There are two ways to group labels on GitHub: by color and by using a common prefix. Even though the color-coding helps, without a common prefix, labels that belong in the same category are not grouped together in the "Labels" dropdown in the sidebar. On the other hand, adding a prefix to all labels makes them longer and adds clutter.

On python/cpython, we currently have 61 labels, that include misc labels (like easy, pending, etc.) and a few main groups, including:

• types (uses the type-* prefix)
• experts (uses the expert-* prefix)
• OS (uses the OS-* prefix)
• version number (no prefix/grouping needed -- they all start with 3)
• "dir" (no prefix)

The "dir" category currently has 5 labels: stdlib, docs, tests, interpreter-core, and extension-modules, and they indicate what part of the source tree is affected, however since they have no prefix, they are not grouped. I'm not sure if dir-* would be a good prefix, but I can't think of anything better.

Another idea suggested on Discord is to use emojis as prefixes for some categories, since they only take 1 character, are easily recognizable, and can convey some semantic meaning as well.

Some suggestions:

• 📂 can be used as a prefix for the "dir" group
• 🐍 can be used as a prefix for experts
• if we want to replace the type-* prefix:
  • 📙 for crash and security, 📘 for bugs, and 📗 for feature requests
  • 🔴 🟠 🔵 🟢 / 🟥 🟧 🟦 🟩
  • 🗄️ or 🗃️ if we want the same emoji for all items
• if we want to replace the OS-* prefix: 💻 or 🖥️
• we could keep some text-based prefix, and not all labels need a prefix
• we could add prefixes to create some mini-groups:
  • ❌ for invalid/spam
  • ❗ for release blocker/deferred blocker
  • 🤖 for labels that trigger bot actions
• some bots/tools might need to be updated if we rename labels

The main goals I want to accomplish are:

• group the "dir" labels
• make related labels easier to find in the dropdown
• make label names shorter
• make the categories clearer

In addition I wanted to remove/rewrite the (already outdated) "GitHub Labels" page in the devguide and just document the categories, linking to the labels list on GitHub for the actual page and their description.

cc @Mariatta