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An issue is the unit of work in Orbit. Every issue belongs to a single project and moves through a status lifecycle as work progresses.

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Fields

If you set both a start date and an end date, the end date must be on or after the start date. Orbit enforces this both in the form and at the database level.

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Status lifecycle

Issues move through three statuses. There’s no enforced one-way workflow — you can set any status directly from any other, whether by editing the field or dragging a card on the Board view:
1

Open

The default status for a newly created issue. Nothing has started yet.
2

In Progress

Work has started. Move an issue here by editing its status, or by dragging its card between columns on the Board view.
3

Closed

The issue is resolved. Closing an issue doesn’t delete it or its comments — it stays in the project’s history.

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Labels vs. priority vs. status

These three fields answer different questions, and it’s easy to conflate them:
  • Status answers “where is this in its lifecycle?” — every issue has exactly one.
  • Priority answers “how urgent is this?” — every issue has exactly one (defaults to Medium).
  • Labels answer “what kind of work is this?” — an issue can have any number of labels, including none.

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Assignment and notifications

Assigning an issue to someone — at creation or later — sends them an in-app notification. Reassigning notifies both the person who lost the issue and the person who gained it. If you update an issue that already has an assignee, that assignee is notified of the change too, unless the change is the assignment itself.

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Viewing and editing an issue

Every issue has its own page, showing its full description, properties, and comment thread. Fields like status, priority, assignee, and labels are editable inline from this page or from the project’s List and Board views.

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Deleting issues

Issues can be deleted individually or in bulk (selecting several from the List view and deleting them together). Deleting an issue also removes its comments.