macOS tag issue - how to use it correctly?

I use only a couple of tag but already run into issues with managing them. example: I have created (from the generic violet, red, yellow, green tags) the tags "new", "to do", "in progress", "done". Because I found it to be fiddly to remove old tags/setting new tags when the status of a file changes, I have created some shortcuts to set the desired state (tag) after removing any existing ones from the file. Now what happens is, that I arbitrarily end up having duplicate tags like the generic "red" plus the custom "to do" (also red colored). also, sometimes not all tags are removed. I had cleaned up and synchronized all machines that share files via my NAS to use the same custom tag names (something that should be handled by iCloud in in the first place in my opinion). but it still happens. Strangly, when setting up the short cuts, the shortcut action won't let me chose tags according to my custom names but only shows the generic ones (yet it sets the correct custom tags sometimes). Any ideas how to solve this?