GitHub issues for PMs: labels, milestones, linked PRs

Alex Tutor

Monday of week three. The loyalty work is spread over chat threads, three pull requests and one issue from the CEO. Where would a new teammate look for it?

You

Everywhere, and they'd still miss half. The CEO opened #147 last week. Title: "Loyalty". Description: "Need this before Black Friday!!" That's all of it.

Alex Tutor

Then let's give the work a proper home. An issue is GitHub's place for anything the team should know about or do: a bug report, a feature request, a task. It usually exists before any code does.

Daniel

The issue is the question, the pull request is one answer to it. I can open a pull request without an issue, but a month later nobody remembers which problem it solved.

Alex Tutor

Issues in catchow/website, Monday morning

Loyalty#147
Opened by the CEO last week · no labels, no assignee
Test an orange checkout button#135
Label idea · opened by Daniel
Checkout button stays grey after editing cart#131
Bug report from support · closed by #134
Show prices in euros#138
Feature request · closed as not planned

You

So #131 was a bug report, #138 a feature request we turned down, and #135 an idea waiting for a test.

Alex Tutor

And #147 is a feature request that doesn't yet say what the feature is. We'll fix that today. First, learn to tell what deserves an issue and what arrives as a pull request.

Alex Tutor

Question 1

Match each situation with what it should become on GitHub.

Tap an answer, then tap the row it belongs to. You can also drag.

A customer can't apply a promo code on a phone
Sales asks for saved delivery addresses
Update the courier phone number in the FAQ by Friday
Daniel's branch with the code that fixes the promo code bug

Answers left to place

Alex Tutor

Issues are read by people who weren't in the room. A good one says what is wrong or wanted, why it matters, and how we'll know it's done.

For a feature, that means a title naming the outcome, a few lines of context, acceptance criteria (checks that must be true when it's done) and what is out of scope.

You

And for a bug? This morning's staff test gave me a perfect one.

Daniel

Steps to reproduce, the expected result, the actual result, and where: phone or desktop, which account, which order. If I can't make it happen on my screen, I can't fix it.

Alex Tutor

Some context first. After #156 was merged this morning, Daniel switched loyalty-points on for staff only. Customers still see nothing.

You

An order for 600 UAH with a 100 UAH promo code, so 500 paid. The account showed 60 points. It should be 50: one point per 10 UAH paid.

Alex Tutor

Issue #159, as filed

Title: Points counted before promo discount

**Steps to reproduce**
1. Log in with a staff account (flag loyalty-points is on for staff).
2. Add products for 600 UAH to the cart, apply a 100 UAH promo code.
3. Pay 500 UAH by card.
4. Open Account → Loyalty points.

**Expected:** 50 points (1 point per 10 UAH paid).
**Actual:** 60 points, counted from 600 UAH before the discount.

**Where:** desktop, Chrome, staff account, order 58213.
**Screenshot:** the account page showing 60 points.

Labels bug and loyalty, assignee Daniel.

Anyone can repeat that in two minutes, and the two numbers make the gap obvious. Now compare it with what arrives from support on a busy day.

Alex Tutor

Question 2

Support files an issue titled "Points broken" with the description "customer says points are wrong, pls fix ASAP". What does Daniel need before he can start? Select all that apply.

Choose all that applyA deadline in the title, such as "URGENT"Steps to reproduce: what the customer did, in orderThe expected and the actual number of pointsA guess at which file contains the bugWhere it happened: device, account, order number

You

Can GitHub make everyone write issues like that?

Daniel

It can nudge them. This morning I opened #160 with two issue templates: files in the repository, in the .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ folder. Oscar approved it an hour ago, so they're live.

Alex Tutor

Now New issue first asks which kind: "Bug report", "Feature request" or a blank issue, as of 2026. The bug template starts with the headings you just saw and adds the bug label by itself.

Daniel

There's also a form version: separate fields instead of headings, and some fields can be required. I kept ours simple: headings with a one-line hint under each.

You

So the template gives the headings. Filling them in well is still up to whoever writes.

Alex Tutor

Exactly: a template can require a field, not a good answer. Try it on the next message from the team chat.

Alex Tutor

Question 3Short answer · AI-checked task

Emma writes in the team chat: "Ordered for 450 UAH on my phone yesterday, staff account, paying by card on delivery. Points still show 0 today. Screenshot attached." Fill in the "Bug report" template: a title, steps to reproduce, expected and actual result, and where. Mark anything you still need to ask.

