Labels, sizes and priority
Three small properties that make a long list sortable. Use them honestly and the list tells you something. Use them for theatre and every issue ends up Urgent, XL and labeled “important”.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- Anyone in the workspace can set labels, priority and size on an issue.
- Creating, renaming or deleting labels is an Admin or Owner job, unless an Admin lets Members do it. Who can do what.
- Picking the sizing method is an Admin or Owner job too.
Set priority
Section titled “Set priority”Use Priority on the issue, on its row, in the new-issue form or in a row’s Properties… menu. There are five levels:
| Priority | Use it for |
|---|---|
| No priority | Not decided yet. The default. |
| Low | Nice to have. |
| Medium | Should happen. |
| High | Matters soon. |
| Urgent | Drop what you’re doing. Rarely true. |
Priority is the same five levels in every workspace. Nobody can rename them, which saves one meeting.
Size the work
Section titled “Size the work”A size says how big a piece of work is compared to others. It’s not hours, it’s not days, and Hydrant never turns it into a deadline.
Every size is stored as a rank from 1 to 6. The workspace’s sizing method only decides what those ranks are called:
| Rank | T-shirt | Fibonacci |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | XS | 1 |
| 2 | S | 2 |
| 3 | M | 3 |
| 4 | L | 5 |
| 5 | XL | 8 |
| 6 | XXL | 13 |
- Set Size on the issue, its row or the new-issue form. Leave it empty if you don’t know yet; “No size” is a valid answer.
- To change the method, an Admin or the Owner opens Settings › Workflow, finds Sizing and picks T-shirt, Fibonacci or Off.
Switching methods relabels every issue and clears nothing: an L becomes a 5, and back again. Off (“No sizes. Vibes only.”) hides sizes everywhere and refuses new ones, but keeps the stored values in case you change your mind.
Sizes don’t roll up from sub-issues. Where Hydrant adds them up, on Insights, cycles and projects, it counts T-shirt ranks as 1 to 6 and Fibonacci as its own numbers, and shows unsized issues separately instead of guessing.
Add labels to an issue
Section titled “Add labels to an issue”- Open Labels on the issue, or choose Labels… from a row’s menu.
- Type in Find labels… and pick one or more.
- If the label doesn’t exist and you’re allowed to manage labels, choose Create ‘your name’, pick a color and press Create and add.
An issue can carry up to 100 labels. Please don’t test that.
Manage the label catalog
Section titled “Manage the label catalog”Labels belong to the whole workspace. They live under Settings › Labels & views.
- New label: a name (up to 100 characters), a color and, if you like, an icon.
- Colors: Gray, Blue, Violet, Pink, Red, Orange, Amber, Green or Teal.
- Icons: pick one from the same icon picker used for projects, views and agents: about 200 icons, searchable, grouped from “Work and planning” to “Shapes and symbols”. No icon keeps a plain color dot. An icon shows tinted in the label’s color everywhere the label appears.
- Edit: rename a label, or change its appearance. Appearance saves immediately.
- Delete label…: only works on a label that has never been used: not on any issue, in any saved view, or anywhere in issue history. There’s no undo. A label that has seen action stays; rename it if it’s misleading.
A workspace can have up to 100 labels.
By default only Admins and the Owner manage labels and workspace views. To hand that to everyone, an Admin turns on Let members manage shared labels and views under Member access on the same page. The Settings map covers the rest of that page.
Use them
Section titled “Use them”Priority, size and labels all work in Filter, and priority and size also work in Display for grouping and ordering. See Views, filters and saved views.
If you’re looking for dates: delivery targets live on the Roadmap, not in size or priority.
What you should see
Section titled “What you should see”Rows showing a priority icon, a size token and colored labels, and a list you can group by any of them. Size tokens disappear entirely when the workspace sizing method is Off.
If it goes sideways
Section titled “If it goes sideways”- “Shared labels are read-only with your current access.” You can add existing labels but not create new ones. Ask an Admin, or ask them to switch on member access.
- “100 labels. Even bureaucracy has limits.” The workspace is full. Delete unused labels under Settings › Labels & views.
- “This label is retained by issues, saved views or issue history.” Labels that were ever used can’t be deleted, because history would stop making sense. Rename it instead, or just stop using it.
- Size is missing everywhere. The sizing method is Off. An Admin can turn it back on under Settings › Workflow.
- “This issue changed. Review its labels before adding yours.” Someone else edited the labels while you were choosing. Review, then add yours again.