I am unable to add the new tag to the ADO story. Is the tags are case sensitive.and also when I retype the tag Release 22.4 Comm. It's not taking

Question

I am unable to add the new tag to the ADO story. Is the tags are case sensitive.and also when I retype the tag Release 22.4 Comm. It's not taking

Suneetha Dirisala 0

I’m unable to add the new tag to the ADO story. Are ADO tags case-sensitive?

When I retype the tag as “Release 22.4 Comm”, it doesn’t accept it and always changes it back to “Release 22.4 comm”.

Could someone please confirm if this is expected behavior or if there’s another way to add the tag with the correct capitalization?

Tejaswini Billakurthi 270 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-07T11:34:57.04+00:00

Hello @Suneetha Dirisala

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A!

I agree with the answer provided by @Divyesh Govaerdhanan . It aligns with the current Microsoft Learn guidance.

To add to it, it would be worth checking whether a tag definition already exists in the project with the casing "Release 22.4 comm". If it does, typing a differently cased version on the work item will resolve to that existing definition, which would explain the behavior you are seeing.

In that case, the tag definition itself needs to be renamed using the Tags REST API update operation. This requires the Update tag definition permission, which does not appear in the security settings UI and can only be set using a command-line tool. Renaming the definition updates the casing everywhere the tag is applied, so individual work items do not need to be edited.

Reference: Work item tags permissions

Please let us know if you need any further assistance.

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1 answer

Your answer

Tejaswini Billakurthi 270 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-07T11:34:57.04+00:00

Hello @Suneetha Dirisala

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A!

I agree with the answer provided by @Divyesh Govaerdhanan . It aligns with the current Microsoft Learn guidance.

To add to it, it would be worth checking whether a tag definition already exists in the project with the casing "Release 22.4 comm". If it does, typing a differently cased version on the work item will resolve to that existing definition, which would explain the behavior you are seeing.

In that case, the tag definition itself needs to be renamed using the Tags REST API update operation. This requires the Update tag definition permission, which does not appear in the security settings UI and can only be set using a command-line tool. Renaming the definition updates the casing everywhere the tag is applied, so individual work items do not need to be edited.

Reference: Work item tags permissions

Please let us know if you need any further assistance.

Please "Upvote the Answer" if this information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.

Answer 1

Hi Suneetha Dirisala,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A,

Azure DevOps tags are documented as case sensitive when a tag is first created, but that only applies at the project level, across different tags. On a single work item, tag matching is case-insensitive. So if "Release 22.4 comm" (or any casing of it) is already applied to that work item, or already exists as a tag you've used before, typing "Release 22.4 Comm" will just match back to the existing one instead of creating a distinct second tag. That's why your capital "C" isn't sticking, it's not being rejected, it's being recognized as the same tag.

To fix it: check if a lowercase (or differently cased) version of that tag is already applied to the work item or exists in your project's tag list. If it is, either keep that casing going forward for consistency, or rename the existing tag definition to your preferred casing. Renaming isn't available from the work item form, it needs to be done through the REST API's tag rename endpoint (needs Update tag definition permission), and it updates the casing everywhere that tag is used.

Please accept the answer and upvote if it helps, so others hitting this can find it.