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Alex Tutor

Now the sidebar on the right of an issue. It has the fields you met on pull requests, and they answer a PM's everyday questions.

Labels say what kind of work it is and which area: bug, content, and loyalty, the label Daniel made for the programme. Filter the list by label:loyalty and the whole programme is on one screen.

You

And Assignees? On #134 that was Daniel, the author.

Alex Tutor

On an issue it's whoever is responsible for moving it forward, not whoever wrote it. #159 was written by you and assigned to Daniel. You can assign several people, but one name makes it clear whom to ask.

Daniel

And keep labels few. If every issue carries six labels, filtering by any one of them tells you nothing.

Alex Tutor

Two more fields, Milestone and Development, get their own sections today. First, the whole sidebar at a glance.

Alex Tutor

Question 4

Match each field in an issue's sidebar with the question it answers.

Tap an answer, then tap the row it belongs to. You can also drag.

Assignees
Labels
Milestone
Development

Answers left to place

You

Back to #147. The programme is far too big for one issue. Should I open ten separate ones?

Alex Tutor

Separate, yes, but connected. As of 2026 an issue can have sub-issues: ordinary issues attached to a parent. The parent lists them and shows how many are closed, like "1 of 4".

Daniel

Each sub-issue is a full issue with its own assignee, labels and state. I can close mine without touching yours.

Alex Tutor

Older repositories do something similar with a checklist in the description: lines starting with - [ ] that show up as tick boxes. They work, but someone ticks them by hand.

You

So #147 becomes the parent: the goal and what "launched" means. The sub-issues are the pieces people actually pick up.

Alex Tutor

Question 5

A sub-issue is only a line of text inside the parent issue's description, so it has no state, labels or assignee of its own.

TrueFalse

Alex Tutor

Time to rewrite #147. The CEO's one line becomes a parent issue people can act on. Keep his point about Black Friday and add everything he left out.

Daniel

From my side: #155 and #156 are merged, and #159 is your bug. Still to build: the balance in the account and spending points at checkout.

You

And Emma's #157, the programme page, is still a draft. "Launched" means the flag goes on for all customers, and that switch should be a task of its own.

Alex Tutor

Then write the parent, list the sub-issues with owners and labels, and decide how the milestone and the pull requests will point at them.

Alex Tutor

Question 6Case · AI-checked task

Rewrite issue #147 as a parent issue and plan its sub-issues.

Issue #147 was opened by the CEO last week. Title: "Loyalty". Description: "Need this before Black Friday!!" No labels, no assignee.

What you know:

The programme: customers earn 1 point for every 10 UAH of a paid order, see their balance in their account and spend points as a discount at checkout. Emma writes the page that explains it.
Done: #155 "Add loyalty points behind a flag" and #156 "Earn points on paid orders" are merged, hidden behind the flag loyalty-points (on for staff only).
Open: issue #159 "Points counted before promo discount" (bug, assigned to Daniel); Emma's pull request #157 "Write loyalty programme page" is a draft.
Not started: showing the balance in the account; spending points at checkout.
Launch means the flag is on for all customers. Black Friday is on 27 November; the team wants the launch at least two weeks earlier.

Write the new title and description of #147 (goal and context, acceptance criteria for the launch, what is out of scope), the sub-issues with an assignee and labels for each, the milestone (name and due date), and how pull requests should refer to the issues.

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Alex Tutor

Here's where the team ended up. #147 is renamed, four sub-issues hang under it, and there's a milestone: "Loyalty launch", due 13 November.

A milestone groups issues and pull requests under one goal, with an optional due date and a progress bar. Labels answer "what kind"; a milestone answers "towards what, and by when".

Daniel

I put #155, #156 and #157 in it too. Pull requests can belong to a milestone, and merged ones count as closed.

Alex Tutor

Milestone "Loyalty launch" · Due by November 13GitHub shows "25% complete": 2 closed, 6 open.

Launch loyalty points before Black Friday#147
Parent · 0 of 4 sub-issues closed · Sofia
Add loyalty points behind a flag#155
Earn points on paid orders#156
Write loyalty programme page#157
Emma
Points counted before promo discount#159
bug, loyalty · Daniel
Show points balance in the account#162
loyalty · Daniel
Spend points at checkout#163
loyalty · Daniel
Switch on loyalty points for all customers#164
loyalty · Sofia

You

A quarter done, then?

