Labeling is a key aspect of any task management or ticketing platform. At Dosu, we’ve invested heavily in auto-labeling because it’s a time-saver for engineers, keeps projects organized, and enables Dosu to excel in everything else it does.
Auto-labeling

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Approach

Dosu’s auto-labeling system works using the context of a project’s current labels and past labeling activity to determine the relevant labels for newly created issues, pull requests, and tickets.

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How It Works

Dosu analyzes:
  • Existing labels in your repository
  • Historical patterns of how labels have been applied
  • The text content of issues and pull requests
From this, it predicts the most relevant labels for each new item. When you accept or reject a suggested label, Dosu learns from that correction to improve future accuracy. Dosu labels showin on github

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Enabling Auto-Labeling

  1. Connect your GitHub repository to Dosu if not already connected.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Channels in the Dosu dashboard.
  3. If a channel doesn’t already exist, create one by following the instructions in Key Concepts: Channel.
  4. Go to Issues and toggle Auto-Label Issues.
  5. Choose the labels you’d like to apply
You can pick the default labels for now and update it later on when Dosu already knows more about your labels.
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  1. Start with Preview Only
    Review Dosu’s recommendations without changing workflow.
  2. Auto-Apply Low-Risk Labels
    Enable automatic application for safe, unambiguous labels like:
    • kind:question
    • area:docs
  3. Expand Gradually
    Add more labels to the auto-apply list once accuracy is consistent.

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Reviewing and Correcting Labels

  • To accept a suggestion: leave the label as-is.
  • To reject a suggestion: remove the label from the issue or pull request.
  • To add a missing label, apply it manually as you normally would.
Every action feeds back into Dosu’s learning model.

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Best Practices

  • Keep labels clear and consistent
    Short, descriptive names improve prediction accuracy.
  • Avoid duplicate or overlapping labels
    Merge similar labels to simplify classification.
  • Regularly review suggestions
    Early corrections speed up the learning curve.

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Usage In The Wild

Dosu supports auto-labeling for GitHub issues and pull requests. See the repositories below for public examples of Dosu auto-labeling: For more information on how to configure auto-labeling for GitHub, see the Auto-label Issues page.
If you didn’t finish the repository setup, click here to go to the GitHub Channel Creation page.