Your first project: set up and add tasks — Docs

From an empty team to real work in about two minutes: make a project, put tasks in it, and tell the people who need to know about it.

You do not have to set anything up before you can start. Your team already has a project called General, and anything you type without naming a project lands there. If all you want is a list of things to do, stop reading — go to Projects, type into the box, press Enter.

The rest of this page is for when the work has a shape.

Make a project

Projects → New project. Creating a project is an admin's job; if you do not see the button, that is why.

The only thing we ask for is a name. Everything else is filled in for you:

A key — a short lowercase tag derived from the name, like acme for Acme Redesign. It is what makes task references readable. You will see the key we are going to use while you type the name, so it is never a surprise, and you can override it there or later. Case never matters when you type one: ACME-12 and acme-12 open the same task.
A number — #3, in the order projects were created in your team. Numbers are never reused, so a project stays unambiguous even after it is renamed.
A status — new projects start Active.

The one other thing on the form is who watches it. Everyone on your team is listed, with everyone who will actually be able to see the project ticked already; Select all and Select none are there for the two common answers. Watchers hear about what happens in the project without owning any of it, and the list is editable forever afterwards — see Watchers.

Put work in it

Open the project. There is a single box at the top: type what needs doing and press Enter.

That box understands more than a title. Fix the nav @jane !high ~2h friday creates a task called Fix the nav, assigns it to Jane, sets it to High, estimates two hours, and dates it for the coming Friday — in one line. A preview under the box shows what it understood before you commit to it. The whole grammar is on Adding tasks fast; you can also just type a title and fill the rest in later.

What the project page gives you

Progress — 12 of 20 tasks done, with open and overdue counts beside it.
Every task, grouped by task list, with a tick box to finish one and a note count so you can see where the discussion is.
Status, priority, assignee and due date editable straight in the row, without opening the task — each reads as text; click it and it becomes a menu or a date box. Finished work is out of the way until you press Show done at the top, or the done · show line on one list.
Watchers, with an Edit watchers control for admins.
Settings, for admins — everything the project itself carries, described below.

Changing a project

Press Settings at the top of the project page. Only admins see it. The form holds:

Name and key. Change the key and every task's reference changes with it — acme-142 becomes acmr-142 — but the old references keep working: a link or an email that says acme-142 still opens the task. The catch-all project can be renamed and rekeyed like any other.
About this project — the brief, the client, what done looks like. Markdown works. It is shown under the project's name to everyone who can open the project, so write it for the person who arrives on day one.
Colour — one of the six colours tags use, or none. It shows as a dot beside the name on the project's own pages and on its card in the Projects list. Most projects need no colour; it is there for the team with a dozen projects that wants three to stand out.
Due on — the project's own deadline.
Status — Active or On hold. Archiving is its own button lower down.
Time tracking — same as the team, or on or off for this project alone. Switching it off hides the estimate, the hours and the time columns here; nothing already logged is lost, and it is all back the moment you switch it on again.

Below the form:

Tags, if your team uses them — words like #retainer that group projects. One goes on or comes off the moment you pick it. See Tags.
Who is on this project lists the people whose access is decided project by project — guests, and members limited to their projects — with Add to this project or Take off this project beside each. People who see the whole team are not listed, because they already see this project. Someone new is invited from Team Settings; the Invite someone button goes there.
Connected channels — Slack, email, and GitHub, GitLab or Gitea, on their own page.
Save as a template, and Archive.

Grouping, once there is enough to group

Task lists are headings inside a project — Phase 1, Design, Backlog. They have no dates and no owners of their own; they exist so the project page reads well.

Every project starts with one list called Tasks, and everything lands there. When a project has grown enough to want Phase 1 / Phase 2, press Add a task list on the project page, give it a name, and it appears as a heading. Beside each list name are Rename, arrows to move it up or down the page, and — for admins — Archive. Any member can add, rename and reorder; archiving is an admin's, because it moves the list's tasks back into the project's catch-all list. An archived list is listed under Archived lists with a Bring it back control, so nothing is lost by putting one away.

Once a project has more than one list, a picker appears beside the quick-add box for choosing which list a new task drops into, and each task's row has a list control for moving it later.

Finding a project again

The Projects page grows with you. The controls at the top all end up in the address bar, so a view is a link you can send:

Search matches names, keys and descriptions as you type.
Status shows Active projects by default; switch to On hold, Archived, or Every status. A line under the list tells you how many projects are outside the filter you are on. Bringing an archived project back is under When a project is over, below.
Sort by Name, Recently active, or Most open work — the last two are how you find what needs attention this morning.
Tag, if your team uses tags, keeps the projects carrying one. A project's tags are on its card; press one for the same list.

Tell people about it

Work is worth more when the person doing it can see it. Who can see a project comes down to how they were invited to the team — team-wide, or scoped to named projects. People, roles, and who sees what covers it, including the common case: letting a client into exactly one project and nothing else.

When a project is over

Two things an admin can do from the project page, both reversible:

On hold — still there, still readable, but nobody is working on it right now. It is a status on the Edit form.
Archive — filed away. The project drops out of the default Active list and out of the quick-add picker; everything in it is still readable and still searchable. To bring one back, open Projects, switch the status filter to Archived, and press Bring it back on its card — or open the project itself, press Settings, and the same button is there. If your plan's room for active projects is full, the page says so and offers the next plan up.

Neither deletes anything — a project is never removed, only filed away, and everything in it stays readable. A task is the one thing an admin can delete, and only into a 30-day Trash it can be restored from in one click.

The one project that cannot be archived is General, or whichever project carries the Catch-all project badge. It is where a task with no project named has to land, so something has to hold that role. You can rename it, change its key, and use it like any other project.

Your first project