Add a proper label taxonomy — needs triage, priority, status, upstream, and area labels

[HaleTom]

Summary

This repo currently has only the 9 default GitHub labels (bug, documentation, duplicate, enhancement, good first issue, help wanted, invalid, question, wontfix). For a project with 250+ open issues and community contributors, this is insufficient for triage, prioritization, or tracking upstream contributions.

This issue proposes a label taxonomy based on patterns from Node.js, Rust, Go, Bun, Deno, Next.js, and React — adapted for MiMo-Code's specific needs as a fork of opencode.

Proposed labels

Keep existing (9 labels)

Label	Color	Description
bug	d73a4a	Something isn't working
documentation	0075ca	Improvements or additions to documentation
duplicate	cfd3d7	This issue or pull request already exists
enhancement	a2eeef	New feature or request
good first issue	7057ff	Good for newcomers
help wanted	008672	Extra attention is needed
invalid	e4e669	This doesn't seem right
question	d876e3	Further information is requested
wontfix	ffffff	This will not be worked on

Add: Type (4 labels)

Label	Color	Description
confirmed bug	b60205	Reproduced and confirmed
regression	e11d48	Used to work, now broken
crash	b60205	Runtime crash / segfault / panic
performance	e99695	Performance issue

Add: Status (5 labels)

Label	Color	Description
needs triage	CC767F	Needs initial review and labeling
needs investigation	fef2e2	Confirmed, needs root cause analysis
needs repro	fef9c3	Needs a minimal reproduction
blocked	b3312d	Blocked on another issue, PR, or upstream
stale	ededed	No activity for 30+ days

Add: Resolution (2 labels)

Label	Color	Description
working as designed	0e8a16	Not a bug — behavior is correct
backlog	fbca04	Acknowledged, low priority

Add: Priority (4 labels)

Label	Color	Description
P0: critical	b60205	Security, data loss, or crash affecting many users
P1: high	e11d48	Major functionality broken, no workaround
P2: medium	fbca04	Bug with workaround, or significant feature request
P3: low	c5def5	Nice-to-have, minor polish, edge case

Priority defaults to P2: medium if no priority label is set. Only maintainers should set P0/P1.

Add: Upstream / Fork coordination (2 labels)

Label	Color	Description
upstream: cherry-pick candidate	1d76db	Fix exists here; should be contributed to opencode
upstream: needs assessment	0d447d	May exist in opencode; needs assessment before cherry-pick

Why two upstream labels instead of one: Early in a fork's life, nearly everything is a cherry-pick candidate because the codebases haven't diverged much. As they diverge, assessing whether a fix applies upstream becomes more effort. The upstream: needs assessment label marks "we should check if this is relevant to opencode" without committing to cherry-picking it. The upstream: cherry-pick candidate label marks "we've confirmed this fix should go upstream."

This pattern is modeled on React's meta-exported label (marking issues synced from Meta's internal fork) and Go's CherryPickCandidate/CherryPickApproved system. As MiMo-Code diverges further from opencode, the upstream: needs assessment label will see more use and upstream: cherry-pick candidate will become rarer.

Add: Area (initial set — extend as needed)

Label	Color	Description
area:tui	c5def5	Terminal UI
area:server	c5def5	Server / backend / API
area:models	c5def5	Model providers, routing, configuration
area:install	c5def5	Package manager (bun install equivalent)
area:config	c5def5	Configuration, settings, AGENTS.md
area:platform	bfd4f2	OS-specific or platform-specific issues

Tier 2: Roadmap and release communication (4 labels)

These follow best practice from projects like Rust (tracking issues, release-notes), Node.js (version labels, semver labels), and Go (release-blocker). They communicate roadmap intent and ensure release documentation coverage:

Label	Color	Description
release-notes	bfdadc	Should be mentioned in release notes
tracking	d4c5f9	Tracking issue or meta-issue for a feature
v0.1.x	bfd4f2	Affects v0.1.x release line
v0.2.x	bfd4f2	Affects v0.2.x release line

Issue workflow

Issues follow a state machine from triage to resolution. Labels are the state markers:

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> New: Issue opened
    New --> Triaged: needs triage (auto-applied)
    Triaged --> Needs_Repro: bug + needs repro
    Triaged --> Confirmed_Bug: confirmed bug
    Triaged --> Enhancement: enhancement
    Triaged --> Question: question
    Triaged --> Duplicate: duplicate
    Triaged --> Invalid: invalid
    Triaged --> Wontfix: wontfix
    Triaged --> Working_as_Design: working as designed
    Triaged --> Backlog: backlog
    Needs_Repro --> Confirmed_Bug: repro provided
    Needs_Repro --> Stale: no response 30d
    Confirmed_Bug --> Needs_Investigation: needs investigation
    Needs_Investigation --> PR_Open: fix in progress
    PR_Open --> Closed: fix merged
    Enhancement --> Backlog: acknowledged, low priority
    Enhancement --> PR_Open: accepted, work starts
    Stale --> Closed: auto-close after 60d
    Backlog --> PR_Open: prioritized

Loading

Priority is orthogonal to state — a P0: critical confirmed bug still goes through needs investigation → PR open → closed, but it gets faster attention at each transition.

Users should not self-assign priority labels. CI should auto-apply needs triage to every new issue. See #585 for automation recommendations (Dosu for initial triage, CodeRabbit for PR review).

Who sets labels

Label type	Who sets it	How
needs triage	CI (auto)	Applied to every new issue automatically
Type (bug, enhancement, question)	Submitter (via template) + maintainer review	Issue templates pre-set type; maintainers refine
Priority (P0–P3)	Maintainers only	Never set by submitters
Status (needs repro, confirmed bug, etc.)	Maintainers + CI	CI can auto-confirm bugs with repro steps
Resolution (duplicate, wontfix, etc.)	Maintainers only
Area (area:*)	CI suggestion + maintainer confirmation	Dosu or similar tool suggests area labels; maintainer confirms
Upstream (upstream:*)	Maintainers only	Requires assessment of upstream applicability

Total label count

Category	Count
Existing (kept)	9
Type (new)	4
Status (new)	5
Resolution (new)	2
Priority (new)	4
Upstream (new)	2
Area (new)	6
Tier 2: Roadmap (new)	4
Total	36

For comparison: Bun has 144 labels, Rust has 861, React has 76, Node.js has 202, Deno has 122. At 36 labels, this is deliberately lean — enough structure for triage, not enough to be overwhelming.

Implementation

This can be done with a single script using the GitHub API. Labels are purely additive — no existing labels are renamed or deleted.

See #585 for the companion automation (auto-labeling, triage bot, PR review) needed to prevent maintainer burnout with this label system.