A standardized GitHub label convention that is consistent, scannable, and universal — for any project, any team, any stack.
By WG Tech Labs · Applied by github-labels-template
Default GitHub labels are inconsistent. Clean Labels brings order to your issue tracker.
Every label follows the same [Category] Description [scope] pattern. No guessing, no variation across repos.
5 logical categories — Type, Status, Community, Resolution, Area — cover every workflow need without overlap.
Designed for any project, language, or team size. Area labels map to universal software layers, not framework-specific names.
21 labels — no more, no less. Every label earns its place. No label sprawl, no abandoned tags collecting dust.
Every Clean Label description is structured the same way — so anyone reading your labels, from any project, always understands exactly what they mean.
Type, Status, Community, Resolution, Area. Always in square brackets.
[issues], [PRs], or [issues, PRs]. Always in square brackets.
# Type label [Type] Something isn't working [issues, PRs] # Status label [Status] New issue — needs review and categorization [issues] # Community label [Community] Good for newcomers — well-scoped and documented [issues] # Resolution label [Resolution] This will not be worked on [issues] # Area label [Area] Build system, CI/CD, deployment, config, and DevOps [issues, PRs]
Organized across 5 categories. Every label is purposeful — nothing redundant, nothing missing.
Classify what kind of work this is. Every issue or PR should have one.
Track the current workflow state. One active at a time, issues only.
Signals for open source contributors. Who should work on this?
Why an issue or PR was closed. Applied at close time.
Broad software layers — universal across any project or stack. Multiple Area labels are allowed.
One command to apply all 21 labels to any repository using the official CLI tool.
# Apply all 21 Clean Labels $ npx github-labels-template apply ✓ bug ✓ enhancement ✓ documentation ✓ ... Applied 21 labels successfully
# Apply a single category $ npx github-labels-template apply \ --category type # Apply to a specific repo $ npx github-labels-template apply \ --repo owner/repo # Clean slate: wipe + apply $ npx github-labels-template migrate
# Create a single label manually $ gh label create "bug" \ --color "d73a4a" \ --description \ "[Type] Something isn't working [issues, PRs]"
Clean Labels is a free, open convention maintained by WG Tech Labs. Adopt it, reference it, build tooling around it.
Used by the github-labels-template CLI as its default label set.