Update Labels

Reorganizes GitHub issue labels into a professional taxonomy. Creates distinct labels for issue types (feature, bugfix, test, docs, etc.), priorities, and effort estimates, then re-labels all issues accordingly.

Custom Labels: The taxonomy below serves as a foundation. You should create custom labels for project-specific needs:

When to Add Custom Labels:

• Component areas (e.g., frontend, backend, api, database)
• Plugin/module names (e.g., sanctum, minister, pensive)
• Workflow states (e.g., blocked, ready-for-review, needs-investigation)
• Team ownership (e.g., team-platform, team-product)
• Technology-specific (e.g., python, typescript, rust)

Good Custom Label Examples:

# Component-based
gh label create "frontend" --color "#C5DEF5" --description "Frontend/UI changes"
gh label create "api" --color "#006B75" --description "API and backend services"

# Project-specific
gh label create "sanctum" --color "#9B59B6" --description "Sanctum plugin work"
gh label create "hooks" --color "#E67E22" --description "Hook development"

# Workflow-specific
gh label create "blocked" --color "#B60205" --description "Blocked by external dependency"
gh label create "ready-for-review" --color "#0E8A16" --description "Ready for code review"

Custom labels should complement (not replace) the standard taxonomy. Keep them focused on project-specific classification that adds value beyond type/priority/effort.

Arguments

• --repo <owner/repo> - Target repository (default: current)
• --dry-run - Preview changes without applying them
• --preserve ... - Labels to keep unchanged (e.g., plugin-specific labels)
• --skip-relabel - Only create labels, don't update issues
• --interactive - Confirm each issue update

Label Taxonomy

Type Labels (Mutually Exclusive)

Priority Labels

Effort Labels

Standard Labels (Preserved)

• good first issue - Good for newcomers
• help wanted - Extra attention is needed
• duplicate, invalid, wontfix, question - Status labels

Workflow

Phase 1: Analyze Current State

# List existing labels
gh label list --json name,description,color

# List all open issues with labels
gh issue list --state open --json number,title,labels

Identify:

• Labels to create (from taxonomy above)
• Labels to rename (e.g., bug -> bugfix, documentation -> docs)
• Labels to delete (e.g., enhancement catch-all)
• Labels to preserve (plugin-specific, user-specified)

Phase 2: Create/Update Labels

For each label in the taxonomy:

# Create if doesn't exist
gh label create "<name>" --description "<desc>" --color "<color>"

# Or update if exists with wrong attributes
gh label edit "<old-name>" --name "<new-name>" --description "<desc>" --color "<color>"

Phase 3: Classify Issues

For each open issue, analyze and determine appropriate labels:

Type Classification Rules:

Effort Classification Rules:

Phase 4: Apply Labels

# For each issue
gh issue edit <number> \
  --add-label "<type-label>" \
  --add-label "<effort-label>" \
  --remove-label "enhancement"  # Remove catch-all

Phase 5: Cleanup Obsolete Labels

# Delete labels that are now redundant
gh label delete "enhancement" --yes
gh label delete "suggestion" --yes

Phase 6: Report Results

Display summary:

## Label Taxonomy Update Complete

### Labels Created
| Label | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| feature | New functionality |
| ... | ... |

### Labels Renamed
| Old | New |
|-----|-----|
| documentation | docs |
| bug | bugfix |

### Labels Deleted
- enhancement (replaced by specific types)
- suggestion (redundant)
…

Examples

Example 1: Default Usage

/update-labels

Analyzing labels in athola/claude-night-market...

Current State:
- 12 existing labels
- 60 open issues
- 45 issues using 'enhancement' catch-all

Creating Labels:
  OK feature - New functionality
  OK bugfix - Bug fixes
  OK test - Testing improvements
  ...

Renaming Labels:
  OK documentation -> docs
…

Example 2: Dry Run

/update-labels --dry-run

[DRY RUN] Would create labels:
  - feature (#1D76DB)
  - bugfix (#D73A4A)
  ...

[DRY RUN] Would update issues:
  #99: +feature, +medium-effort, -enhancement
  #108: +test, +large-effort, -enhancement
  ...

No changes made.