✅
Done / Passing
:white_check_mark: A task is complete, a check passed, or a box is ticked.
When: Mark a checklist item finished, signal a green CI run, or confirm a request is handled.
Used in: Slack, GitHub, Jira, commit
Status Emoji in Tech
26 emoji you'll meet in Slack threads, GitHub PRs, Jira tickets, and commit messages — what each one signals, when to use it, and the alias to type it.
Last reviewed:
Why developers speak in emoji
On distributed, async teams a single emoji carries a whole sentence. A ✅ reaction closes a thread without a reply; a 👀 says "I'm reviewing this"; a 🚀 in a channel means "we just shipped". Emoji are fast, scannable, and language-agnostic — which is exactly why the conventions below have settled into a shared vocabulary across companies.
Sections
Status & outcome
❌
Failed / Rejected
:x: Something failed, was rejected, or is not done.
When: A test failed, a PR was declined, or an item is explicitly not happening.
Used in: Slack, GitHub, Jira
🟢
Green status
:large_green_circle: All healthy / operational. The "everything is fine" light.
When: Status dashboards, on-call channels, and incident threads to show services are up.
Used in: Slack, status pages
🟡
Yellow status
:large_yellow_circle: Degraded or warning — working, but not fully healthy.
When: Partial outage, elevated latency, or a metric trending the wrong way.
Used in: Slack, status pages
🔴
Red status
:red_circle: Down, blocked, or critical. The "stop, this is broken" light.
When: Outage declared, build broken, or a blocker that stops the team.
Used in: Slack, status pages
🎯
Goal / Target
:dart: A goal, objective, or the thing we are aiming at.
When: Sprint goals, OKRs, or calling out the precise outcome a piece of work targets.
Used in: Slack, Jira
Work in progress
🚧
Work in progress
:construction: Under construction — not finished, handle with care.
When: Draft PRs, WIP commits, or sections of a doc that aren't ready.
Used in: Slack, GitHub, commit
⏸️
Paused / On hold
:pause_button: Work is intentionally paused — not abandoned, just not active right now.
When: A ticket parked pending a decision, or a project waiting on a dependency.
Used in: Slack, Jira
🔄
In review / Syncing
:arrows_counterclockwise: In progress in a cyclical sense — under review, syncing, or being reprocessed.
When: A PR awaiting review, data syncing, or a retry loop in progress.
Used in: Slack, GitHub
👀
Reviewing / Eyes on
:eyes: Someone is looking at it — acknowledging or actively reviewing.
When: React to a PR or message to say "I'm on it / I've seen this".
Used in: Slack, GitHub
💡
Idea / Suggestion
:bulb: A suggestion, idea, or non-blocking proposal.
When: Offer an alternative in a review, or flag a thought without demanding a change.
Used in: Slack, GitHub
Changes & releases
🚀
Deploy / Ship / Launch
:rocket: Shipping it — a deploy, release, or launch.
When: Announce a release, kick off a deploy, or celebrate going live.
Used in: Slack, GitHub, commit
💥
Breaking change
:boom: A change that breaks backward compatibility — consumers must update.
When: Flag a breaking API change in a PR title, changelog, or commit.
Used in: GitHub, commit
⚡
Performance
:zap: A performance or speed improvement.
When: Mark a commit or ticket that makes something faster or lighter.
Used in: GitHub, commit
⬆️
Upgrade dependency
:arrow_up: Bump a dependency to a newer version.
When: Dependency-update PRs and commits (often automated by bots).
Used in: GitHub, commit
⬇️
Downgrade dependency
:arrow_down: Roll a dependency back to an older version.
When: When a new version broke something and you need to revert it.
Used in: GitHub, commit
Bugs, fixes & review
🐛
Bug
:bug: A defect — something behaves incorrectly.
When: Label a bug report, a fix commit, or a Jira issue type.
Used in: Slack, GitHub, Jira, commit
🔥
Hotfix / Urgent
:fire: On fire — urgent, needs attention now.
When: Flag a production problem or an urgent fix going out fast.
Used in: Slack, commit
🚑
Critical hotfix
:ambulance: An emergency fix for a critical production issue.
When: A patch that goes straight out to stop active damage. Stronger than 🔥.
Used in: GitHub, commit
🔒
Security fix
:lock: A change that addresses a security vulnerability.
When: Security patches in commits and changelogs, often after a CVE.
Used in: GitHub, commit
📝
Docs
:memo: Documentation — writing or updating it.
When: Commits and PRs that only touch docs, READMEs, or comments.
Used in: GitHub, commit
gitmoji commit standard
✨
New feature
:sparkles: gitmoji: introduce a new feature.
When: The canonical gitmoji prefix for feature commits — "✨ Add dark mode".
Used in: commit (gitmoji)
♻️
Refactor
:recycle: gitmoji: refactor code without changing behaviour.
When: Restructuring or tidying code with no functional change.
Used in: commit (gitmoji)
✏️
Typo fix
:pencil2: gitmoji: fix a typo.
When: Tiny text corrections in code, docs, or copy.
Used in: commit (gitmoji)
🎨
Code style
:art: gitmoji: improve structure or format of the code.
When: Formatting, linting, and style-only changes.
Used in: commit (gitmoji)
🧪
Tests
:test_tube: gitmoji: add or update tests.
When: Commits that add, fix, or refactor tests.
