Attention: Here be dragons

This is the latest (unstable) version of this documentation, which may document features not available in or compatible with released stable versions of Godot.

Checking the stable version of the documentation...

Bug triage guidelines

This page describes the typical workflow of the bug triage team aka bugsquad when handling issues and pull requests on Godot's GitHub repository. It is bound to evolve together with the bugsquad, so do not hesitate to propose modifications to the following guidelines.

Issues management

For issue management, we use the following GitHub processes:

Each issue and pull request (PR) is categorized with a set of labels, sometimes called "tags".
Each PR is assigned to a milestone. Some issues can also be assigned to a milestone (see below).
Issues can have an assignee, who is a contributor among Godot maintainers.
Issues can be put in one or more projects.
PRs can be linked to one or more issues which they "fix" or "close".

We don't yet extensively use or rely on some other GitHub processes:

Issue close reasons (completed, not planned, duplicate). While we use these, it is not consistent, and older issues are all closed as "completed", so the issue close reason should not be relied on.
Issue types (Bug, Feature, Task).
Issue relationships.

We only use the assignees feature for Godot maintainers who are members of the Godot Engine GitHub organization, and even then not in all cases. For other issues, we track who is working on an issue by comments on the issue and linked pull requests. Most issues are available for any contributor to take on, after discussing it with other contributors. If you would like to work on an issue, first check that no one else is working on it, by looking for a linked pull request, a comment "claiming" the issue, or an assignee. If no one else is working on the issue, leave a comment on the issue to "claim" it and start working on it.

Labels

The following labels are currently defined in the Godot repository:

Categories:

Archived: used to filter issues closed with a resolution other than "fixed".
- For issues, added to all issues that are not resolved by engine or documentation changes. This includes duplicate issues, user error, or reports in the wrong repository. Since we don't rely on GitHub's issue close reasons (completed, not planned, and duplicate), it is possible for an issue to be closed as completed with the Archived label.
- For PRs, added to all closed PRs that are not merged. This includes superseded or duplicate PRs, Git or GitHub mistakes, and valid PRs that end up not merged.
Breaks compat: describes something that can only be fixed by breaking compatibility with existing projects.
Bug: describes something that is not working properly.
Cherrypick: describes something that can be backported to a stable branch after being merged in the master branch.
Confirmed: has been confirmed by at least one other contributor than the bug reporter (typically for Bug reports). The purpose of this label is to let developers know which issues are still reproducible when they want to select what to work on. It is therefore a good practice to add in a comment on what platform and what version or commit of Godot the issue could be reproduced; if a developer looks at the issue one year later, the Confirmed label may not be relevant anymore.
Crash: describes a bug that causes the engine to crash. This label is only used for "hard" crashes, not freezes.
Discussion: the issue is not consensual and needs further discussion to define what exactly should be done to address the topic.
Documentation: related to the documentation. PRs with this label improve the class reference. Issues with this label are either for wrong documentation, or are user-reported "bugs" that are actually limitations to be further documented. Often paired with Discussion. Issues related to the ReadTheDocs documentation should be filed on the godot-docs repository.
Enhancement: describes a proposed enhancement to an existing functionality.
Feature proposal: used for PRs adding new features which do not have a corresponding proposal use this label. The label is removed when a feature proposal is created and linked. The main Godot repository no longer accepts feature requests as issues. Please use the godot-proposals repository instead.
For PR meeting: the issue needs to be discussed in a pull request meeting. These meetings are public and are held on the Godot Contributors Chat.
Good first issue: the issue is assumed to be an easy one to fix, which makes it a great fit for new contributors who want to become familiar with the code base. It should be removed while an active PR is available, that resolves this issue.
High priority: the issue is particularly important as it can prevent people from releasing their projects or cause data loss.
Needs testing: the issue/pull request could not be completely tested and thus need further testing. This can mean that it needs to be tested on different hardware/software configurations or even that the steps to reproduce are not certain.
Needs work: the pull request needs additional work before it can be merged. Also for issues that are very incomplete, such as missing reproduction steps.
Performance: issues that directly impact engine or editor performance. Can also be used for pull requests that improve performance or add low-end-friendly options. Should not be coupled with Usability.
Regression: the bug appeared after a stable release not exhibiting the bug was released.
Salvageable: the pull request can't be merged due to design issues or merge conflicts and its author is not active anymore. However, it can still be picked up by another contributor to bring it to a mergeable state. To do so, you need to open a new pull request based on the original pull request.
Spam: intentional spam issues, and extremely low-effort PRs. Used sparingly, since we give contributors and users the benefit of the doubt. In most cases, Needs work or Archived is more appropriate.
Tracker: issue used to track other issues (like all issues related to the plugin system).
Usability: issues that directly impact user usability. Should not be coupled with Performance.

The categories are used for general triage of the issues. They can be combined in some way when relevant, e.g. an issue can be labeled Bug and Usability at the same time if it's a bug that affects usability. Or Enhancement and Discussion if it's an improvement that requires discussion of the best approach. At least one of the categories Bug, Enhancement, or Discussion are used to describe an issue or pull request.

