Labels and branch types
Which labels create which branches and how deploy flow works.
Labels and branch types
Copilot uses labels to decide what kind of branch to create and which workflow to run. You can configure every label name; see Issues Configuration. This page summarizes the flow labels and branch types.
Flow and branch summary
| Flow | Required / optional labels | Branch created from | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feature | feature; optionally branched (or set branch-management-always: true) | development-branch (default: develop) | New functionality. |
| Bugfix | bugfix; optionally branched (or branch-management-always: true) | development-branch | Bug fixes on develop. |
| Docs | docs or documentation; optionally branched (or branch-management-always: true) | development-branch | Documentation tasks. |
| Chore | chore or maintenance; optionally branched (or branch-management-always: true) | development-branch | Maintenance, refactors, dependencies. |
| Hotfix | hotfix (branch is created without needing branched; templates often include branched too) | main-branch (from latest tag) | Urgent production fix. Add deploy to trigger deploy workflow. Only org/repo members can create hotfix issues (others are closed). |
| Release | release (branch is created without needing branched; templates often include branched too) | development-branch | New version release. Add deploy to trigger release workflow. Only org/repo members can create release issues (others are closed). |
| Deploy | deploy on the issue | — | Triggers the workflow defined by release-workflow or hotfix-workflow. |
| Deployed | deployed (added by action after deploy success) | — | Marks the issue as deployed; used for auto-close and state updates. |
Other labels
- Issue type:
bug,enhancement(no branch by themselves; often used with bugfix/feature). - No branch:
question,help— Copilot does not create branches; used for Q&A or help requests. - Priority:
priority: high,priority: medium,priority: low(and similar from configuration). - Size:
size: XS…size: XXL— Applied by the action from branch diff (push/PR); see Configuration for thresholds.
Branch naming
Branch names follow the pattern <tree>/<issue-number>-<slug> (e.g. feature/123-add-login). The tree is configured per type: feature-tree, bugfix-tree, docs-tree, chore-tree, hotfix-tree, release-tree. See Branch management for naming conventions and Issue Types for per-type details.
Hotfix and release restrictions
For hotfix and release, the action only creates branches (and allows the issue to stay open) when the issue creator is a member of the organization (or the repo owner for user repos). If a non-member opens a hotfix or release issue, the action closes it. This avoids accidental production/release flows from external contributors.
Next steps
- Workflow setup — Enable the action for issue events.
- Branch management — Launcher label, naming, and when branches are created.
- Issue types — Feature, Bugfix, Docs, Chore, Hotfix, Release (step-by-step flows).