Plan work with issues, labels, milestones and Projects

Version control tells you how code changed. Project tracking explains why the team is changing it, who owns the work and what remains.

What you’ll learn

Write useful issues.
Use labels and milestones.
Connect planning to pull requests.

From intent to merged change

1
Issue
Define the problem and acceptance criteria.
```
work item
```
→2
PR
Implement and review the change.
```
code proposal
```
→3
Milestone / Project
Track the larger goal across items.
```
progress view
```

progress view

Connect planning items to code changes

An issue can describe a bug, task, feature or discussion point. Labels categorize issues and pull requests. Milestones group issues and PRs toward a shared goal or due date. GitHub Projects can organize work across views and fields.

Write issues with a clear problem statement and acceptance criteria. Link pull requests to the issue they implement; supported closing keywords can close linked issues automatically when the PR merges.

Create a work item from the command line

Run this in a disposable practice repository unless the lesson explicitly says otherwise.

gh issue create --title "Add search to notes" --body "Acceptance: users can filter notes by title."

gh issue list

GitHub CLI can create and list issues without leaving the terminal. The same issue can be assigned, labeled, added to a milestone or tracked in a Project.

Practice: Issues and project planning

Your task: Break a small 'search feature' into one parent goal and three actionable issues. Give each issue acceptance criteria and at least one label.

Common pitfall to avoid

Do not use issue counts as a productivity score. A tiny typo and a month-long architectural change can each be one issue. Tracking should support coordination, not distort behavior.

Issues and project planning: what to remember

Plan work with issues, labels, milestones and Projects is complete when you can explain the state being changed before you run the command, not merely repeat the syntax.

Read further: official supporting documentation.

Reaching the recap and completing the quizzes are separate milestones.

Next lesson: Contribute through forks and upstream repositories →

Plan work with issues, labels, milestones and Projects