Standardized Labels for QuantEcon Repositories

[mmcky]

This issue proposes a standardized, minimal set of labels for use across all QuantEcon GitHub repositories, building on the initial work in #178.

Motivation

1. Consistency across repositories

Each QuantEcon repo currently has its own ad-hoc labels (or GitHub defaults). This makes it hard to:

• Filter and triage across repos
• Understand the state of a PR when switching between projects
• Onboard new contributors who need to learn different label systems per repo

2. Automation support

Standardized labels directly enable better tooling:

• Activity reports — The action-weekly-report can generate comment summary templates that group merged PRs by label, making it much faster to write highlights summaries
• Cross-repo dashboards — Querying label:priority:high across all repos
• Triage workflows — Auto-assigning reviewers based on skill: labels
• GitHub Projects — Filtering project boards by label works best with a shared vocabulary

3. Previous work

Issue #178 proposed an initial set of labels and established org-level labels, but:

• Org-level labels don't auto-sync to existing repositories
• A programmatic sync script is needed (Set up unified GitHub labels for QuantEcon lecture repositories #183)
• The label set needs refinement based on practical usage

Proposed Labels

Based on #178, refined for practicality and minimalism. Target: ≤15 labels.

Status (4)

Label	Color	Description
status: in-work	#0e8a16	PR is actively being worked on (alternative to GitHub Draft)
status: ready	#006b75	Ready for reviewer assignment
status: blocked	#b60205	Waiting on another PR, issue, or external dependency
status: testing	#fbca04	For testing only — likely won't be merged

Priority (2)

Label	Color	Description
priority: high	#d93f0b	Needs review within days
priority: low	#c2e0c6	Would be good to fix, not urgent

Type (5)

Label	Color	Description
bug	#d73a4a	Something isn't working correctly
maintenance	#0075ca	Repo infrastructure, CI, dependencies
content	#7057ff	Lecture content changes (text, examples, exercises)
good first issue	#7057ff	Entry-level issue for new contributors
question	#d876e3	Discussion or clarification needed

Skill (2)

Label	Color	Description
skill: editor	#bfdadc	Requires editor review (final stage)
skill: domain	#bfdadc	Requires domain-specific expertise (econ, math)

Automation (not manually managed)

Labels like linkchecker, style-guide, translation may be added by automation tools. These don't need to be in the standard set — they're managed by the actions that create them.

Changes from #178

• Renamed dependency → merged into maintenance (both are infrastructure work)
• Renamed skill: econ → skill: domain (broader — covers math, stats, econ)
• Added content label (most QuantEcon repos are lecture content — this is the most common PR type)
• Dropped wontfix (GitHub's built-in close reason covers this)
• Dropped help wanted (GitHub's built-in label already exists on most repos)
• Kept total ≤ 15 for clarity

Rollout Plan

Phase 1: Finalize label set

• Review and agree on the labels above (this issue)
• Set colors and finalize descriptions

Phase 2: Sync to repositories

• Update org-level label definitions
• Use sync script from Set up unified GitHub labels for QuantEcon lecture repositories #183 to propagate to all lecture-* repos
• Manually verify on 2-3 repos

Phase 3: Adopt in workflows

• Update PR templates to suggest label usage
• Update action-weekly-report template feature to group by label categories
• Document label usage in QuantEcon contributor guide

Repositories in Scope

Primary targets (repos with active PRs/issues):

• lecture-python-intro
• lecture-python.myst
• lecture-python-advanced.myst
• lecture-python-programming.myst
• lecture-jax
• lecture-julia.myst
• lecture-datascience.myst
• lecture-stats
• QuantEcon.py
• QuantEcon.jl
• quantecon-book-theme
• action-weekly-report
• action-style-guide
• action-translation

Related

• GitHub Org - Unified Labels #178 — Original unified labels proposal
• Set up unified GitHub labels for QuantEcon lecture repositories #183 — Label sync script
• action-weekly-report PR #2 — Comment summary template that benefits from standardized labels