Used in: commit (gitmoji)
The gitmoji standard
gitmoji is a popular convention for emoji-driven commit messages. Each commit starts with an emoji that signals its intent, so a glance down the git log tells you what kind of change each commit is — feature, fix, refactor, docs — without reading every message.
✨ Add user profile export
🐛 Fix off-by-one in pagination
♻️ Refactor auth middleware
🧪 Add tests for token refresh
📝 Update README install steps
⚡ Cache the expensive lookup
🔒 Patch XSS in comment renderer
Tooling like the gitmoji-cli helps you pick the right emoji interactively. Some teams pair it with
Conventional Commits (e.g. feat:, fix:); others use one or the other. Pick one convention and apply it consistently.
A note on culture
Emoji don't mean the same thing everywhere. A 👍 thumbs-up reads as a friendly "got it" to many, but in parts of the Middle East and West Africa it can be offensive, and across much of Gen Z online it can come across as passive-aggressive or dismissive — a curt "fine, whatever". The 🙏 folded hands emoji is read as "thank you" or "please" by some, as "prayer" by others, and as a "high five" by a few.
On a global team, prefer unambiguous status markers (✅ ❌ 🚧 🔴) for anything that matters, and use a quick word when a reaction could be misread. When in doubt, write the sentence.
English phrases engineers use
- "I dropped a ✅ on your message — no need to reply."
- "It's still 🚧 WIP, don't review it yet."
- "🚀 Shipping to prod in five minutes — heads up."
- "There's a 🐛 in the export, I filed a ticket."
- "Putting 👀 on this PR now."
- "Marked the service 🔴 red — we have an outage."
- "Prefix the commit with ✨ for a feature, ♻️ for a refactor."
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between reacting with ✅ vs. posting 🚀 in a Slack channel?
A ✅ reaction is a personal, low-key acknowledgement — "I saw this, it's handled" — that closes a thread without adding a new message. Posting 🚀 as a message (rather than a reaction) is a broadcast to the whole channel that something shipped or went live, meant to be seen by everyone, not just the thread participants.
What does the gitmoji convention mean by prefixing commits with an emoji like ✨ or 🐛?
gitmoji is a standard where each commit message starts with an emoji that categorises the type of change — ✨ for a new feature, 🐛 for a bug fix, ♻️ for a refactor, 🧪 for tests. Scanning a git log then tells you at a glance what kind of work each commit represents without reading every full message.
What's the difference between 🔥 and 🚑 for signaling urgency?
🔥 flags something urgent — a production problem that needs attention or a fix going out fast. 🚑 (critical hotfix) is a step above it: an emergency patch shipped specifically to stop active damage right now, reserved for the more severe case rather than general urgency.
Why do some teams pair gitmoji with Conventional Commits instead of using just one?
gitmoji gives a fast visual scan of a git log, while Conventional Commits (feat:, fix:, chore:) provides a machine-parseable prefix that tooling like semantic-release can use to automate changelogs and version bumps. Teams that want both human scannability and automated tooling combine them, e.g. "✨ feat: add dark mode," though most teams pick one to avoid redundancy.
What's the difference between reacting with 🔄 and 👀 on a pull request?
👀 signals "I'm looking at this now" — an acknowledgement that review is actively happening or about to. 🔄 signals a cyclical in-progress state — the PR is awaiting another round, syncing with a branch, or going through a retry — a broader "still in motion" status rather than "I'm the one looking."
Why should global teams avoid relying on emoji like 👍 or 🙏 for status signaling?
👍 reads as a friendly acknowledgement to many people, but is considered offensive in parts of the Middle East and West Africa, and can come across as dismissive or passive-aggressive in casual online use. 🙏 is read as "thank you," "please," "prayer," or even "high five" depending on the person, so its meaning isn't reliable across a distributed, multicultural team — unambiguous markers like ✅ 🚧 🔴 are safer for anything that actually matters.
What's the difference between ⬆️ and ⬇️ in a dependency-update commit?
⬆️ marks bumping a dependency to a newer version, the far more common case and often generated automatically by bots like Dependabot or Renovate. ⬇️ marks the less common case of deliberately rolling a dependency back to an older version, typically because the newer release broke something and the team needs to revert while a fix is pending.
When would a team use 🚧 instead of ⏸️ to mark work status?
🚧 (work in progress) signals active, ongoing work that simply isn't finished yet — a draft PR or a section of a doc still being written. ⏸️ (paused) signals work that was started but is now intentionally on hold, waiting on a decision or a dependency, rather than being actively worked on right now — the distinction matters because 🚧 implies "don't review yet, still moving," while ⏸️ implies "nothing's happening here at the moment."
What's the difference between 🐛 and 🔒 as commit-type indicators?
🐛 marks a commit that fixes a defect — behaviour that was simply incorrect. 🔒 specifically marks a commit that addresses a security vulnerability, often following a CVE or security review, which is a narrower and typically more sensitive category than a general bug fix even though both are technically "fixes."
Do these conventions apply only on GitHub, or across Slack, Jira, and commits too?
The individual emoji carry consistent meaning across contexts — 🚧 signals "not ready" whether it's in a Jira ticket title, a Slack thread, or a commit message — but which emoji show up where differs. Status-and-outcome emoji (✅ ❌ 🟢 🔴) are common in Slack and status pages, while the gitmoji set is specific to commit messages and rarely used as a chat reaction.