Labels: add structure and clarity to your boards

Color-coded labels give your team an instant visual layer so you can scan the board and understand what is happening without clicking into every card.

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What are labels?

Labels are colored tags that you attach to cards. They appear as small colored indicators on the board, giving an extra layer of information at a glance. Common uses include categorizing by type (bug, feature, chore), priority (high, medium, low), team (frontend, backend, design), or status (needs review, approved).

Creating and managing labels

Navigate to Project Settings → Labels. From here you can create, edit, and delete labels for the project.

  • Click 'Create Label' to add a new label with a name and color
  • Choose from a predefined color palette to keep labels visually distinct
  • Edit existing labels to update the name or color at any time
  • Delete labels you no longer need — they are removed from all cards automatically
  • Labels are project-scoped: each project has its own set of labels

Example — Priority labels: Create three labels: "P1 — Critical" (red), "P2 — Important" (orange), and "P3 — Nice to have" (blue). Apply them to cards so the team can instantly see priority distribution on the board.

Example — Team labels: Create labels for "Frontend", "Backend", "Design", and "DevOps". When scanning the board, the team immediately knows which discipline each card belongs to.

Applying labels to cards

Open the card dropdown menu on the board or backlog and click Labels. A menu appears with all available labels — select as many as needed. The menu stays open until you close it, so you can apply multiple labels in one action.

  • Labels appear on the card in both expanded and collapsed board views
  • A card can have multiple labels
  • Labels are visible in the backlog, sprint planning view, and board
  • Removing a label is as simple as deselecting it in the same menu

Backlog bucket labels

Flying Donut can automatically display the backlog bucket name as a label on each card. This is especially useful when cards from multiple buckets end up in the same sprint or board.

  • Go to Project Settings → Labels and enable the 'Backlog Buckets' toggle
  • Each bucket name appears as a label with an editable color
  • Bucket labels update automatically when cards are moved between buckets
  • Customize the color of each bucket label to match your system

Example: A team has three buckets: Frontend, Backend, and Infrastructure. With bucket labels enabled, every card on the sprint board shows its origin bucket — making it easy to see the mix of work types in the current sprint.

Best practices

  • Keep the number of labels manageable: 5–10 labels per project is a good range
  • Use consistent colors: red for blocking or urgent, green for approved, blue for informational
  • Combine labels with board columns for a two-dimensional view of work
  • Review and clean up labels periodically — remove unused ones to avoid clutter
  • Use bucket labels when your team mixes work from different categories in the same sprint

Common questions

Can I filter the board by label?+
Flying Donut provides a 'Show only my cards' filter. Labels provide visual scanning rather than explicit filtering. Use them alongside column structure for clarity.
Do labels carry over when a card moves to a new sprint?+
Yes. Labels are a property of the card, not the sprint. They stay with the card regardless of where it moves.
Can I share labels across projects?+
Not currently. Each project has its own label set. Create consistent naming conventions across projects for cross-project coherence.

Add visual clarity to your workflow

Labels help your team scan the board and make decisions faster. Set them up in seconds.

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