Create and track issues

Issues are records for bugs, features and other product work. Each issue has an identifier such as MAG-12, a status and a priority, and can have an assignee and a due date. For a board with columns you name yourself, use Track work with Kanban boards instead.

Open Issues from the navigation to see the issues in Personal or the selected team. The Issues section of the sidebar also has Projects, Board, Roadmap, Triage, Notifications, Saved views, Statuses and Webhooks. Other tasks have their own articles:

• Search, filter, the board, saved views and changing many issues at once: Issue list, board and saved views
• Projects, milestones and the Roadmap: Issue projects, milestones and roadmap
• Cycles: Plan issues in cycles
• Triage and public forms for reports: Triage and public issue forms
• Statuses, custom fields and automations: Issue statuses, custom fields and automations
• Subscriptions, mentions and email: Issue notifications and email
• CSV, JSON and GitHub imports and exports: Import and export issues
• Webhooks: Issue webhooks

Who can change issues

Every member who can use Issues in a team (see Choose the areas a member can use) can open its issues, comment, subscribe and export. Team admins can create and change issues, and so can other members when the team's Member access setting lets members edit (see Create and manage a team). In Personal you can do everything. Team admins manage statuses, cycle planning and webhooks. An issue can be assigned to any member who can use Issues in the team.

Create an issue

Choose Create issue on the Issues list, the Board or a project's page. You can also press C outside a text field, or find Create issue in the command palette.

On New issue, enter a title, choose the team that will own the issue, and optionally choose a project. The project choices change when you choose a different team. To make a project from this page, choose Create a project below the project field; you will return to the new issue with that project selected and your title kept. The issue starts in Backlog with no priority, and the Issues list opens.

Issues in a team share one number sequence. An issue created in a project takes that project's prefix and the others take MAG, so a team can have MAG-1, then WEB-2 in a project with the prefix WEB. An issue keeps its identifier for good, even when it moves to another project. To find an issue by its identifier, type the whole identifier into the search box on the Issues list.

Change an issue

An issue page shows the title, the identifier and project, then the properties: Status, Priority, Assignee, Due date and Labels, and Milestone, Cycle, Triage and custom fields when they apply. The description follows.

Members who can edit change the status, priority or assignee by choosing the current value, and change the due date by clicking it. Each change saves at once. The priorities are No priority, Urgent, High, Medium and Low. Moving an issue to a status in the Completed category records the date it was completed, a Cancelled status records the date it was cancelled, and moving it back to another status clears that date.

Click the title to change it, and press Enter to save. Click the description to change it: Enter starts a new line, Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac) or a click elsewhere saves, and Escape cancels. Links in the description still open when clicked. Descriptions use Markdown, including headings, lists, code blocks and links.

More, then Edit labels, milestone and other fields, opens the edit page. It has the title and description, the properties, the custom fields, the labels, the milestone when the issue is in a project, and the cycle when cycle planning is on. Each part has its own save button.

To move an issue to another project, select it on the Issues list and choose Project in the bar above the list (see Issue list, board and saved views). Its milestone is cleared, because a milestone is part of one project.

While an issue page is open, it updates when another member changes the description, properties, comments or activity.

Labels

Labels are shared by the whole team, and a label can be added to any number of issues. On the edit page, tick the labels and choose Save labels. Create label on the same page makes a new one with a name and an optional description. Labels show beside the title on the Issues list.

Comments and activity

The Activity section lists comments and changes together, oldest first: creation, edits, status and other property changes, label changes and removed comments. Each change is one line naming the person and the time.

Write a comment in the box at the end of Activity and choose Comment. Comments use Markdown. Write @ and a member's handle to notify them (see Issue notifications and email). The author of a comment and team admins can choose Edit or Remove beside it. An edited comment is marked Edited.

Related issues and sub-issues

Choose Link an issue below the description. In the drawer, choose whether this issue Is related to, Blocks or Is a duplicate of another issue, and enter that issue's ID, such as MAG-123. The other issue shows the link as Blocked by or Duplicated by.

To make this issue a sub-issue, enter the parent's ID under Parent issue and choose Save parent. Clear the field to remove the parent.

Related issues on the issue page lists the parent, the sub-issues and the links, and counts how many sub-issues are complete. Choose Remove beside a link to remove it. Both issues must be in the same team, an issue cannot be its own parent, and a parent chain cannot loop back on itself.

Attachments

Choose Attach files below the description. Choose files, drop them, or paste an image, and choose whether to attach them to the issue or to one of its comments. Each file can be up to 25 MB. Images show a preview on the issue page. Attachments can be opened only by people who can see the issue, and members who can edit can remove one with Remove.

GitHub pull requests and commits

When the issue's project is linked to a GitHub repository (see Issue projects, milestones and roadmap), the issue page has a Development section. It suggests a branch name made from the identifier and title, with Copy. Choose Add a pull request or commit, then enter its GitHub address, which must be in the project's repository, and optionally a title and branch name. More, then Copy branch name, copies the suggested name on any issue.

Magpie keeps these links. It does not read pull request status from GitHub or create branches in GitHub.

Time spent on an issue

Start timer beside the issue's name starts a Time Tracking timer linked to the issue, with the issue's title as its description, and you stay on the issue. Your time in the properties shows the time you have recorded on the issue. See Track time.

Move an issue to Trash

Members who can edit choose More, then Move to Trash. API users with team edit access can do the same with DELETE. The issue is kept in the team's Trash for 30 days and can be restored with its comments and history; after that it is deleted for good. If its status, milestone, cycle or project was removed in the meantime, the restored issue comes back with the workflow's first status, or without the removed milestone, cycle or project, and the message says so.

In the Magpie app

Issues in the app lists the issues in Personal or the selected team, newest change first. Search from the header, and narrow the list to Assigned to me or to one status. Choose New to create an issue with a title, an optional Markdown description and a project.

On an issue, tap the title to rename it, or tap Status, Priority, Assignee or Due date to change it. Each change saves at once. Choose Edit description to change the description, then Save description. Read the issue's comments and add one at the end.

Members who can edit choose Move to Trash from the issue's action menu. Trash, in the Issues list's action menu, opens the app's Trash on issues; tap Restore on one to bring it back. Labels, custom fields, related issues, attachments, projects, cycles, the board and the other Issues pages are on the website.

For help with issues, Contact support.