diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c275450..ff5aa3e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -40,9 +40,19 @@ Unlike standard actions, this action just uses variables from the environment.
 | PULL_REQUEST_FROM_BRANCH | if a branch isn't found in your GitHub payload, use this branch | false | |
 | PULL_REQUEST_BODY | the body for the pull request | false | |
 | PULL_REQUEST_TITLE | the title for the pull request | false | |
-| PULL_REQUEST_DRAFT | should this be a draft PR? | false | false |
+| PULL_REQUEST_DRAFT | should this be a draft PR? | false | unset |
+| MAINTAINER_CANT_MODIFY | Do not allow the maintainer to modify the PR | false | unset |
+| PULL_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES | A list (string with spaces) of users to assign | false | unset |
 
-All booleans should be lowercase.
+For `PULL_REQUEST_DRAFT` and `MAINTAINER_CANT_MODIFY`, these are treated as environment
+booleans. If they are defined in the environment, they trigger the "true" condition. E.g.,:
+
+ - Define `MAINTAINER_CANT_MODIFY` if you don't want the maintainer to be able to modify the pull request.
+ - Define `PULL_REQUEST_DRAFT` if you want the PR to be a draft.
+
+For `PULL_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES`, you can provide a string of one or more GitHub usernames to
+assign to the issue. Note that only users with push access can add assigness to 
+an issue or PR, they are ignored otherwise.
 
 The `GITHUB_TOKEN` secret is required to interact and authenticate with the GitHub API to open
 the pull request. The example is [deployed here](https://github.com/vsoch/pull-request-action-example) with an example opened (and merged) [pull request here](https://github.com/vsoch/pull-request-action-example/pull/1) if needed.
diff --git a/examples/assignees-example.yml b/examples/assignees-example.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a709e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/assignees-example.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+name: Pull Request on Branch Push
+on:
+  push:
+    branches-ignore:
+      - devel
+jobs:
+  auto-pull-request:
+    name: PullRequestAction
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: pull-request-action
+        uses: vsoch/pull-request-action@1.0.3
+        env:
+          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          BRANCH_PREFIX: "update/"
+          PULL_REQUEST_BRANCH: "master"
+          PULL_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES: vsoch
diff --git a/pull-request.sh b/pull-request.sh
index 18146ee..12111a7 100755
--- a/pull-request.sh
+++ b/pull-request.sh
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ HEADER="${HEADER}; application/vnd.github.antiope-preview+json; application/vnd.
 
 # URLs
 REPO_URL="${BASE}/repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}"
+ISSUE_URL=${REPO_URL}/issues
 PULLS_URL=$REPO_URL/pulls
 
 ################################################################################
@@ -36,7 +37,7 @@ check_events_json() {
 
     if [[ ! -f "${GITHUB_EVENT_PATH}" ]]; then
         printf "Cannot find Github events file at ${GITHUB_EVENT_PATH}\n";
-        exit 1;
+        exit 1
     fi
     printf "Found ${GITHUB_EVENT_PATH}\n";
 
@@ -49,16 +50,11 @@ create_pull_request() {
     TARGET="$(echo -n "${2}" | jq --raw-input --slurp ".")"  # pull request TO this target
     BODY="$(echo -n "${3}" | jq --raw-input --slurp ".")"    # this is the content of the message
     TITLE="$(echo -n "${4}" | jq --raw-input --slurp ".")"   # pull request title
-
-    # JSON boolean
-    if [[ "${5}" ==  "true" ]]; then                         # if PRs are draft
-        DRAFT="true";
-    else
-        DRAFT="false";
-    fi
+    DRAFT="${5}"                                             # pull request draft?
+    MODIFY="${6}"                                            # maintainer can modify
+    ASSIGNEES="$(echo -n "${7}" | jq --raw-input --slurp ".")"
 
