Labels in sticky-note colors

9 October 2026, 2 min read

I’m moving the repositories I maintain to the label set I use on WordPress/presence-api. Voiceboard has it so far. For each one, I give an agent the hex values on this page and tell it to set up the same system, changing what the project needs.

A label’s hue says what kind of label it is. Labels in a family share one color: every [Area] label is the same yellow, and the name says which area. The issue types get four colors, because an issue has one type and I sort by it.

Saturation says how hard a label pulls. Most labels are pale, the colors of sticky notes, so they can be read without drawing attention. Two colors are strong, and they are for issues someone has to act on. The labels that bots and releases apply are close to gray.

The set

Type: [Type] Bug[Type] Feature[Type] Enhancement[Type] DocumentationWhat the issue is. One color each. #FFB7B0 #B5E0FF #E2C8FF #B8EAE0
Area: [Area] Infrastructure[Area] REST API[Area] CLIWhere in the code. The names change per project; the yellow does not. #FEF298
Concern: PerformancePrivacyPublic APICrosses areas and needs a second look in review. #DED6B0
Contributors: Good First IssueGood First Reviewhelp wantedOpen to anyone. #97EDA0
Waiting: Needs DiscussionNeeds DecisionClose CandidateWaiting on a person. #F2994A
Blocked: blockedWaiting on something outside the repository. #DC3545
Machinery: dependenciesgithub_actionsautorelease: pendingskip changelogApplied by bots and the release process. #CED4DA
Closed: duplicateinvalidwontfixClosed without work. #ADB5BD #FFFFFF

How much each one pulls

Chroma measures that pull: how far a color sits from gray, on a scale of 0 to 100. Sorted by chroma, the set falls into three tiers.

Act on it65-66
Read it18-40
Ignore it0-6

#DC3545 is also the darkest color in the set, so it is the first thing you see on a list of issues.

Handing it to an agent

What I say:

Set up labels on this repository using the same label system and hex values as WordPress/presence-api. Keep the families and colors. Replace the [Area] labels with this project’s own areas, all #FEF298.

The shared set as gh commands

gh label create '[Type] Bug' --color FFB7B0 --description 'An existing feature is broken' --force
gh label create '[Type] Feature' --color B5E0FF --description 'A new feature within an existing module' --force
gh label create '[Type] Enhancement' --color E2C8FF --description 'A suggestion for improvement of an existing feature' --force
gh label create '[Type] Documentation' --color B8EAE0 --description 'Documentation to be added or enhanced' --force
gh label create '[Area] Infrastructure' --color FEF298 --description 'Issues for the repository infrastructure' --force
gh label create Performance --color DED6B0 --description 'Work relates to query load, cache behavior, or scaling' --force
gh label create Privacy --color DED6B0 --description 'Work relates to privacy of user data' --force
gh label create 'Public API' --color DED6B0 --description 'Adds a hook, route, constant, or global that third parties can depend on' --force
gh label create 'Good First Issue' --color 97EDA0 --description 'Issue particularly suitable to be worked on by new contributors' --force
gh label create 'Good First Review' --color 97EDA0 --description 'Issue particularly suitable to be code reviewed by new contributors' --force
gh label create 'help wanted' --color 97EDA0 --description 'Open for anyone to pick up; scoped and ready to start' --force
gh label create 'Close Candidate' --color F2994A --description 'Likely to be closed unless new information is provided' --force
gh label create 'Needs Decision' --color F2994A --description 'Blocked on a maintainer call, not on more work' --force
gh label create 'Needs Discussion' --color F2994A --description 'Anything that needs a discussion/agreement' --force
gh label create blocked --color DC3545 --description 'Waiting on something external' --force
gh label create 'autorelease: pending' --color CED4DA --description '' --force
gh label create 'autorelease: tagged' --color CED4DA --description '' --force
gh label create dependencies --color CED4DA --description 'Pull requests that update a dependency file' --force
gh label create github_actions --color CED4DA --description 'Pull requests that update GitHub Actions code' --force
gh label create javascript --color CED4DA --description 'Pull requests that update javascript code' --force
gh label create maybelater --color CED4DA --description 'Issues to possibly be worked on long-term' --force
gh label create php --color CED4DA --description 'Pull requests that update php code' --force
gh label create props-bot --color CED4DA --description 'Manually runs the Props Bot to update the contributor list.' --force
gh label create 'skip changelog' --color CED4DA --description 'PRs that should not be mentioned in changelogs' --force
gh label create duplicate --color ADB5BD --description 'This issue or pull request already exists' --force
gh label create invalid --color ADB5BD --description "This doesn't seem right" --force
gh label create wontfix --color FFFFFF --description 'This will not be worked on' --force