Your first project

You do not have to set anything up before you can start. Your workspace 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 uppercase 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.
A number — #3, in the order projects were created in your workspace. 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 workspace 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.
Priority and assignee editable straight in the row, without opening the task.
Watchers, with an Edit watchers control for admins.
Edit, for admins: the name, the key, the status, and a due date for the project itself.

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. There is no screen yet for adding a second one: when a project has grown enough that it wants Phase 1 / Phase 2, tell us and we will set the lists up. Once a project has more than one, a picker appears beside the quick-add box for choosing which list a new task drops into.

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 workspace — 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.

Neither deletes anything, and there is no delete control at all — see What is not built yet for why that is on purpose.

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.