Status & workflow

Tasks have a fixed four-state workflow:

• todo — identified but not started
• in_progress — actively being worked on
• done — finished
• cancelled — no longer going to happen

The first transition to in_progress sets startDate (unless you set it manually). The last transition to done sets endDate. See Task timing.

• active — being worked on
• paused — not currently being worked on
• archived — set aside, no longer surfaced

• planned — defined, not yet started
• active — in flight
• shipped — DoD satisfied
• cancelled — abandoned

• planned — defined, not yet started
• active — in flight
• done — DoD satisfied
• cancelled — abandoned

Milestones use done rather than shipped — there's no ship moment, just criteria met. Same shape as Initiative otherwise.

• active — the team is running this
• paused — temporarily not staffed
• archived — no longer an area of investment

• upcoming — start date is in the future
• active — today is between start and end
• completed — end date has passed

A status field that means anything ends up meaning nothing. By binding the allowed values to workType, Based guarantees that a board grouped by status is readable without translation — every column corresponds to a known state.

If you need more fine-grained tracking (e.g. “in review,” “blocked”), use tags alongside status. See Assignees, priority & labels.