Statuses and workflow
Every team has its own list of statuses, its workflow. You can rename statuses, add your own and archive the ones you don’t need. Each status has one of six types, and the type decides how XLR8 treats issues in it.
Status types
Section titled “Status types”| Type | Meaning | Default statuses |
|---|---|---|
| Triage | New and not yet looked at, often from an agent | Triage |
| Backlog | Accepted, but not planned yet | Backlog |
| Unstarted | Planned, ready to be worked on | Todo |
| Started | Being worked on | In Progress, In Review |
| Completed | Done | Done |
| Canceled | Not going to happen | Canceled, Duplicate |
A new team starts with these eight default statuses. On an instance whose language is set to German
(XLR8_LOCALE=de), new teams get German names for them instead.
The type is what the rest of XLR8 looks at. A custom status “Testing” of type Started counts as work in progress everywhere: in the Active view, on the board, in sprint progress and in the filters agents use. That is why you can shape the workflow freely without breaking views or sprints. Some examples of what types drive:
- The Triage view shows issues of type Triage, Backlog those of type Backlog, and Active those of the types Unstarted and Started.
- Moving an issue into a Completed or Canceled status removes its priority.
- When you complete a sprint, every issue that is not yet Completed or Canceled needs a decision.
Statuses are ordered by type (in the order of the table above), then by their position within the type.
Change an issue’s status
Section titled “Change an issue’s status”Press S (Change status …) on an issue or a selection. The picker lists the team’s statuses in workflow order; the digit keys 1 to 9 pick the first nine directly. If your selection spans several teams, the picker offers the statuses that exist in all of them (same name and type).
On the board, Shift Left arrow and Shift Right arrow move a card one column left or right.
Customize a team’s statuses
Section titled “Customize a team’s statuses”Open the team’s settings (O then S for the current team, or Settings → Teams) and scroll to Workflow. The statuses are grouped by type.
- Add a status: click + Status in the group of the type you want. The type cannot be changed later.
- Rename a status by clicking its name, and pick a Color with the dot next to it (or keep the color of its type).
- Reorder statuses within their type with the arrows.
- Make default: new issues you create without choosing a status start in the default status. It can be a Backlog, Unstarted or Started status. Without one, new issues start in the first Backlog status.
A team can have up to 30 statuses and at most one Triage status. Issues created by agents without a status start in the team’s Triage status, see Triage and inbox.
Archive a status
Section titled “Archive a status”Statuses are never deleted, only archived, so old history entries stay readable. Click Archive on a status. If issues are in it, XLR8 asks where they should move, then moves them and archives the status (Move and archive).
You cannot archive the default status, nor the last remaining status of the types Unstarted, Completed and Canceled. Turn on Show archived to see archived statuses and Unarchive one.
Fixed order
Section titled “Fixed order”Turn on Fixed order in the workflow settings if issues should go through the statuses step by step. With it on, an issue can move:
- to the next status in workflow order,
- to any Canceled status (Canceled, Duplicate) at any time,
- from Triage to any Backlog or Unstarted status,
- along any exception you add under Exceptions (a pair From … → To …).
New issues can then only start in a Triage, Backlog or Unstarted status. The status picker only offers what is allowed, and when you select issues in different statuses, only targets allowed for all of them.
The rule applies to you and to agents. Automation is exempt: a GitHub merge, completing a sprint and recurring issues can still set the status they need. Moving issues to another team and undo are exempt as well.