Work Item States

Managing work items effectively is at the heart of every project, and Plane provides a robust system for organizing them into states that represent the stages of a work item's lifecycle. As work items transition through these states—from backlog to completion—they reflect the progression of work in your project, forming a clear and efficient workflow for your team.

Where to configure states

Each project defines its own states, managed by a project admin under Settings → (project) → States. This is the default.

Enterprise Grid - workspace level
With workspace governance enabled, states become a single shared set for the whole workspace, managed by a workspace admin under Workspace Settings → States, then applied to every project. Project admins use the shared set but can't edit it. See Under Enterprise Grid governance.

The concept and most mechanics are identical either way; only where you configure them, who can, and a few behaviors differ.

State groups

Every state belongs to one of five groups. The group is the meaning Plane attaches to the state; the name is your label for it.

Plane organizes work item states into five primary groups, each serving a distinct purpose in your project’s workflow:

• Backlog
  Use this group for work items that aren’t ready to be prioritized yet. They might need more discussions or preparation before moving forward. By default, Plane creates a state called Backlog in this group.

• Unstarted
  This group represents work items that are planned but not yet in progress. They’re essentially your team’s to-do list. The default state in this group is Todo.

• Started
  Work items in this group are actively being worked on. They represent ongoing tasks and are crucial for tracking current progress. Plane creates a default state called In Progress here.

• Completed
  These states are for work items that your team has successfully finished. By default, Plane includes a Done state in this group.

• Cancelled: Use this group for work items that are no longer relevant or actionable. Plane provides a default state called Cancelled for this purpose.

What groups drive

The group, not the state name, determines behavior across Plane:

• Completion and progress - only work items in the Completed group count as done. Cycle and module progress, burndown, and analytics bucket work items by group.
• Archiving - only work items in Completed or Cancelled states are eligible for automatic archiving.
• Ordering - states sort by group first, then by position within the group.

Because of this, changing a state's group changes how its work items are counted. Moving a state into Completed, for example, makes its work items count as done in every chart and progress bar.

The default state

Exactly one state is the default - the state new work items get when none is chosen. New projects start with Backlog as the default.

To change it, open a state and choose Mark as default. The previous default is cleared automatically; there is always exactly one.

Enterprise Grid

The default is not a flag on the state and there is no "Mark as default." The default is the starting state of the workflow, set on the Workflows page. A governed workspace's default workflow starts at Todo.

Triage state

Triage is a special, system-managed state used as the holding area for intake submissions - items land in Triage before being accepted into the project's normal flow.

• There is one triage state per project, or one per workspace under governance.
• "Triage" is a reserved name - you cannot name a state Triage.
• You cannot create a state in the Triage group, and you cannot delete the triage state.
• Triage is kept out of normal state lists and excluded from analytics.

Manage states

States are shown grouped. Use the + on a group to add a state to it.

Create - set a name, a color, and an optional description. The group is determined by which group you add the state under. A duplicate name is rejected.

Enterprise Grid:

State names must be unique across the whole workspace, and the check is case-insensitive - "Todo" and "todo" are treated as the same. (When governance is first enabled, same-named states from different projects are merged into one.)

Edit - change the name, color, or description at any time. To change a state's group, drag it into another group.

Reorder and regroup - drag a state to reorder it within its group, or drag it into a different group to reassign it. You cannot drag away the last state in a group - every group must keep at least one state.

Delete - remove a state, subject to these rules:

• The default state cannot be deleted. Set a different default first.
• A state with work items cannot be deleted - there is no automatic reassignment. Move its work items to another state first, then delete it.
• The triage state cannot be deleted.
• A group's last remaining state cannot be deleted.

Deleting a state is permanent.

Enterprise Grid

A state also cannot be deleted while a workflow uses it - the error names the workflows. Remove the state from those workflows first. Project admins cannot create, edit, or delete states at all; state management happens at the workspace level.

Restricting work item creation in a state

Whether work items can be created directly in a given state is a workflow setting, not a property of the state itself. In a workflow, each state has an allow work item creation toggle; turn it off for states that should only be reached by moving an existing work item (like "Done"). See Workflows.

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Under workspace governance

When governance is on, states are a single shared catalog for the whole workspace:

• One shared set that every governed project draws from. A project's visible states are the ones used by the workflows its work item types resolve to.
• Names are unique across the workspace, case-insensitive.
• One workspace triage state.
• The default concept moves to the workflow's starting state.
• Project admins cannot edit states; deleting a catalog state is blocked while a workflow references it.

See Workspace governance for how governance works overall.

Warnings and limitations

• The default state cannot be deleted - reassign the default first.
• A state with work items cannot be deleted - move those work items first; there is no automatic reassignment.
• Every group must keep at least one state.
• "Triage" is reserved and cannot be created as a group or deleted.
• State names must be unique - within the project, or across the workspace (case-insensitive) under governance.
• Changing a state's group re-buckets its work items for progress, analytics, and archiving.
• Under governance, a catalog state can't be deleted while a workflow references it, and project admins can no longer edit states.