Inconsistency in Notifications Inbox (author vs assigned)

[mkk5]

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Hi. I have three pull requests in my notifications. For all three PRs, I am both the original author and the self-assigned assignee. However, two of them are labeled as "author" and one of them as "assigned"

For all three PRs, the activity timeline is exactly the same: created PR -> added assignee and reviewer -> tests -> merge.

Could you explain the exact logic GitHub uses to prioritize the "author" vs "assigned" badge in the notifications?

[Farhxn-15]

Yeah, this can feel inconsistent at first, but what you are seeing comes from how GitHub decides the primary participation reason for each notification.

In the notifications inbox, GitHub shows one label such as author, assigned, review requested, or participating. When you match multiple roles, GitHub picks one as the primary reason.

How GitHub decides the label

GitHub tracks multiple participation reasons at the same time, including:

• author of the PR
• assigned to the PR
• requested reviewer
• mentioned or participating in discussion
• subscribed manually

Since showing all roles would clutter the UI, the inbox shows the most relevant reason.

Why you see different labels

Even if the activity timeline looks identical, small differences can change the priority:

Assigned may appear when:
• you are explicitly assigned after PR creation
• assignment happens after notifications are generated
• assignment is the most recent participation trigger

Author may appear when:
• you created the PR and no later participation overrides it
• assignment happened earlier and author remains primary
• notification grouping collapses later events

Timing matters more than it seems

Notifications are event driven. The label shown often reflects the most recent qualifying event rather than the full history.

Example:

Create PR → you are author
Assign yourself later → assigned becomes primary
Remove and reassign → may change again

Even tiny differences in event order can lead to different labels.

Why GitHub does this

The goal is to highlight the reason that likely requires your attention right now.

Assigned
→ action expected from you

Author
→ informational unless action required

Important note

Filtering by reason:participating includes all participation roles. The label is only a UI summary, not the full participation state.

If you want consistent behavior

Some teams avoid self assigning PRs they author unless necessary. This keeps the author label consistent.

So nothing is inconsistent behind the scenes. The inbox is showing the primary participation reason based on the latest triggering event and priority rules.