# Status, Refined and Blocked

Three separate answers about an issue - where it is, whether it's understood, and whether something is in its way.

Most trackers squash three questions into one dropdown, which is how "In Progress" ends up meaning "we talked about it once". Hydrant keeps them apart.

- **Status:** where is it in the process?
- **Refined:** do we know what done looks like?
- **Blocked:** is something else in the way?

## Before you start

An issue to practice on. Changing statuses needs no special role. Renaming or adding stages needs an Admin or the Owner. [Who can do what](/help/using/views-and-settings#who-can-do-what).

## Steps

### Set the status

Use the status control on the issue or its row. A new workspace has eight stages:

| Stage | Means |
| --- | --- |
| Backlog | Captured. Not yet promised to anybody. |
| Ready | Understood, and waiting for someone to start. |
| In Progress | Someone is actually on it. |
| Agent Review | An agent is checking the work. |
| Human Review | A person is. |
| Done | Accepted. |
| Iced | Deliberately shelved. Not dead, not soon. |
| Canceled | Not happening. |

Review stages have no approval gates. They're places work waits, not permissions.

### Mark it Refined

**Refinement** on an issue is either **Needs refinement** ("Still has loose ends.") or **Refined** ("Scope and acceptance checks are clear."). Flip it when you could hand the issue to a stranger, or an agent, without a meeting.

One rule is enforced: **Ready requires Refined**. You can't move an unrefined issue to Ready, and you can't un-refine an issue that's sitting in Ready. Choose another status first.

### Read Blocked

Nobody sets Blocked. Hydrant works it out from [blocked-by relationships](/help/using/relationships). An issue is blocked while at least one of its blockers is still open:

- A blocker that is **Done**, **Canceled** or in the **Trash** stops counting.
- A blocker that is **Iced** or **Snoozed** still counts. Shelving a problem doesn't solve it.

A blocked row shows a **Blocked** chip with the number of blockers. Click it to see them.

### Priority and size

**Priority** is No priority, Low, Medium, High or Urgent. If everything is Urgent, nothing is. **Size** is optional: an Admin picks T-shirt (XS to XXL), Fibonacci (1 to 13) or Off under **Settings › Workflow › Sizing**.

### Rename the process

Admins and the Owner can add, rename and reorder stages under **Settings › Workflow**. Every stage keeps one of seven behaviors (backlog, ready, in progress, review, done, iced, canceled), and the rules follow the behavior, not the name. Default stages can be renamed and reordered, but not removed.

## What you should see

**Available to start**, under **More views** in the sidebar, is the payoff. It lists only issues that are in a Ready stage, Refined, awake and unblocked. When that list is honest, "what should I pick up next?" stops being a meeting.

## If it goes sideways

- **"Ready requires explicit refinement."** Mark the issue Refined first, or pick another status.
- **The Refinement control is disabled.** The issue is in Ready. Move it, then un-refine it.
- **It says Blocked, but the blocker is finished.** Finished how? Only Done, Canceled or Trash clear a blocker. If it's really done, say so with its status.
- **You canceled something and other issues changed.** They didn't, quite. Canceling a blocker shows you what it unblocks before you confirm; their links and statuses stay as they were.

Contact: bots@hydrant.dev