Better label management for issues is generally available

[sunnyi101]

Archived labels:

You can now archive outdated labels while preserving their history on existing issues. Separately, label suggestions highlight recently used and popular labels, helping you choose the right label faster without searching through the full list.

Archive labels without losing history

Deleting a label permanently removes it from every issue that used it. Archiving gives you a non-destructive way to retire labels that are no longer relevant.

archive.mp4

• Remain visible on existing issues that already use them, preserving history.
• Can no longer be applied to new issues.
• No longer appear in label pickers, keeping the active label list focused.

How to try label archiving

1. Open a repository and go to its Labels page.
2. Find the label you want to archive.
3. Select the three-dot menu next to the label.
4. Select Archive.
5. Open an issue that already uses the label to confirm it remains visible.
6. Open the label picker to confirm the archived label is no longer available to apply.

You can return to the Labels page and unarchive the label at any time to make it available again.

Suggested Labels

archive.mp4

Choosing the right label can be slow in repositories with long label lists. Label pickers now include a Suggestions section that highlights recently used and popular labels in the repository.

How to try label suggestions

1. Open an issue in a repository with multiple labels.
2. Open the Labels picker.
3. Review the labels displayed under Suggestions.
4. Select a suggested label to apply it, or use the filter field to search the full label list.

Together, label archiving and label suggestions reduce clutter, preserve historical context, and make issue triage more efficient.

Feedback

We’d love to hear how these improvements work for you:

1. Does archiving help you clean up outdated labels safely?
2. Are suggested labels helping you find the right label faster?
3. What other improvements would make labels easier to manage?

[github-actions[bot]]

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[mikkonie]

Please add an option to disable the "suggestions" section and view labels as an alphabetical list. Speaking for myself, this new change only makes the menu more confusing as seemingly random issues get promoted and then removed from the main list.

In familiar repositories, picking labels from a static list has been instant and effortless thanks to muscle memory alone. This is no longer the case. The new approach may work for some, but at the very least there should be opt-out.

[teor2345]

Yes please, I work on a project with hundreds of labels, that have been deliberately named to sort into categories alphabetically.

[ivanperez-keera]

Same here. I created the labels so that they would show up in the order I wanted them when sorted alphabetically and we could follow our process correctly and easily. The new method makes it much harder to find the right label.

Just give an option to disable this please.

[ivanperez-keera]

Are suggested labels helping you find the right label faster?

Not at all. They are making me much slower and more likely to make a mistake.

We specifically picked our label names so that labels would show up in the order we want them. The order reflects our process and helps us stay organized.

The suggestions completely break that. Now we have to search for labels in two places ("suggested" and "not suggested"), search on the suggested section is O(n) and requires attention. Before, it didn't require as much attention because humans are really good at dealing with space. Keep things in the same place ALWAYS rather than moving them around and you'll make us faster because we don't have to think about where they are. That's why you can drive and push buttons in your car without thinking. Imagine if the buttons around your car moved based on how recently you pushed them, or the pedals. It'd be impossible to drive. We'd be having accidents all the time. Keeping interfaces stable and keeping things in fixed places makes humans faster and more productive because it lowers the cognitive load and attention required to operate the system.

There's also errors in the UX that make the popup for label selection move or disappear, making me click on the wrong thing and then having to undo that. Because Github records a lot of things, like label changes, immediately and there's no undo option, these are recorded as events even if I change the label to the correct one immediately after the mistake, and it looks like I made a mistake instead of the UX jumping around. We follow a thorough development process and this just looks like sloppy development.

Please just give an option to disable suggested labels.

In general, we can make better use of Github if you focus less on "suggestions" (i.e., "thinking for us") and more on helping us search by our own criteria. IIRC there was a similar issue when listing issues (no way to search alphabetically) or favorite lists (no way to list alphabetically).