Topics:

2D: relates to 2D nodes. Should be coupled with one of the labels below, and should not be coupled with 3D.
3D: relates to 3D nodes. Should be coupled with one of the labels below, and should not be coupled with 2D.
Animation: relates to the Animation system, editors and importers.
Assetlib: relates to issues with the asset library.
Audio: relates to the audio features (low- and high-level).
Buildsystem: relates to building issues, either linked to the SCons buildsystem or to compiler peculiarities.
Codestyle: relates to the programming style used within the codebase.
Core: anything related to the core engine. Specific topics are split off separately as they crop up.
Dotnet: relates to the C# / .NET bindings.
Editor: relates to issues in the editor (mainly UI).
Export: relates to the export system and templates.
GDExtension: relates to the GDExtension system for native extensions.
GDScript: relates to GDScript.
GUI: relates to GUI (Control) nodes or to Nodes that compose user interfaces.
Import: relates to the resource import system.
Input: relates to the input system.
I18n: relates to internationalization.
Multiplayer: relates to multiplayer (high-level networking) systems.
Navigation: relates to the navigation system (including A* and navmeshes).
Network: relates to (low-level) networking.
Particles: particles, particle systems and their editors.
Physics: relates to the physics engine (2D/3D).
Plugin: relates to problems encountered while writing plugins.
Porting: relates to some specific platforms or exporting projects.
Rendering: relates to the 2D and 3D rendering engines.
Shaders: relates to the Godot shader language or visual shaders.
Tests: relates to unit tests.
Thirdparty: relates to third-party libraries used in Godot.
XR: relates to Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality.

Issues would typically correspond to only one topic, though it's not unthinkable to see issues that fit two bills. The general idea is that there will be specialized contributors teams behind all topics, so they can focus on the issues labelled with their team's topic.

Platforms:

Android, iOS, LinuxBSD, macOS, Web, Windows

By default, it is assumed that a given issue applies to all platforms. If one of the platform labels is used, it is then exclusive and the previous assumption doesn't stand anymore (so if it's a bug on e.g. Android and Linux exclusively, select those two platforms).

Documentation labels

In the documentation repository, we use the following labels:

Archived: either a duplicate of another issue, or invalid. Such an issue would also be closed.
Bug: Incorrect information in an existing page. Not to be used for missing information.
Cherrypick: describes something that can be backported to a stable branch after being merged in the master branch.
Dependencies: describes pull requests that update a dependency file.
Discussion: the issue is not consensual and needs further discussion to define what exactly should be done to address the topic.
Enhancement: new information to be added in an existing page.
Good first issue: the issue is assumed to be an easy one to fix, which makes it a great fit for new contributors who want to become familiar with the code base. It should be removed while an active PR is available, that resolves this issue.
Linked demo PR: the PR has a corresponding PR to the Godot Demo Projects repository which must be merged at the same time. Any changes to code in tutorials that have a corresponding demo, such as Your first 2D game, need to update both repositories so that the tutorial code stays in sync with the completed demo.
Needs work: the pull request needs additional work before it can be merged.
Python: Pull requests that update Python code.
Salvageable: the pull request can't be merged due to design issues or merge conflicts and its author is not active anymore. However, it can still be picked up by an external contributor to bring it to a mergeable state. To do so, you need to open a new pull request based on the original pull request.
Tracker: issue used to track other issues (like all issues related to the plugin system).
Waiting on PR merge: the PR documents an engine PR that has not been merged yet.

Area:

About: Issues and PRs related to the About section of the documentation and other general articles.
Class reference: the issue is about the class reference, not a documentation page.
Community: Issues and PRs related to the Community section of the documentation.
Contributing: Issues and PRs related to the Contributing/Development section of the documentation.
Getting started: Issues and PRs related to the Getting Started section of the documentation.
Manual: Issues and PRs related to the Manual/Tutorials section of the documentation.

Content:

Images: Issues and PRs involving outdated or incorrect images in articles.
Example code: Issues and PRs involving writing or updating code examples.
New page: Issues and PRs related to creation of new documentation pages for new or undocumented features.
Organization: Issues and PRs related to reorganizing the content.
Proofreading: Issues and PRs related to proofreading the documentation.
Redirect: Issues and PRs involving moving content and adding a redirect rule on the backend.
Website: Issues related to adding website features and fixing bugs, whether on the front or back-end,

Topic:

The available topics describe the same content as the topics in the main repository.

Milestones

Milestones are used for some issues and all PRs.

We have milestones for specific minor engine versions, like 4.5 and 4.6, as well as general milestones for major engine versions, like 3.x and 4.x. In the godot-proposals repo, we also have a 5.0 milestone for compatibility-breaking changes that will be considered for Godot 5.0, in many years.

Issues are assigned to the current development milestone, such as 4.5, if they are related to features introduced in that engine version, or are bugs (regressions) in that version. Additionally, all issues completed during the development of that engine version are added to the milestone, so that users can see at a glance in which minor version an issue was first fixed. We don't always use the 4.x milestone for issues, since by default all issues are related to Godot 4.x. However, we do use the 3.x milestone to mark issues that are specific to Godot 3.x.

All pull requests are assigned to a milestone. By default, enhancement and feature PRs are assigned to the 4.x milestone, and bugs are assigned to the current development milestone, such as 4.5. Towards the end of the minor version's development, PRs currently in that milestone are reassessed. If a PR is no longer being considered for that version, it is reassigned to either the major version milestone (4.x), or the next minor version milestone (such as 4.6).

Pull requests in the 4.x milestone are reassigned to the current minor engine version, such as 4.5, when the review process is complete, and the production team decides that the PR is ready to be merged soon. Note that this usually requires more than one approving review.

The milestone assigned to a PR is a goal, not a guarantee. New features and enhancements are merged when they are ready. While reviewers and maintainers do their best to review PRs in time for the current version, at some point we reach the beta, feature freeze, and then release; and existing PRs are reassigned to the next minor version, or to 4.x. As a rule, we assign new features to the 4.x milestone initially to avoid continually reassigning a PR from version to version. However, a PR being in 4.x does not mean it won't be merged; it's just the default for new features.

User-contributed notes

Please read the User-contributed notes policy before submitting a comment.