Did some searching online to see how others have handled organizing issues on GitHub for their own projects. This one by Robin Powered is by far the best I have seen so far. I have broken down the image in the blog post so that it can be easily copied and pasted into my own GitHub issue label manager and even put my own spin on it.
If the repository covers multiple parts, this is how we designate where the issue lives. (i.e. iOS and Android for cross-platform tablet app).
| Label | Description | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Angular | Specific to how Angular is used. | #bfd4f2 |
| Node | Specific to how Node is used. | #bfd4f2 |
Issues that make the product feel broken. High priority, especially if its present in production.
| Label | Description | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Bug | Identification of, or the solution to, a bug. | #ee3f46 |
| Security | Identification of, or the solution to, a security bug. | #ee3f46 |
| production | Identification of, or the solution to, a bug in the production environment. | #ee3f46 |
Converting measurements, reorganizing folder structure, and other necessary (but less impactful) tasks.
| Label | Description | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Chore | Something that should be addressed some day. | #fef2c0 |
| Legal | Something relating to legal matters that should be addressed. | #fef2c0 |
Affect user’s comprehension, or overall enjoyment of the product. These can be both opportunities and “UX bugs”.
| Label | Description | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Copy | Identification of, or the solution to, a published text issue. | #ffc274 |
| Design | Identification of, or the solution to, a fundamental design issue. | #ffc274 |
| User Experience | Identification of, or the solution to, a user experience issue. | #ffc274 |
Server environment. With good QA, you’ll identify issues on test and staging deployments.
| Label | Description | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Staging | Identification of, or the solution to, an issue in staging. | #fad8c7 |
| Testing | Identification of, or the solution to, an issue in testing. | #fad8c7 |
This section used to have labels for discussions, RFCs, and QA sessions. However, now that GitHub has direct support for regular discussions, the following categories should be used with that new Discussions feature.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| General | A discussion about the project that does not fall under the other categories. |
| RFCs | A request for comments for a proposed change to the project. |
| Questions | A question and answer session for a specific topic about the project. |
Iterations on existing features or infrastructure. Generally these update speed, or improve the quality of results. Adding a new “Owner” field to an existing “Calendar” model in the API, for example.
| Label | Description | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Enhancement | Identification of, or the solution to, an enhancement to an existing feature. | #5ebeff |
| Optimization | Identification of, or the solution to, an optimization of an existing feature. | #5ebeff |
Brand new functionality. New pages, workflows, endpoints, etc.
| Label | Description | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Feature | Proposal of, or work done for, a new feature. | #91ca55 |
Taking action, but need a few things to happen first. A feature that needs dependencies merged, or a bug that needs further data.
| Label | Description | Color |
|---|---|---|
| In Progress | Marks an issue as being addressed or a solution as in development. | #fbca04 |
| Watch List | Marks an issue or solution as being observed by a contributor. | #fbca04 |
No action needed or possible. The issue is either fixed, addressed better by other issues, or just out of product scope.
| Label | Description | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Invalid | An incorrect, misidentified, or out of scope issue or solution. | #d2dae1 |
| Won't Fix | An issue or solution for something working as intended or is out of scope. | #d2dae1 |
| Duplicate | A duplicate issue or solution. | #d2dae1 |
| On Hold | A formerly in progress issue or solution. | #d2dae1 |