Projects

Create projects, choose a key prefix, set up workflow statuses, and rename, budget or archive a project.

A project is where a body of work lives. Every work item belongs to exactly one project, and the project decides the statuses that work moves through, the prefix in every item’s key, and the views, sprints and releases the team plans with. Use one project per product, client engagement or long-running initiative. When the work is finished, archive the project and its whole history stays in place.

Key concepts#

Project: A container for work items, with its own workflow, views, sprints, releases and recurring rules.
Key prefix: A short code of 2–10 letters and digits, such as WEB or F3L. Every work item in the project gets a key built from it: WEB-1, WEB-2. It must be unique in your organization and cannot be changed later.
Workflow status: One of the stages an item moves through, such as Backlog, In Progress or Done. On a board, each status is a column.
Status category: Every status belongs to one of three categories: To do, In progress or Done. Reports, sprint completion, My Work and view templates use the category, not the status name, to decide whether work is finished.
Archived project: A project hidden from the projects list and every project picker. Nothing in it is deleted, and it can be restored.

Who can use it#

Permissions

project.viewproject.createproject.manage

project.view lets you open projects and see their workflow. You need project.create to create a project. project.manage covers project settings: renaming, archiving, restoring, the budget, and managing board columns. By default, Members and Viewers can see projects, and Owners and Admins can create and manage them.

Create a project#

Open Projects
Choose Projects in the sidebar.
Select New project
The Create a project dialog opens.
Name it and choose a key prefix
Name is required (up to 100 characters). Key prefix must be 2–10 characters, start with a letter, and contain only letters and digits. It’s converted to upper case as you type. Add an optional Description if you like.
Select Create project
UnitX creates the project with a starter workflow and opens it. If another project already uses that prefix, you’ll see an error and can pick a different one.

Choose the prefix carefully

The key prefix is fixed once the project exists. Item keys end up in links, commit messages and conversations outside UnitX, so changing the prefix would break all of them. Pick something short and recognisable.

The project page#

Open a project from the list to see its page. The header shows the project name, its key prefix and, if it has been archived, an Archived badge. The buttons along the top are:

Button	What it does
Reality	Opens the project’s evidence-based progress view. See Project reality.
Settings	Rename the project, edit its description, or archive it. Needs project.manage.
Set budget (or the budget amount)	Sets the project’s money budget. People without project.manage see the budget as plain text if one is set.
Planning	Opens the backlog and sprints. See Sprints and backlog.
Releases	Lists and creates releases. See Releases.
Recurring	Rules that create work items on a schedule. See Recurring work items.
New item	Creates a work item. See Work items.

Under the header is the view bar. Switch between List, Board, Table, Calendar, Timeline, Gantt and Workload, choose a saved view, and filter. A project opens on its default saved view if it has one, and on the Board otherwise — or on the List, if the project has no workflow statuses for a board to make columns from.

Project viewsList, Board, Table and the date views, plus filters and sorting.BoardsColumns, WIP limits, swimlanes and drag and drop.Timeline and GanttScheduling work against dates.Sprints and backlogPlan work into time-boxed sprints.ReleasesGroup work into versions you ship.Recurring workCreate an item every day, week or month.

Workflow statuses#

A new project starts with three statuses: Backlog (To do), In Progress (In progress) and Done (Done). New items go into the first status in the list unless they’re created in a specific board column.

Which moves are allowed#

The workflow also decides which status changes are allowed — and a new project allows all of them. Every column can be reached from every other, so Backlog straight to Done works on the board you were just given. Restriction is something you switch on, not something you have to switch off.

To narrow it, open the board, choose Manage columns and use What can move into each column. Each column starts marked “from anywhere”; untick that and you choose its sources one by one. A column you add later is also reachable from anywhere, and adding it never widens a restriction you already set.

Once a column is narrowed, the product stops offering the moves it would refuse rather than refusing them afterwards: the column fades and says why while you are dragging a card, and the card’s Move menu, the Status cell in List and Table and the Status menu on an item all show it disabled with the reason beside its name. The same rule applies however the status is changed, a bulk change included.

Add, rename, reorder or delete statuses#

Statuses are managed from the board. Open the project, switch to Board, and select Manage columns. You can:

Add a status: type a New column name, choose its Category (To do, In progress or Done), and select Add. The category can’t be changed after the status is created.
Rename a status by editing its name and clicking away.
Reorder statuses with the up and down arrows.
Set a colour and a work-in-progress limit. See WIP limits.
Delete a status with the × button. It’s deleted straight away, with no confirmation. UnitX refuses if any unarchived work items are still in it, or if it’s the project’s only status.

Full details are on Boards.

Rename a project#

Open the project and select Settings
The Project settings dialog opens. You need project.manage to see the button.
Edit the name or description
Name can be up to 100 characters and Description up to 2,000. The Key prefix is shown but can’t be edited.
Select Save
The new name shows up everywhere the project is listed straight away.

Set a project budget#

With project.manage, select Set budget in the project header. Enter an Amount and a three-letter Currency code (for example usd), then select Save. Once a budget is set, the button shows the amount, and the dialog offers Clear budget. Portfolios add up their projects’ budgets. See Portfolios.

Archive and restore a project#

Open Settings and select Archive project
A confirmation appears inside the dialog, explaining what archiving does.
Confirm with Archive project
Select Keep it if you change your mind. Once confirmed, you’re taken back to Projects and the project is no longer listed.
Restore it later if you need to
At the bottom of the Projects page, expand Archived (n) to see every archived project and the date it was archived. Select Restore to bring one back exactly as it was. This section only appears once at least one project has been archived, and only people with project.manage see the Restore button.

Archiving is safe

Archiving removes a project from the projects list and every project picker. The work items, sprints, releases, saved views and history all stay as they are. A direct link to the project, or to one of its items, still opens it, and the page is marked Archived.

Tips#

Use short prefixes that people will say out loud, such as APP, SRE or DS2.
Set status categories carefully. A status in the Done category counts as finished everywhere: sprint completion, My Work’s Completed list, and view templates.
Create a saved view for the project and make it the default, so everyone opens the project on the same view. See Saved views.

FAQ#

Can I delete a project?

No. A project owns work items, sprints, releases and their history, and none of that could be recovered. Archive it instead: it disappears from lists and pickers but nothing is destroyed.

Why can’t I change the key prefix?

Every work item key already contains it, and those keys are written down in places UnitX can’t reach. Changing it would break those references or give items two names.

I dragged a card to Done and it jumped back.

Somebody has narrowed this project’s workflow so Done cannot be reached from where the card was — a new project allows every move, so this is a setting, not a default. The board says so before the drag: a column it will refuse fades while the card is in the air and names the rule, and the card’s Move menu shows that column disabled with the reason. Open Manage columns to see or change what can move into each column.

I can’t delete a column.

Move or archive the work items in that status first. UnitX won’t delete a status that still holds unarchived items, or a project’s last remaining status.

I don’t see the Settings or Manage columns buttons.

Both need the project.manage permission. Ask an admin to check your role under Settings → Roles.

Work items
Boards
Saved views
Roles and permissions
Where statuses are managed: ProjectsA projectBoardManage columns

Still stuck? Search the docs with ⌘K, open Help inside UnitX, or contact support.