Issue Boards

An issue board is a kanban-style planning view for a repository's issues. Each repository has a single board, and the board organizes open issues into columns so you can see work at a glance and plan it visually.

Opening the Board

From a repository, go to the Issues tab and switch to the board, or navigate directly to /namespace/repo/-/boards. The board is created automatically the first time it's opened (named Development); you don't need to set anything up.

Columns

The board always shows two built-in columns plus one column per list you add:

  • Open — open issues that don't carry any of the board's list labels. This is your backlog of untriaged work.
  • Label columns — one column for each list you add. Each list is backed by a label, and the column shows the open issues that carry that label.
  • Closed — the most recently closed issues (up to 20).

Each card shows the issue's #iid and title and links to the full issue. Label columns display the label's color and a count of the issues in that column.

Board Lists

A board list is label-backed: every list maps to one of the repository's labels. Lists keep a position so columns stay in a stable left-to-right order, with new lists appended to the end.

Adding a List

  1. Open the board.
  2. Pick a label from the Add column by label... dropdown.
  3. Click the + button. A new column appears for that label.

The dropdown lists every label defined in the repository, so create the labels you want first (see Labels) and then build columns from them.

Removing a List

Click the × button in a label column's header to remove that list. This only removes the column from the board — the label and any issues that carry it are left untouched.

How Issues Move Between Columns

Columns are driven entirely by labels, not by dragging cards. An issue appears in a label column when it carries that column's label, and in the Open column when it carries none of them. To move an issue across the board, change its labels on the issue itself: add a list's label to pull the issue into that column, or remove it to drop the issue back to Open. Closing an issue moves it into the Closed column.

Because columns reflect labels, a single board view doubles as a quick way to see which issues are tagged with which label across the repository.