     # Check if the branch already has a pull request open
-
     DATA="{\"base\":${TARGET}, \"head\":${SOURCE}, \"body\":${BODY}}"
     RESPONSE=$(curl -sSL -H "${AUTH_HEADER}" -H "${HEADER}" --user "${GITHUB_ACTOR}" -X GET --data "${DATA}" ${PULLS_URL})
     PR=$(echo "${RESPONSE}" | jq --raw-output '.[] | .head.ref')
@@ -71,10 +67,33 @@ create_pull_request() {
     # Option 2: Open a new pull request
     else
         # Post the pull request
-        DATA="{\"title\":${TITLE}, \"body\":${BODY}, \"base\":${TARGET}, \"head\":${SOURCE}, \"draft\":${DRAFT}}"
+        DATA="{\"title\":${TITLE}, \"body\":${BODY}, \"base\":${TARGET}, \"head\":${SOURCE}, \"draft\":${DRAFT}, \"maintainer_can_modify\":${MODIFY}}"
         printf "curl --user ${GITHUB_ACTOR} -X POST --data ${DATA} ${PULLS_URL}\n"
-        curl -sSL -H "${AUTH_HEADER}" -H "${HEADER}" --user "${GITHUB_ACTOR}" -X POST --data "${DATA}" ${PULLS_URL}
-        echo $?
+        RESPONSE=$(curl -sSL -H "${AUTH_HEADER}" -H "${HEADER}" --user "${GITHUB_ACTOR}" -X POST --data "${DATA}" ${PULLS_URL})
+        RETVAL=$?
+        printf "Pull request return code: ${RETVAL}\n"
+
+        # If there are assignees and we were successful to open, assigm them to it
+        if [[ "${ASSIGNEES}" != "" ]] && [[ "${RETVAL}" == "0" ]]; then
+
+            echo "${RESPONSE}"
+            NUMBER=$(echo "${RESPONSE}" | jq --raw-output '.number')
+            printf "Number opened for PR is ${NUMBER}\n"
+
+            # Remove leading and trailing quotes
+            ASSIGNEES=$(echo "$ASSIGNEES" | sed -e 's/^"//' -e 's/"$//')
+
+            # Parse assignees into a list            
+            ASSIGNEES=$(echo $ASSIGNEES | sed -e 's/\(\w*\)/,"\1"/g' | cut -d , -f 2-)
+            printf "Attempting to assign ${ASSIGNEES} to ${PR} with number ${NUMBER}"
+
+            # POST /repos/:owner/:repo/issues/:issue_number/assignees
+            DATA="{\"assignees\":[${ASSIGNEES}]}"
+            echo "${DATA}"
+            ASSIGNEES_URL="${ISSUE_URL}/${NUMBER}/assignees"
+            curl -sSL -H "${AUTH_HEADER}" -H "${HEADER}" --user "${GITHUB_ACTOR}" -X POST --data "${DATA}" ${ASSIGNEES_URL}
+            printf "$?\n"
+        fi
     fi
 }
 
@@ -98,6 +117,7 @@ main () {
     fi
     printf "Pull requests will go to ${PULL_REQUEST_BRANCH}\n"
 
+    # Pull request draft
     if [ -z "${PULL_REQUEST_DRAFT}" ]; then
         printf "No explicit preference for draft PR: created PRs will be normal PRs.\n"
         PULL_REQUEST_DRAFT="false"
@@ -106,6 +126,25 @@ main () {
         PULL_REQUEST_DRAFT="true"
     fi
 
+    # Maintainer can modify, defaults to CAN, unless user sets MAINTAINER_CANT_MODIFY
+    if [ -z "${MAINTAINER_CANT_MODIFY}" ]; then
+        printf "No explicit preference for maintainer being able to modify: default is true.\n"
+        MODIFY="true"
+    else
+        printf "Environment variable MAINTAINER_CANT_MODIFY set to a value: maintainer will not be able to modify.\n"
+        MODIFY="false"
+    fi
+
+    # Assignees
+    ASSIGNEES=""
+    if [ -z "${PULL_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES}" ]; then
+        printf "PULL_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES is not set, no assignees.\n"
+    else
+        printf "PULL_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES is set, ${PULL_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES}\n"
+        ASSIGNEES="${PULL_REQUEST_ASSIGNEES}"
+    fi
+
+
     # The user is allowed to explicitly set the name of the branch
     if [ -z "${PULL_REQUEST_FROM_BRANCH}" ]; then
         printf "PULL_REQUEST_FROM_BRANCH is not set, checking branch in payload.\n"
@@ -138,18 +177,20 @@ main () {
             # Pull request body (optional)
             if [ -z "${PULL_REQUEST_BODY}" ]; then
                 echo "No pull request body is set, will use default."
-                PULL_REQUEST_BODY="This is an automated pull request to update the container collection ${BRANCH}"
+                PULL_REQUEST_BODY="This is an automated pull request to update from branch ${BRANCH}"
             fi
             printf "Pull request body is ${PULL_REQUEST_BODY}\n"
 
             # Pull request title (optional)
             if [ -z "${PULL_REQUEST_TITLE}" ]; then
                 printf "No pull request title is set, will use default.\n"
-                PULL_REQUEST_TITLE="Update container ${BRANCH}"
+                PULL_REQUEST_TITLE="Update from ${BRANCH}"
             fi
             printf "Pull request title is ${PULL_REQUEST_TITLE}\n"
 
-            create_pull_request "${BRANCH}" "${PULL_REQUEST_BRANCH}" "${PULL_REQUEST_BODY}" "${PULL_REQUEST_TITLE}" "${PULL_REQUEST_DRAFT}"
+            create_pull_request "${BRANCH}" "${PULL_REQUEST_BRANCH}" "${PULL_REQUEST_BODY}" \
+                                "${PULL_REQUEST_TITLE}" "${PULL_REQUEST_DRAFT}" "${MODIFY}" \
+                                "${ASSIGNEES}"
 
         fi