If your team plans work in Trello and writes code in GitHub, the obvious question is how to make the two talk to each other. Trello has an official GitHub Power-Up that does exactly that — up to a point. This guide walks through the setup, shows what you actually get, and explains where the integration stops.
What the Trello GitHub Power-Up does
The GitHub Power-Up lets you attach GitHub items to a Trello card:
- 🌿 Branches — link the branch a developer is working on
- 📝 Commits — attach specific commits to the card
- 🐛 Issues — connect a GitHub issue to the matching card
- 🔀 Pull requests — attach a PR and see its status on the card
The result: anyone opening the card can jump straight to the related code without asking a developer for a link.
How to connect GitHub to Trello (step by step)
- 1️⃣ Open the Trello board you want to connect.
- 2️⃣ Click Power-Ups in the board menu and search for GitHub.
- 3️⃣ Click Add to enable the GitHub Power-Up on the board.
- 4️⃣ Open any card. A GitHub button now appears in the card's Power-Ups section.
- 5️⃣ Click it and authorize Trello to access your GitHub account (and organization, if your repos live in one).
- 6️⃣ Choose what to attach — a branch, commit, issue or pull request — and pick it from your repositories.
Repeat step 6 on each card. If your repositories belong to a GitHub organization, an org admin may need to approve Trello's access before private repos show up.
Where the Trello GitHub integration stops
The Power-Up is a linking tool, not a workflow engine. Teams usually hit these limits within a few sprints:
- ⚠️ Cards don't move on their own. Opening or merging a PR doesn't move the card to "In Review" or "Done" — someone still drags it.
- ⚠️ Linking is manual. Every PR has to be attached to its card by hand. When developers forget, the board drifts out of date.
- ⚠️ No sprint data. Trello has no built-in sprints, story points or velocity, so GitHub activity never turns into planning insight.
- ⚠️ No delivery forecasting. Nothing tells you a deadline is at risk until it has already slipped.
If all you need is "click from the card to the PR", none of this matters and the Power-Up is a good fit. If your board is supposed to be the source of truth for what has shipped, it does.
The alternative: a board that updates itself from GitHub
GitHub-native tools flip the model: instead of attaching code to cards, the code moves the cards. In Rahnuma.io, for example:
- 🟢 PR opened → task moves to "In Review" automatically
- ✅ PR merged → task moves to "Done"
- 💬 A commit that references a task ID is logged on that task
- 📈 GitHub activity feeds sprint velocity and AI deadline-risk forecasting
Setup is a one-time OAuth connection — see our GitHub integration guide for the details.
Trello Power-Up or GitHub-native tool?
- Stay on Trello + Power-Up if your team is small, your process is informal, and someone already keeps the board tidy.
- Consider GitHub Projects if you want planning to live inside GitHub itself — we compare the two in Trello vs GitHub Projects.
- Move to a GitHub-native board if you run sprints, report status to stakeholders, or keep discovering that "Done" cards weren't actually merged.
Want to see your board update itself from GitHub? Start a free 10-day trial — no credit card required.