Alex Tutor

A quarter of the items are closed. The bar counts items, not effort, and it counts every closed item, whatever the reason. A dropped idea closed as not planned moves it just like finished work.

You

So I read the list under the bar, not just the percentage.

Alex Tutor

Question 7

What does the progress bar of this milestone show?

All items in the milestone "Gift wrap"

Add gift wrap option
Gift wrap price in the cart
Gift wrap for bundles
Gift wrap photo on product page
Gift wrap in three colours
Show gift wrap in past orders
Gift wrap copy for checkout
Gift wrap in order emails
Gift wrap on the invoice
Gift wrap for gift cards

Choose one answer50%: only finished work counts40%: pull requests don't count in a milestone60%: six of ten items are closed, including the one closed as not planned70%: an open pull request counts as half done

Alex Tutor

Tuesday morning. Daniel opens #165, the fix for your bug. You met closing keywords on #134; today, look at them from the issue's side, with a parent in the picture.

Daniel

I started from the issue itself. Under Development in #159 there's Create a branch. GitHub suggests a name from the issue's number and title; I changed it to our habit, fix/points-after-discount.

Alex Tutor

From issue #159 to mainThe branch was created from the issue, so #159 lists it under Development. When #165 is squash-merged, its commit on main closes #159.

e5f81a3Hide loyalty menu link when flag is off (#158)v1.4.1
b2e6f10Earn points on paid orders (#156)
6e0b4d8Add issue templates (#160)
4f8c2e1Count points from the paid amountfix/points-after-discount
7a1d9c3Count points after discounts (#165)main

The description of #165 has two references that look alike and behave differently.

Alex Tutor

You

Fixes #159 closes the bug when #165 is merged into main. And Part of #147 is only a mention?

Alex Tutor

Yes. A plain #147 creates a cross-reference: #147's timeline shows that #165 mentioned it, and nothing closes. Only close, fix or resolve in front of the number closes it, and only after a merge into the default branch.

Daniel

Which is exactly why I never write Fixes #147 in a slice. The first merged piece would close the whole programme.

Alex Tutor

One more trap: every number needs its own keyword. "Fixes #159 and #162" closes only #159. Write "Fixes #159, fixes #162".

Alex Tutor

Question 8

Daniel's next pull request, #166, says in its description: "Fixes #162. Related to #163 and #147." It is approved and squash-merged into main. Which issues does GitHub close?

Choose one answer#162, #163 and #147None: issues are only ever closed by hand#162 and #163#162 only

You

After the merge, #159 shows the purple icon: closed as completed, automatically.

Alex Tutor

And Development keeps the link to #165, so anyone can see what closed it and when. If the fix turns out not to work, the issue can be reopened.

Daniel

The staff test after lunch passed: 500 UAH paid, 50 points. So the bug is fixed in the live code, though customers still don't see points at all.

Alex Tutor

Keep those two apart when you report. The issue state says the work is done; the flag says who can see it.

Alex Tutor

Question 9

Support asks: "A customer heard about loyalty points. Is the points bug fixed for customers now?" The flag loyalty-points is still on for staff only. What is the accurate answer?

#159 and #165 on Tuesday afternoon

Points counted before promo discount#159
Closed by #165
Count points after discounts#165
Merged into main · deploy (production) finished

Choose one answerYes: #159 is closed, so customers now get the right number of pointsThe fix is in the live code, but customers don't have loyalty points yet: the programme is switched on for staff onlyNo: #165 is merged, but it will only be deployed tomorrowNot until the next release page is published

That's the issue side of GitHub: a clear problem, an owner and a few labels, a parent with sub-issues, a milestone with a date, and pull requests that close exactly what they fix.

You

The milestone tells me how many items are closed. It doesn't tell me who's working on what right now.

Daniel

For that we need a board. Tomorrow I'd like to drag my cards somewhere, not write status messages.

Alex Tutor

Next lesson, then: a project board that follows loyalty points from the first issue to the day customers see them.

Alex Tutor

That’s the lesson. You answered every task — nicely done.

Next lesson: Project boards and tracking a feature to release