Proposal: Standardised Labels for Issues & PRs (Kanban / MoSCoW / Triage) #4
Description
Hi, guys.
I mentioned this in the Roadmap issue that I've just submitted. The aim of the following is to manage the issues and PRs via the built-in GitHub Projects Kanban, with much of the organisation being done by GitHub, based on any labels applied. As always, I'm just trying to help, so the ciders can code.
Cheers,
Chris
Purpose
This proposal introduces a consistent, colour-coded labelling scheme for
Issues and Pull Requests across the AerynOS GitHub organisation.The labels are designed to:
- Support triage at scale
- Enable MoSCoW prioritisation
- Feed cleanly into a GitHub Projects (v2) Kanban board
- Improve contributor clarity and onboarding
This proposal complements the roadmap work and recent website coordination
efforts (e.g. dotcom issue #44).
🎯 Design Goals
- Labels should be:
- Easy to scan visually
- Consistent across repositories
- Useful for both maintainers and contributors
- Labels should:
- Be orthogonal (each label answers one question)
- Avoid overloading single labels with multiple meanings
- Labels should:
- Map cleanly to GitHub Projects fields and filters
🧭 Label Categories Overview
| Category | Purpose |
|---|---|
| priority: | MoSCoW prioritisation |
| type: | What kind of work this is |
| status: | Current lifecycle state |
| area: | Which part of the project |
| effort: | Rough implementation size |
| contributor: | Contribution suitability |
🔴 Priority Labels (MoSCoW)
Used to decide when something should be worked on
| Label | Description | Colour |
|---|---|---|
priority: must |
Critical for alpha/beta stability or blockers | #B60205 |
priority: should |
Important but not blocking | #D93F0B |
priority: could |
Nice to have / opportunistic | #FBCA04 |
priority: wont |
Explicitly out of scope (for now) | #0E8A16 |
🧩 Type Labels
Describes what kind of issue or PR this is
(informed by repo structure and website content)
| Label | Description | Colour |
|---|---|---|
type: bug |
Something is broken or incorrect | #D73A4A |
type: feature |
New functionality | #0E8A16 |
type: enhancement |
Improvement to existing functionality | #A2EEEF |
type: documentation |
Docs, guides, README changes | #0075CA |
type: infrastructure |
CI, build, mirrors, tooling infra | #5319E7 |
type: installer |
Lichen / installation related | #C5DEF5 |
type: packaging |
Recipes, packages, dependency changes | #F9D0C4 |
type: website |
aerynos.com / dotcom | #F7C6C7 |
type: tooling |
os-tools, moss, boulder | #BFDADC |
type: needs more information |
Not actionable yet (missing logs, repro, scope) | #E4E669 |
🔄 Status Labels
Indicates where in the lifecycle the work currently sits
| Label | Description | Colour |
|---|---|---|
status: triage |
Needs initial review | #C2E0C6 |
status: accepted |
Agreed and ready to schedule | #0E8A16 |
status: blocked |
Blocked by another issue or decision | #B60205 |
status: in progress |
Actively being worked on | #0052CC |
status: review needed |
Awaiting review or feedback | #FBCA04 |
status: stalled |
No activity for a while | #9E9E9E |
🧭 Area Labels
Helps route issues to the right maintainers
| Label | Description | Colour |
|---|---|---|
area: os-tools |
moss / boulder | #1D76DB |
area: installer |
lichen / disks-rs | #1D76DB |
area: recipes |
Packaging | #1D76DB |
area: infra |
Build & hosting infrastructure | #1D76DB |
area: website |
dotcom / docs | #1D76DB |
area: docs |
Documentation content | #1D76DB |
📏 Effort Labels (Optional but Helpful)
Useful for sprint planning and contributor expectations
| Label | Description | Colour |
|---|---|---|
effort: small |
Few hours | #C5DEF5 |
effort: medium |
1–3 days | #93C6E7 |
effort: large |
Multi-day / complex | #4A90E2 |
🤝 Contributor-Friendly Labels
| Label | Description | Colour |
|---|---|---|
good first issue |
Safe for new contributors | #7057FF |
help wanted |
Maintainers would welcome help | #008672 |
🧠 How This Maps to GitHub Projects
This label set enables:
- Kanban columns via
status:* - Priority swimlanes via
priority:* - Filtered views by
area:*ortype:* - Automated workflows (e.g. auto-add
status: triage)
📌 Suggested Next Steps
- Agree on label names & colours
- Create labels at the org level (or seed them repo-by-repo)
- Update contributing docs to reference the labels
- Wire labels into the GitHub Projects board
This proposal is intended to evolve alongside AerynOS and should be revisited as the project matures.