🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

Body

Issue description

Hi GitHub Community!

I'm experiencing an unusual issue where an open pull request is not updating to reflect the latest commit on its source branch.

Repository: https://github.com/benjiecarabantes-ux/smm-command-center

Pull Request: https://github.com/benjiecarabantes-ux/smm-command-center/pull/5

Current situation

• PR Feature request: support jumping to lines in files #5 is open and in draft.
• Source branch: feature/social-media-integrations
• Target branch: main
• Actual source branch HEAD: ac6e2e1
• PR Feature request: support jumping to lines in files #5 reported HEAD: b4e0d62
• PR test-merge reference: dca0ea2

The latest commit (ac6e2e1) is a direct descendant of b4e0d62, so this was a normal fast-forward update.

Expected behavior

PR #5 should reflect the latest branch commit, ac6e2e1, and update its generated head and merge references.

Actual behavior

The GitHub branch comparison shows 4 commits and 42 changed files.

However, the pull request still shows 3 commits and 38 changed files.

The PR's generated test-merge reference also remains based on the older commit.

Because of this discrepancy, Netlify Deploy Preview #5 continues deploying b4e0d62 instead of the latest commit.

Troubleshooting completed

• Verified that the correct source branch exists.
• Confirmed the pull request is open and targets main.
• Confirmed the branch HEAD and PR HEAD differ.
• Checked Netlify configuration; no commit pin or checkout override was found.
• Retried the deployment, but the older commit was still used.
• Submitted GitHub Support ticket #4950204, which was automatically closed with a recommendation to use self-service resources.

Question

Is there a safe, GitHub-supported way to refresh or reconcile stale pull request head and merge references without force-pushing, recreating the pull request, or losing its existing discussion history?

I'd appreciate any guidance on how to diagnose or escalate this issue.

Thank you!