Repository navigation
work-items: work-item status as a field with labels as fallback #7577
Description
Parent
Refs #7555. Source: PLAN Phase 10, topic poteto-review. Thread: Work-item status (fields versus
labels).
Depends on
- config-cascade: settings resolution and convention home #7571 Settings resolution and convention home (role-label remap setting)
- pr-pipeline: probe token broker grants #7601 broker-mint probe (closed: lane tokens hold
issues: write, enough for field writes) - Child work-items: probe org issue field for work status #7600 (Q563 status-field probe, closed with its result) is this thread's gating probe.
Outcome
A work item's status lives in one single-valued field when the tracker offers one (the org field
Work status here), with labels as the fallback, detected by the tracker adapter; lanes trigger on
the field change.
Decisions
- Status set
needs-triage,needs-reporter-info,needs-owner-decision,needs-spec,
agent-ready; Issue Type field, never a type label (D76, Q505). Origin: ours, owner-decided. - A single-valued attribute (status) is a field when the tracker offers fields (native first, else a
created org field); labels where a label fits better (multi-valued tags) and as the fallback
(user-owned repos, no field access); the adapter detects field availability; prefer the field
trigger when both work (Q563). - Setting: role labels remap for status and pair labels, names per D76, D94 (repo).
- Q563 probe result (owner sitting, GUIDE 123): GitHub reserves the name
status, so the field is
Work status(single-select, visibility all, the five options above); writes through the
issue-field-values API succeeded; the Issue events API keeps no value history, so the lane
triggers on Actionsissues: field_addedwithchanges.issue_field_value.from, checked live on
the first trigger run. - Migration (B5, owner): one cut-over, scoped to the open
agent-readyissues in this repository,
count first, dry run, recount; dual-write only if a label reader cannot move in the slice; move
work-resolve-issue.yml's trigger in the same slice. - Rejected: Projects v2 Status (per project, no Actions trigger); Issue Types and
state_reason(do
not model status).
Key interfaces
From the design's contracts, "Pipeline and verdict": "Statuses: needs-triage,
needs-reporter-info, needs-owner-decision, needs-spec, agent-ready; Issue Type field, never a
type label. Status is a field when the tracker offers one (adapter detects), labels as fallback."
"Tracker adapter": "Contract and conformance tests in the work-items tracker contract;
schema_version covers versions."
Variation verdicts: "Work-item status storage: abstract now; tracker adapter; field where offered,
labels as fallback (Q563)."
Slices, filed when this phase starts: status-field-adapter, status-migration.
Done when
- The tracker test suite and the conformance suite pass for
githubandlocal-markdownwith
field detection. - After migration,
gh issue list --label agent-ready --state open --json number --jq length
returns 0, and the migration comment lists the same issues with field valueagent-ready. - The first
field_addedtrigger run logs a non-emptychanges.issue_field_value.fromand
concludessuccess.
Out of scope
- Creating or changing org-level issue fields (owner stop).
- Status writes from decompose and
track addbefore this thread lands.
Activity
github-actions commentedon Oct 16, 2026
Proposed work class: work-class: structural
Basis: automated intake triage; the lanes App applied this class.
Size: Large
Complexity: High
Uncertainty: Knowable
Flags: none
Blocked by: none
Understood: move work-item status into the single-select
Work statusissue field when the tracker offers one, keep labels as the fallback, detect which applies in the tracker adapter, and move lane triggers to the field change. The decisions, migration plan and done-when items are already specific, so I see no open intent question. The issue names two slices (status-field-adapter, status-migration), so it needs splitting. #7571 is listed as a dependency but I couldn't find it among the open issues I was given, so I recorded no blocker. The last done-when item (the first livefield_addedrun) can only be checked after the trigger moves. I found no likely duplicates.Automated triage, applied by the lanes App.
15 remaining items
github-actions commentedon Nov 1, 2026
melodic-automation-lanes commentedon Nov 1, 2026
The work-resolve-issue lane stopped on this issue (
split-required): the issue's Size is too large for one run, and intake's split (owner Q93) files its sub-issues.Its Size is too large for one run: intake splits it into sub-issues (owner Q93).
It removed
agent-readyandstatus: ready, so the hourly triage sweep sends it back through intake triage, and it waits on no decision from a person.Run: https://github.com/melodic-software/claude-code-plugins/actions/runs/41293757261
kyle-sexton commentedon Nov 1, 2026
Cordoned: deferred lane redesign. Issue Triage session (agent), with the Automation Lanes session's routing; not an owner decision.
Every sub-issue here is closed completed (#7600 and #11123 delivered field detection), but two done-when items remain unmet on origin/main:
agent-readyissues move to theWork statusfield, so noagent-readylabels remain.agent-readylabel.This stays open under the After zero milestone rather than closing, because the work has value. Automation Lanes deferred it for three reasons:
When work resumes after zero: confirm the trigger exists in the GitHub Actions docs, then build the trigger change and the migration together.
kyle-sexton commentedon Nov 1, 2026
Status note. Issue Triage session (agent).
The deferral recorded above has ended. The owner's decision, relayed verbatim by the GitHub Support session on 2026-11-01: "Go with recommendations, whatever is native." That makes the org issue field Work status the single source of truth for issue state, with labels kept for pull requests. That is this issue's remaining work. The Automation Lanes session is building it as a staged cutover: align the field's options, dual-write, move readers over with a label fallback, then drop the issue status labels.
This leaves the After zero milestone. It stays
status: confirmedas builder work: the lane trigger change is a workflow edit, which the issue lane does not make.