

https://docs.github.com/en/issues/planning-and-tracking-with-projects/understanding-fields/about-single-select-fields

Thank you for your help!

Guidelines

• I have read the above statement and can confirm my post is relevant to the GitHub feature areas Issues and/or Projects.

[LeandroCustodio2002]

A few things that should help narrow it down:

1. Check whether it's specific to Auto-add: add an issue to the project manually (or with "Add item"). If the default is applied there but not via Auto-add, it's a limitation/bug in how the built-in workflow creates items, not your field config.

2. The "Item added to project" workflow that sets Status shouldn't clear other fields, but you can rule it out by disabling it temporarily and auto-adding a test issue.

3. Field defaults are only applied when an item is created. Items created before the default was configured (or re-added after removal) won't get it retroactively.

If manual adds work and Auto-add doesn't, I'd report it via GitHub Support with the project URL and a test issue. They can confirm whether it's a known limitation.

Until it's fixed, the safest workaround that doesn't overwrite manual choices is a small scheduled Action/GraphQL script that only sets the field when it's empty (filter items where the field value is null, then updateProjectV2ItemFieldValue). I know you'd prefer native features, but this keeps manually selected values intact.

[kanari-k]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I checked eight existing Issues created after the Default setting was configured. All eight were added to the Project by github-project-automation[bot].

Three recent Issues still show missing single-select values in our read-only diagnostics.

I haven’t found a comparable manually added item yet.

I’m concerned about the suggested GraphQL workaround: checking for null and then updating isn’t atomic. A user could select “On hold” between the read and the update, causing the script to overwrite their choice.

Is there a supported atomic conditional update, or a read-only way to investigate why the native Default wasn’t applied?

I’d prefer to avoid disabling existing workflows or changing production Project items just for testing.