### Problem to solve While Label clutter is a real problem and admins have a legitimate need to prune old Labels, deleting a Label can break reporting and delete useful historical associations. ### Intended users The primary user would be any of the [IT roles](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/product-marketing/enterprise-it-roles/) that might be a GitLab administrator, but all of our user personas would be affected by the outcome. ### User experience goal From the Label List ([example](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/labels)) or Label Edit ([example](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/labels/13668508/edit)) pages, a user with authority to modify a Label ([related issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/216637)) would could Archive a Label. Archiving a Label would: * Remove the ability of users to view or assign the Label when creating or editing any issues, MRs, or epics * Remove the Label from the default Label list view Archiving a Label would not: * Delete any associations with Labeled issues, Epics, or MRs * Disrupt any Insights dashboards or other reporting capabilities. Longer-term, it would be wonderful to have a toggle that allows users to include archived Labels in their searches. ### Further details <!-- Include use cases, benefits, goals, or any other details that will help us understand the problem better. --> ### Permissions and Security This does not seems like it would require any reworking of permissions, beyond what would be necessary for the related issue noted above. ### Documentation Affected pages would include: * https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/labels.html ### Availability & Testing <!-- This section needs to be retained and filled in during the workflow planning breakdown phase of this feature proposal, if not earlier. What risks does this change pose to our availability? How might it affect the quality of the product? What additional test coverage or changes to tests will be needed? Will it require cross-browser testing? Please list the test areas (unit, integration and end-to-end) that needs to be added or updated to ensure that this feature will work as intended. Please use the list below as guidance. * Unit test changes * Integration test changes * End-to-end test change See the test engineering planning process and reach out to your counterpart Software Engineer in Test for assistance: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/quality/test-engineering/#test-planning --> ### What does success look like, and how can we measure that? The ability to: * Declutter a Label list by archiving one or more Labels * Verify that the Label can no longer be added to an issue, MR, or epic * Verify that an existing report (e.g., an Insights dashboard) referencing the archived Label continues to identify that Label and associated items. * Verify that the Label can be reactivated and return to its prior state without disrupting any previous associations. ### What is the type of buyer? I think this could be of benefit to anyone, at any tier, but [Erin](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/product-marketing/roles-personas/buyer-persona/#erin---the-application-development-executive-vp-etc) would probably be the most concerned of the buyer personas. ### Is this a cross-stage feature? This seems fairly focused on Plan (@gweaver ) ### Links / references