Enable linking to GitHub issues from GitLab using "Related Issues"

Problem to solve

The "Related Issue" feature is helpful for tethering issues together that have something in common. Maybe the related issue has the same root cause, maybe someone provided a great bit of insight in one issue that is relevant to this issue, or maybe the issue you're working on is dependent on the other issue being fixed first. This last one is the most relevant for this request.

I want to be able to reference issues that block issues in my GitLab repository which exist outside of GitLab.

Target audience

Release managers, product managers, and developers. Anyone who wants to know the status of issues related to the current issue without reading large amounts of comments.

Further details

With no offense intended to GitLab (I'm here, aren't I? 😅), more open source projects are hosted on GitHub than GitLab. Sometimes I run into issues with those open source projects that are causing downstream issues in my company's projects. I'd like to be able to say that there is complexity in resolving the GitLab issue because a related GitHub issue (which exists in said open source project's GitHub repository) is the root cause and needs to be fixed. Right now it is already a bit ambiguous in the UX as to whether or not this type of linking is supported. Given the following, would you think you would be able to provide a link to an issue on a different source control service provider?

If you try you'll get this message:

Of course, I can put a link to this into a comment, but that requires everyone to actually read the comments and find the link, and also update the comment if the reference issue doesn't actually relate to the current one as once thought.

Proposal

Add the ability to link to GitHub issues in addition to GitLab issues. Or, if that is not possible, allow me to provide a generic hyperlink as a related issue instead of GitHub specifically.

What does success look like, and how can we measure that?

Allowing me to copy in links to issues on GitHub that are related to my issue in GitLab into the "Related Issues" property.

Links / references