Ship features while your fixes run in the background

You are halfway through a feature when a small issue lands. A discount code that applies twice. An export that drops its last row. Everyone understands it and it is contained, but it still pulls you out: stash your work, switch branches, confirm the issue with a test, make the change, open a merge request, then find your way back into the feature.

The change itself is usually the smallest part of that. In Stripe’s survey The Developer Coefficient, developers estimated that more than 17 hours of a 41-hour week went to maintenance: debugging, refactoring and dealing with errors. Those are hours the feature does not get.

Label2Prod was built on one promise: no developer skills required. Anyone on the team labels a Jira issue, and a tested GitLab merge request comes back. In a developer’s hands, the same product does something else: it lets one person move several issues forward while building a feature.

Hand off the small issues. Keep the feature.

When an issue is clear and contained, don’t pick it up. Add the autofix label in Jira, or type the issue key under Fix an issue in the app, and go back to your work. Label2Prod replies on the issue within a minute, then does the part that used to interrupt you:

1. It confirms the issue with a new test that fails on the current code.
2. It makes the change in the right repository.
3. It proves the change on a clean copy: the new test passes, and so does your whole test suite.
4. It opens a GitLab merge request that explains what was wrong, what changed and how it was proven.

None of it runs on your machine. There is nothing to stash, no branch to switch and no second checkout, and your editor stays on your feature.

Run several at once

Label three issues and all three move at the same time. Each fix works on its own copy of your repository, so they stay out of each other’s way, and out of yours.

Early access runs up to three fixes at the same time. Label more and the rest queue, then start by themselves as soon as there is room. A merge request waiting for your review does not count toward the three, so leaving reviews for later never holds up the next fix.

The Fixes page in the app shows where every fix stands and updates itself while they run. Each fix also posts its progress as new comments on its own Jira issue, so whoever reported it can follow along without asking you.

Review in one sitting

Pick the moment that suits your work: after a commit, before stand-up, at the end of the day. Then open the merge requests together.

Each one reads the same way:

• What was wrong, in plain words.
• How it was confirmed: the new test, and what it showed before the change.
• The fix: what changed and why.
• Verification: the new test fails before the change and passes after it, and your test suite passes on a clean copy of the repository.
• Confidence, with a Please check list when something deserves a closer look.

Your own pipeline runs as it does for any merge request. Merge what holds up. When something should change, you don’t have to change it yourself: say what you want in a comment on the merge request.

@autofix keep the old error message for API clients and add a test for it

Each request adds a new commit, checked the same way as the first, so the history shows every change you asked for. You can ask as often as you need for 24 hours after a merge request opens, which is why reviewing the same day works best. Label2Prod never merges: your approval rules and branch protection decide what ships. The review guide covers each part of the merge request.

What changes for you

• Your focus stays on the feature. Small issues stop breaking the thread of the work only you can do.
• Your machine stays yours. No stashing, no switching branches, no local setup for someone else’s issue.
• Several issues move at once. While you build one feature, three fixes are in progress and more wait their turn.
• You judge instead of redoing. Your time goes into deciding on a proven change, not into recreating the problem and writing the test.
• Any stack. Label2Prod works out how your repository builds and runs its tests, whatever it is written in.

Where it works best

Hand off the issues you would give a capable new teammate in their first week: clear, contained and checkable. That can be a bug, a small task or a story, whichever issue types your project switches on, as long as a test can check the change. It works best when:

• the issue says what is wrong, with exact values and the steps to see it;
• the change fits in one repository;
• your tests run without outside services.

If an issue leaves something out, Label2Prod asks on the issue and waits for the answer, so its questions can wait for your next break too. Architecture decisions and large features stay with you.

Try it on your next feature

1. Before you start the feature, pick three small, well-described issues from the backlog.
2. Label them, then start building.
3. At your first break, review the three merge requests. Merge what holds up, and comment @autofix where something should change.

Label2Prod is free for early-access teams on Jira Cloud and GitLab, with no credit card, and fixes run on your own Anthropic API key. Setup takes about five minutes in your browser. See what early access includes, or go straight to the setup guide.

Sources

• Stripe: The Developer Coefficient (September 2018)