GitHub’s global Issues search is the complete index. It is also a museum: every labeled ticket still sitting in a repo, whether or not anyone will review a first pull request. Use the operators below to cut noise, save the view if you want, then leave GitHub search for a live Help Wanted hub.

Open github.com/issues

Go to github.com/issues. That page is global Issues search — issues across public repositories — not the Issues tab inside one repo.

Sign in. Signed-out search is thinner. Type in the search bar on that page, or paste a query into https://github.com/issues?q=....

Exact label strings

GitHub matches labels as exact strings. good first issue and good-first-issue are different labels. Run both queries.

Spaces (most common):

is:issue is:open label:"good first issue" pushed:>2026-01-01

Hyphen (second query):

is:issue is:open label:"good-first-issue" pushed:>2026-01-01

is:issue drops pull requests. is:open drops closed tickets. Quote the label so the space (and the hyphenated string) stay one token. pushed:>2026-01-01 keeps repositories that received a push in 2026 — it does not mean the issue is still a good first task.

Do not OR the two labels in one query and assume you covered both ecosystems. Run them separately so you can see which string a given project actually uses.

Language operators

Add one language qualifier. GitHub’s language: filter is the repository’s primary language, not “this issue is written in that language.”

is:issue is:open label:"good first issue" language:python pushed:>2026-01-01

is:issue is:open label:"good first issue" language:typescript pushed:>2026-01-01

is:issue is:open label:"good first issue" language:javascript pushed:>2026-01-01

Repeat the same three with label:"good-first-issue" if you are being thorough.

Optional filters

These are optional. They reduce volume; they do not make the result beginner-ready.

no:assignee — no one is assigned. People still claim in comments without taking the assignee field.
comments:<3 — short threads. Quiet can mean abandoned, not easy.
updated:>2026-06-01 — the issue itself (not only the repo) moved this summer.

Stacked example:

is:issue is:open label:"good first issue" language:python no:assignee comments:<3 updated:>2026-06-01 pushed:>2026-01-01

Saved views (25 cap)

On github.com/issues, save a query as a view so you are not retyping operators. GitHub caps saved views at 25. When you hit the cap, delete a view you no longer use — there is no infinite pinboard.

A saved view is still GitHub search. It will not rank difficulty, hide claimed-in-comments work, or tell you whether the project merges first-timer pull requests.

Why this is still a museum

Operators filter strings and dates. They do not filter intent.

Labels stick on issues after the maintainer stopped onboarding.
pushed: means the default branch moved, not that this ticket is specified or wanted.
no:assignee misses the “I’ll take this” comment from last month.
Two label spellings split the same idea across disjoint result sets.
There is no signal for “the last first-timer pull request actually merged.”

That is the museum: a complete, queryable archive of labels. Useful for five minutes. The wrong place to live.

Open a live hub instead

Help Wanted lists labeled issues from active projects, grouped by language. Start here, then read one issue all the way through.

If you still need GitHub’s operators after that — for a language hub we do not list, or a label a project invented — run the query, then come back and pick from a hub when you can.

FAQ

Why do I need two queries for good first issue?

Because GitHub label search is exact. label:"good first issue" does not return good-first-issue, and the reverse is also true. Projects pick one string. Search both.

Does `pushed:>2026-01-01` mean the issue is still good for a beginner?

No. It means the repository received a push after that date. The issue can still be underspecified, claimed in comments, or ignored.

How do saved views work, and what is the 25 cap?

Save the current Issues search as a view from github.com/issues. You can keep at most 25 saved views. Treat them as operator shortcuts, not a personal issue tracker.

Should I stay on GitHub search or switch to a hub?

Use GitHub search to learn the operators and to reach labels a hub does not index. For actually picking work, open a Help Wanted language hub so you are looking at active projects.

Can I combine `language:` with `no:assignee` and `comments:<3`?

Yes. Stack them on one query. They only narrow GitHub’s index. They still do not replace reading the thread and checking that the repo merges first-timer work.