[Meta] Moving to a discussion-first approach for bug reports and feature requests

[jnfrati]

TL;DR: Bug reports and feature requests for NetBird open source repositories start as a Discussion in netbirdio/netbird, not as an Issue. Issues are reserved for validated work that the team or a contributor can pick up. This applies since May 5, 2026.

For the full workflow (what to include, how triage works, how issues become pull requests), see How to use Discussions, Issues, and Pull Requests.

Why we're doing this

This repository alone had more than 1,400 open issues: confirmed bugs mixed with feature requests, duplicates, and reports that went stale waiting for details. Real problems get buried, and maintainers spend time sorting instead of fixing.

We want the Issues tab of every NetBird repo to answer one question: what is the team working on? Reports that still need reproduction, context, or prioritization belong in Discussions. This is not about pushing reports away. It's a cleaner path from report to validation to fix, a model that has worked for projects like Ghostty and Renovate.

One entry point for all NetBird repositories

All community discussions live here in netbirdio/netbird, whether your report is about the client, management, dashboard, Kubernetes operator, docs, or any other NetBird repo.

If you came here from another NetBird repository, this applies to you too. Please start your report here.

You don't need to know which repo owns the fix. During triage, we open the issue in the right repository and link it back to your discussion. One place means one search covers everything, duplicates across repos get caught, and problems that span several components don't get split up.

Where to post

You want to	Category
Report a bug, regression, or unexpected behavior	Issue Triage
Request a feature or share an idea	Ideas & Feature Requests
Get help with setup, configuration, self hosting, or troubleshooting	Q&A / Support

Not sure if it's a bug? Start in Q&A / Support, and we'll move it if needed.

Please don't post here:

• Security vulnerabilities: follow the security policy (private advisory or security@netbird.io).
• NetBird Cloud account, billing, or service issues: contact Cloud support.

What's changing

• New bug reports and feature requests start in Discussions. Issues opened directly may be closed and redirected.
• Our team and maintainers triage discussions: they ask follow up questions, check for duplicates, and try to reproduce bugs.
• Validated reports become issues in the right repository, linked to the original discussion.
• Maintainers can still open issues directly for work that's already understood or found internally.

What about existing issues?

No mass close. We'll work through the backlogs of all repos gradually. Some issues stay open, some move to Discussions for revalidation, some get merged into newer reports, and some get closed if they're no longer actionable.

If you already have an open issue, there's no need to file it again. Keep adding context there.

How you can help

• Search first, including closed discussions and issues. If a match exists, upvote it and add your use case instead of opening a duplicate.
• Include enough detail to reproduce: OS, NetBird version, deployment type (Cloud or self hosted), steps, expected versus actual behavior, and relevant logs. The full checklist is in #6075.
• Upvote to show impact. Upvotes are how we gauge how many people are affected.
• Be patient while we transition. The goal is less noise, not more process.

Questions or feedback about the change? Comment below.