GitHub: Convert an issue to a pull request

GitHub currently doesn't provide a way to convert an issue to a pull request in their interface. However, the capability exists in their Pull Request API.

To call the API using a simple curl command, run the command:

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curl --user "[github username]" \
     --request POST \
     --data '{"issue": "[issue num]", "head": "[branch to merge from]", "base": "[branch to merge into]"}' \
     https://api.github.com/repos/[user]/[repo]/pulls

For example, to make user1 change issue 13 into a pull request to merge branch test_branch into master in the testing_repo repository belonging to user2, the command would be:

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curl --user 'user1' \
     --request POST \
     --data '{"issue": "13", "head": "test_branch", "base": "master"}' \
     https://api.github.com/repos/user2/testing_repo/pulls

To specify a fork of a repository to merge from, put the username followed by a semicolon in front of the branch name like so: "username:branch_name"

After running the command, you will be prompted for your GitHub password. Enter it and curl should output the JSON response from the API. Make sure to check this response for errors!