# Issues

The GitLab Issue Tracker is an advanced and complete tool
for tracking the evolution of a new idea or the process
of solving a problem.

It allows you, your team, and your collaborators to share
and discuss proposals, before and while implementing them.

Issues and the GitLab Issue Tracker are available in all
[GitLab Products](https://about.gitlab.com/products/) as
part of the [GitLab Workflow](https://about.gitlab.com/2016/10/25/gitlab-workflow-an-overview/).

## Use-Cases

Issues can have endless applications. Just to exemplify, these are
some cases for which creating issues are most used:

- Discussing the implementation of a new idea
- Submitting feature proposals
- Asking questions
- Reporting bugs and malfunction
- Obtaining support
- Elaborating new code implementations

See also the blog post [Always start a discussion with an issue](https://about.gitlab.com/2016/03/03/start-with-an-issue/).

## Issue Tracker

The issue tracker is the collection of opened and closed issues created in a project.

![Issue tracker](img/issue_tracker.png)

Find the issue tracker by navigating to your **Project's Dashboard** > **Issues**.

## GitLab Issues Functionalities

The image bellow illustrates how an issue looks like:

![Issue view](img/issues_main_view.png)

Learn more about it on the [GitLab Issues Functionalities documentation](issues_functionalities.md).

## New issue

Read through the [documentation on creating issues](create_new_issue.md).

## Closing issues

Learn distinct ways to [close issues](closing_issues.md) in GitLab.

## Create a merge request from an issue

Learn more about it on the [GitLab Issues Functionalities documentation](issues_functionalities.md#18-new-merge-request).

## Search for an issue

Learn how to [find an issue](../../search/index.md) by searching for and filtering them.

## Advanced features

### Confidential Issues

Whenever you want to keep the discussion presented in a
issue within your team only, you can make that
[issue confidential](confidential_issues.md). Even if your project
is public, that issue will be preserved. The browser will
respond with a 404 error whenever someone who is not a project
member with at least [Reporter level](../../permissions.md#project) tries to
access that issue's URL.

Learn more about them on the [confidential issues documentation](confidential_issues.md).

### Issue templates

Create templates for every new issue. They will be available from
the dropdown menu **Choose a template** when you create a new issue:

![issue template](img/issue_template.png)

Learn more about them on the [issue templates documentation](../../project/description_templates.md#creating-issue-templates).

### Crosslinking issues

Learn more about [crosslinking](crosslinking_issues.md) issues and merge requests.

### Issue Board

The [GitLab Issue Board](https://about.gitlab.com/features/issueboard/) is a way to
enhance your workflow by organizing and prioritizing issues in GitLab.

![Issue board](img/issue_board.png)

Find GitLab Issue Boards by navigating to your **Project's Dashboard** > **Issues** > **Board**.

Read through the documentation for [Issue Boards](../issue_board.md)
to find out more about this feature.

[Multiple Issue Boards](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/issue_board.html#multiple-issue-boards)
are available only in [GitLab Enterprise Edition](https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-ee/).

### Issue's API

Read through the [API documentation](../../../api/issues.md).
