[DISCUSS] Automating issue triage

[Astro-Han]

We recently went through every open Issue and set its Type and labels by hand. The result is useful, but this should not become a recurring maintenance job.

I think the labels should mean:

• help wanted: more contributors are welcome. It stays even when the Issue has an assignee.
• good first issue: suitable as someone’s first Maka contribution. It does not have to be easy, and assignment does not remove it.
• Assignee: the current primary owner. Other contributors can still coordinate and help.

This keeps suitability separate from availability. Contributors looking for unclaimed work can add no:assignee to their search.

For automation, I suggest starting small:

1. Set Bug, Feature, or Task directly from the Issue Form.
2. Use a normal GitHub Action to keep Type and the bug / enhancement labels consistent.
3. If we add AI triage later, let it suggest help wanted and good first issue with a short reason. A maintainer reviews the suggestion before it changes the Issue.

This would not add area labels, stale handling, automatic comments, assignment, or closure.

Questions:

• Are these label meanings correct?
• Should semantic labels always require review, at least initially?
• Is Type and label synchronization enough for the first implementation?

Related: #2441, #4070, #4160.

Drafted with OpenAI Codex at the contributor’s direction and reviewed by the contributor of record.