A dependency written as a description cannot be checked by anything, and four of
them on this board had gone stale without saying so.
blocked-on-another-issue means "Waits on work tracked by another open issue on
this board", which is a good label with a description that says what it means.
What it cannot do is point at the issue. That is the body's job, and the bodies
mostly point in prose:
Depends on the roster parser issue
Depends on the landing page issue and on #5
Depends on the byte budget issue
Depends on the privacy page issue and the external origin issue
Measured, 2026-08-22
Issues mit dem Etikett 24
nennen eine offene Abhaengigkeit mit Nummer 8
nennen sie nur in Prosa 12
nennen gar keine 4
Resolving the prose by reading found four whose dependencies have all closed:
#75 "the roster parser issue" = #21, closed 2026-08-09, and #5, closed
#25 same pair
#50 "the privacy page issue" = #48, closed 2026-08-12, and "the external
origin issue" = #37, closed 2026-08-10
#35 "the byte budget issue" = #34, closed 2026-08-17
Two of those had been waiting on nothing for a fortnight and one for five days.
The label was correct when it went on and nothing could tell it had stopped being
correct, because nothing could read what it pointed at.
Finding the numbers took a reading of other issues, not a query: #72 is what
names #37 as "the external origin issue", and without that sentence the reference
resolves to nothing.
What was done
The four are cleared, each with the closed issues named on it. Nine others now
carry their dependency by number rather than by description:
#70 -> #26 #58 -> #53 #33 -> #28 #23 -> #22
#36 -> #35 #30 -> #26 #27 -> #26 #54 -> #53
#72 -> #37, #50
Nothing about what any of them waits for changed. What changed is that a reader,
or a check, can now follow it.
Done when
- Implementation: a body carrying
blocked-on-another-issue names its dependency
by number. Where a dependency is only describable, it is named by number as
well, and the description stays beside it for the reader.
- Monitoring: a check reads every issue with the label and refuses one whose body
carries no #N, and reports one whose named issues have all closed. The second
half is the one that matters: an issue that is no longer blocked and still says
it is, is invisible work.
- Evaluation: on this issue, two counts taken one month from today. Issues with
the label and no number in the body: baseline 16 of 24, target 0. Issues with
the label whose named dependencies have all closed: baseline 4, target 0.
A dependency written as a description cannot be checked by anything, and four of
them on this board had gone stale without saying so.
blocked-on-another-issuemeans "Waits on work tracked by another open issue onthis board", which is a good label with a description that says what it means.
What it cannot do is point at the issue. That is the body's job, and the bodies
mostly point in prose:
Measured, 2026-08-22
Resolving the prose by reading found four whose dependencies have all closed:
Two of those had been waiting on nothing for a fortnight and one for five days.
The label was correct when it went on and nothing could tell it had stopped being
correct, because nothing could read what it pointed at.
Finding the numbers took a reading of other issues, not a query: #72 is what
names #37 as "the external origin issue", and without that sentence the reference
resolves to nothing.
What was done
The four are cleared, each with the closed issues named on it. Nine others now
carry their dependency by number rather than by description:
Nothing about what any of them waits for changed. What changed is that a reader,
or a check, can now follow it.
Done when
blocked-on-another-issuenames its dependencyby number. Where a dependency is only describable, it is named by number as
well, and the description stays beside it for the reader.
carries no
#N, and reports one whose named issues have all closed. The secondhalf is the one that matters: an issue that is no longer blocked and still says
it is, is invisible work.
the label and no number in the body: baseline 16 of 24, target 0. Issues with
the label whose named dependencies have all closed: baseline 4, target 0.