Issue #1554 โ paste a PR body and see which issues GitHub would actually close on merge vs which silently stay open.
GitHub only links an issue when a close keyword immediately precedes the number. A bare comma list does not distribute the keyword:
Closes #1, #2, #3 โ closes ONLY #1 (#2, #3 stay open โ silent drift) Closes #1, closes #2 โ closes #1 AND #2 (repeat the keyword)
Keywords: close / closes / closed / fix / fixes / fixed / resolve / resolves / resolved.
1. PR template fix โ the template literally recommended the broken Closes #1, #2, #3 form. Corrected to Closes #1, closes #2 + a warning about the bare list.
2. pr-body-lint.yml โ advisory (never-failing) check: if a PR title references #N but the body has no close keyword, it emits a ::warning:: nudge.
Out of scope (per the issue): heuristic auto-closing โ false-closes create their own drift. The one-time sweep of ~50 stale issues is tracked separately.