---
stage: Plan
group: Project Management
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#designated-technical-writers
---

# Issues

Issues are the fundamental medium for collaborating on ideas and planning work in GitLab.

## Overview

The GitLab issue tracker is an advanced tool for collaboratively developing ideas, solving problems,
and planning work.

Issues can allow sharing and discussion of proposals before, and during,
their implementation between:

- You and your team.
- Outside collaborators.

They can also be used for a variety of other purposes, customized to your
needs and workflow.

Issues are always associated with a specific project, but if you have multiple projects in a group,
you can also view all the issues collectively at the group level.

**Common use cases include:**

- Discussing the implementation of a new idea
- Tracking tasks and work status
- Accepting feature proposals, questions, support requests, or bug reports
- Elaborating on new code implementations

See also [Always start a discussion with an issue](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2016/03/03/start-with-an-issue/).

<i class="fa fa-youtube-play youtube" aria-hidden="true"></i>
To learn how GitLab's Strategic Marketing department uses GitLab issues with [labels](../labels.md) and
[issue boards](../issue_board.md), see the video on
[Managing Commitments with Issues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuIHNintg1o&t=3).

## Parts of an issue

Issues contain a variety of content and metadata, enabling a large range of flexibility
in how they are used. Each issue can contain the following attributes, though not all items
must be set.

<table class="borderless-table fixed-table">
<tr>
    <td>
        <ul>
            <li>Content</li>
            <ul>
                <li>Title</li>
                <li>Description and tasks</li>
                <li>Comments and other activity</li>
            </ul>
            <li>People</li>
            <ul>
                <li>Author</li>
                <li>Assignee(s)</li>
            </ul>
            <li>State</li>
            <ul>
                <li>State (open or closed)</li>
                <li>Health status (on track, needs attention, or at risk)</li>
                <li>Confidentiality</li>
                <li>Tasks (completed vs. outstanding)</li>
            </ul>
        </ul>
    </td>
    <td>
        <ul>
            <li>Planning and tracking</li>
            <ul>
                <li>Milestone</li>
                <li>Due date</li>
                <li>Weight</li>
                <li>Time tracking</li>
                <li>Labels</li>
                <li>Votes</li>
                <li>Reaction emoji</li>
                <li>Linked issues</li>
                <li>Assigned epic</li>
                <li>Unique issue number and URL</li>
            </ul>
       </ul>
    </td>
</tr>
</table>

## Viewing and managing issues

While you can view and manage the full details of an issue on the [issue page](#issue-page),
you can also work with multiple issues at a time using the [Issues List](#issues-list),
[Issue Boards](#issue-boards), Issue references, and [Epics](#epics)**(PREMIUM)**.

Key actions for Issues include:

- [Creating issues](managing_issues.md#create-a-new-issue)
- [Moving issues](managing_issues.md#moving-issues)
- [Closing issues](managing_issues.md#closing-issues)
- [Deleting issues](managing_issues.md#deleting-issues)

### Issue page

![Issue view](img/issues_main_view.png)

On an issue's page, you can view [all aspects of the issue](issue_data_and_actions.md),
and modify them if you have the necessary [permissions](../../permissions.md).

#### Real-time sidebar **(CORE ONLY)**

> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/17589) in GitLab 13.3.

Assignees in the sidebar are updated in real time. This feature is **disabled by default**.
To enable, you need to enable [ActionCable in-app mode](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/actioncable.html).

### Issues list

![Project issues list view](img/project_issues_list_view.png)

On the Issues List, you can view all issues in the current project, or from multiple
projects when opening the Issues List from the higher-level group context. Filter the
issue list with a [search query](../../search/index.md#filtering-issue-and-merge-request-lists),
including specific metadata, such as label(s), assignees(s), status, and more. From this
view, you can also make certain changes [in bulk](../bulk_editing.md) to the displayed issues.

For more information, see the [Issue Data and Actions](issue_data_and_actions.md) page
for a rundown of all the fields and information in an issue.

You can sort a list of issues in several ways, for example by issue creation date, milestone due date. For more information, see the [Sorting and Ordering Issue Lists](sorting_issue_lists.md) page.

### Issue boards

![Issue board](img/issue_board.png)

[Issue boards](../issue_board.md) are Kanban boards with columns that display issues based on their
labels or their assignees**(PREMIUM)**. They offer the flexibility to manage issues using
highly customizable workflows.

You can reorder issues within a column. If you drag an issue card to another column, its
associated label or assignee will change to match that of the new column. The entire
board can also be filtered to only include issues from a certain milestone or an overarching
label.

### Design Management

With [Design Management](design_management.md), you can upload design
assets to issues and view them all together to easily share and
collaborate with your team.

### Epics **(PREMIUM)**

[Epics](../../group/epics/index.md) let you manage your portfolio of projects more
efficiently and with less effort by tracking groups of issues that share a theme, across
projects and milestones.

### Related issues

You can mark two issues as related, so that when viewing one, the other is always
listed in its [Related Issues](related_issues.md) section. This can help display important
context, such as past work, dependencies, or duplicates.

Users on [GitLab Starter, GitLab Bronze, and higher tiers](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/), can
also mark issues as blocking or blocked by another issue.

### Crosslinking issues

You can [cross-link issues](crosslinking_issues.md) by referencing an issue from another
issue or merge request by including its URL or ID. The referenced issue displays a
message in the Activity stream about the reference, with a link to the other issue or MR.

### Similar issues

> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/merge_requests/22866) in GitLab 11.6.

To prevent duplication of issues for the same topic, GitLab searches for similar issues
when new issues are being created.

When typing in the title in the **New Issue** page, GitLab searches titles and descriptions
across all issues the user has access to in the current project. Up to five similar issues,
sorted by most recently updated, are displayed below the title box. Note that this feature
requires [GraphQL](../../../api/graphql/index.md) to be enabled.

![Similar issues](img/similar_issues.png)

### Health status **(ULTIMATE)**

> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/36427) in [GitLab Ultimate](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/) 12.10.
> - Health status of closed issues [can't be edited](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/220867) in [GitLab Ultimate](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/) 13.4 and later.
> - Issue health status visible in issue lists [introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/45141) in [GitLab Ultimate](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/) 13.6.

To help you track the status of your issues, you can assign a status to each issue to flag work
that's progressing as planned or needs attention to keep on schedule:

- **On track** (green)
- **Needs attention** (amber)
- **At risk** (red)

!["On track" health status on an issue](img/issue_health_status_dropdown_v12_10.png)

After an issue is closed, its health status can't be edited and the "Edit" button becomes disabled
until the issue is reopened.

You can then see issue statuses in the [issue list](#issues-list) and the
[Epic tree](../../group/epics/index.md#issue-health-status-in-epic-tree).

#### Disable issue health status

This feature comes with the `:save_issuable_health_status` feature flag enabled by default. However, in some cases
this feature is incompatible with old configuration. To turn off the feature while configuration is
migrated, ask a GitLab administrator with Rails console access to run the following command:

```ruby
Feature.disable(:save_issuable_health_status)
```

## Other Issue actions

- [Create an issue from a template](../../project/description_templates.md#using-the-templates)
- [Set a due date](due_dates.md)
- [Bulk edit issues](../bulk_editing.md) - From the Issues List, select multiple issues
  in order to change their status, assignee, milestone, or labels in bulk.
- [Import issues](csv_import.md)
- [Export issues](csv_export.md)
- [Issues API](../../../api/issues.md)
- Configure an [external issue tracker](../../../integration/external-issue-tracker.md)
  such as Jira, Redmine, Bugzilla, or EWM.
