Issue statuses

Define the statuses that issues pass through during their lifecycle, such as New, In Progress, Resolved, and Closed.

Issue statuses represent the stages an issue passes through during its lifecycle. Every issue must be in exactly one status at any time. Status transitions between statuses are controlled by the workflow configuration.

Status fields

Field	Internal name	Description
Name	name	Display name. Unique, case-sensitive. Maximum 30 characters.
Closed	is_closed	When checked, issues in this status are considered closed. Closed issues are hidden from default issue lists and counted in project completion statistics.
Default % done	default_done_ratio	An integer from 0 to 100. When the global setting Issue done ratio is set to “Use the issue status”, Redmine automatically sets an issue’s % done to this value whenever the issue enters this status. Leave blank to not override the % done.
Description	description	Optional description. Maximum 255 characters.
Position	position	Determines the display order in lists. Drag to reorder.

Closed vs open statuses

Open status (is_closed = false)

Issues in open statuses appear in default issue lists, contribute to “open issues” counts, and are included in active workload reports. Examples: New, In Progress, Feedback.

Closed status (is_closed = true)

Issues in closed statuses are excluded from default lists (unless the filter is explicitly set to include them). When an issue enters a closed status, Redmine records the closed_on timestamp. Examples: Resolved, Closed, Rejected, Won’t fix.

When you change an existing status from open to closed, Redmine retroactively sets closed_on on all issues currently in that status. It uses the journal history to find when the status was last applied, or falls back to the issue’s created_on date.

Default % done

The default_done_ratio only takes effect when the application-level setting Issue done ratio is configured to use the issue status (rather than letting users set it manually).

When enabled:

• Moving an issue to a status with default_done_ratio = 100 marks it as fully done.
• Moving it back to an open status with default_done_ratio = 0 resets the completion percentage.

This is configured in Administration → Settings → Issue tracking.

Creating a status

1. Open the Issue statuses list

   Go to Administration → Issue statuses and click New status.

2. Enter a name

   Choose a name that clearly describes this stage (for example, “In Review”, “Blocked”, “Won’t Fix”). Names must be unique.

3. Set closed flag

   Check Closed if issues in this status should be considered resolved and hidden from default lists.

4. Set default % done (optional)

   Enter a value from 0 to 100 if you want Redmine to automatically set the completion percentage when an issue enters this status.

5. Save

   Click Create. The new status is appended to the end of the list.

Ordering statuses

Statuses are displayed in the order defined by the position column. Drag rows in the Administration → Issue statuses list to reorder them. The order affects:

• The sequence in status dropdowns on the issue form.
• The column order in the workflow editor matrix.

Deleting a status

A status cannot be deleted if:

• Any issue currently has that status.
• Any tracker uses it as its default status.

Reassign or close those issues and update tracker defaults before deleting.

Deleting a status also deletes all workflow transition rules that reference it (as either old or new status).

Relationship to trackers and workflows

Statuses are global — they are not scoped to a specific project or tracker. However:

• Each tracker specifies a default status used when a new issue is created.
• The workflow configuration controls which statuses a role can transition to for a given tracker. A status that has no incoming transitions for a tracker/role combination is effectively unreachable in that context.