4.3. Notifications and Workflow Management
GitHub generates a notification for nearly every event on a repository — the exam expects you to know how those notifications are triggered and tuned so they stay useful rather than overwhelming.
💡 First Principle: Notifications are driven by subscriptions — you get notified about a thread (an issue, PR, or discussion) if you're watching its repository, if you're @mentioned, if you're assigned, or if you participated in that specific thread. Turning off notifications for a repository you don't care about doesn't mean missing everything important — an @mention still reaches you regardless of your repository-level watch setting.
Configuration happens at several levels: per-repository (watch, ignore, or custom — e.g., only PRs), and account-wide (email vs. web notifications, which event types trigger a notification at all). The inbox itself groups notifications by reason (mentioned, assigned, review requested), which is often faster to scan than sorting by repository.
⚠️ Exam Trap: Unwatching a repository does not silence @mentions or review requests within it — those are participation-based triggers that override the general watch setting.
Reflection Question: You've unwatched a large, noisy repository to cut down on notifications. A teammate @mentions you directly in an issue there. Do you still get notified?
