GitHub labels

Reference for what labels mean, then how to add them to a repo that does not have them yet.

My labels

Prefix convention:

• S-* labels describe issue status.
• prio-p* labels describe issue priority.
• A-* labels describe product or engineering areas.

Status labels

• S-triage: (#F9D0C4) | Status: This issue is waiting on initial triage. More Info: https://tinyurl.com/25uty9w5
• S-needs-scope: (#f08583) | Needs someone to work further on the design for the feature or fix. NOT YET accepted.
• S-impl: (#04d0e4) | Status: Implementation-ready. Clear and fully specificed
• S-blocked: (#f08583) | Status: 🧱 Blocked by an external dependency or unresolved decision.
• S-someday-maybe: (#f08583) | Status: 🤔 Intentionally paused. Currently on hold or out of scope.

Priority labels

• prio-p0-critical: (#aaeaec) | Priority: Critical or super urgent
• prio-p1-high: (#aaeaec) | Priority: High
• prio-p2-normal: (#aaeaec) | Priority: Normal
• prio-p3-low: (#aaeaec) | Priority: Low. Please focus on p2 or higher for now.

Area labels

• A-ext-dev-tools: (#eab6cb) | Area: Tools built for developers outside the organization
  • Use for external SDKs, libraries, codegen, examples, and developer docs, such as the Nibiru TypeScript package nibijs.
  • A CLI or API does not qualify just because developers can use it. Check whether the work primarily serves external developers rather than internal operations or end-user flows.
• A-perf: (#eab6cb) | Area: End-user speed, throughput, latency, and work that measures or improves them
  • Includes block time, transaction throughput, caching, benchmarks, and observability tied to a performance goal.
• A-tech-investment: (#eab6cb) | Area: Internal work that helps the team ship faster
  • Includes CI, E2E tests, automation, AI workflows, team communication, and internal tools. Use label A-perf when the goal is end-user speed.
• A-ops: (#eab6cb) | Area: Operational work such as deployments, governance proposals, and bookkeeping
  • Use for carrying out on-chain deployments and governance actions. Work on deployment tooling belongs under label A-tech-investment.
• A-ux: (#eab6cb) | Area: Solve friction in apps and wallets; improve acquisition, activation, referrals, and retention
  • Use for solutions to friction users encounter in apps, wallets, or other flows, and for work geared toward user acquisition or activation, referrals, and retention.

When the user adds a standard label, append a bullet here with the same format: `<name>`: (#<RRGGBB>) | <description> - Keep their description text verbatim.

Add labels to a repo

Use this when a repo is missing labels from My Labels, or has stale name/color/description.

1. Pick the repo — default: current git checkout. Otherwise -R OWNER/REPO.
2. See what exists — gh label list (add -R if needed).
3. Rename the old area label if present — rename A-dev-tools to A-ext-dev-tools in place with command gh label edit --name so existing issues retain the label. Update its description and color at the same time.
4. Create only what is missing — one gh label create per label from My Labels, using the exact description and color from the bullet.
5. If the label already exists but is wrong — rerun the same command with --force to update color and description without deleting the label.

Template (fill from the matching My Labels bullet):

gh label create "<name>" \
  --description "<description from My Labels>" \
  --color RRGGBB \
  --force

• Color: pass the 6-character hex without # to gh label create even though My Labels shows colors with # for editor highlighting.
• --force: safe when refreshing an existing label to match this reference; omit only if you want a hard failure on duplicate names.

Install commands (copy-paste)

Run from a clone of the target repo, or add -R OWNER/REPO to each command.

gh label create "S-triage" \
  --description "Status: This issue is waiting on initial triage. More Info: https://tinyurl.com/25uty9w5" \
  --color F9D0C4 \
  --force

gh label create "S-needs-scope" \
  --description "Needs someone to work further on the design for the feature or fix. NOT YET accepted." \
  --color f08583 \
  --force

gh label create "S-impl" \
  --description "Status: Implementation-ready. Clear and fully specificed" \
  --color 04d0e4 \
  --force

gh label create "S-blocked" \
  --description "Status: 🧱 Blocked by an external dependency or unresolved decision." \
  --color f08583 \
  --force

gh label create "S-someday-maybe" \
  --description "Status: 🤔 Intentionally paused. Currently on hold or out of scope." \
  --color f08583 \
  --force

gh label create "prio-p2-normal" \
  --description "Priority: Normal" \
  --color aaeaec \
  --force

gh label create "A-ext-dev-tools" \
  --description "Area: Tools built for developers outside the organization" \
  --color eab6cb \
  --force

gh label create "A-perf" \
  --description "Area: End-user speed, throughput, latency, and work that measures or improves them" \
  --color eab6cb \
  --force

gh label create "A-tech-investment" \
  --description "Area: Internal work that helps the team ship faster" \
  --color eab6cb \
  --force

gh label create "A-ops" \
  --description "Area: Operational work such as deployments, governance proposals, and bookkeeping" \
  --color eab6cb \
  --force

gh label create "A-ux" \
  --description "Area: Solve friction in apps and wallets; improve acquisition, activation, referrals, and retention" \
  --color eab6cb \
  --force

For a repo that already has A-dev-tools, run this before the create commands:

gh label edit "A-dev-tools" \
  --name "A-ext-dev-tools" \
  --description "Area: Tools built for developers outside the organization" \
  --color eab6cb

Optional: apply a label to an issue or PR

After labels exist on the repo:

gh issue edit <number> --add-label "S-triage"
gh pr edit <number> --add-label "S-needs-scope"

Other gh label commands

gh label edit "<name>" --description "..." --color RRGGBB
gh label delete "<name>"