Timeline and Start Dates
Choose Timeline on a board, in My Cards, or in Team Cards to plan work against a calendar. A card's start and due dates form a bar; dependency wires show which work must finish first. On a board, press 7 to open it.
The Timeline view plans start-to-finish durations. The Dependencies view's Timeline layout places connected cards in due-week columns instead. Its critical-path highlight counts open cards; this view calculates working-day slack.
Set a planned start
Open a card and select Add start date beside its due date. A start is a calendar day without a time slot. When both dates are present, the card also shows its duration in working days. Shift + D opens the start-date picker while a card is open.
| Card dates | Timeline representation |
|---|---|
| Start and due date | A bar spanning the planned dates. |
| Start only | A point on the planned start. |
| Due date only | A point on the deadline. |
| Neither date | A row under Unscheduled, without a bar. |
Start cannot be later than due. Moving a deadline before an existing start brings the start along to keep the range valid. A planned start does not move the card to an In progress list: time in progress records actual workflow activity separately.
Navigate and group the chart
- Use Today to return to the current date and Fit all to show the scheduled range. The chart opens fitted until you choose a zoom of your own.
- Zoom with the buttons, slider, Ctrl + scroll, or a trackpad pinch. The date headings adapt from days through months and years.
- Drag the chart background to pan, or scroll horizontally. Card names stay alongside the lanes.
- Group by list, assignee, label, or no groups. My Cards and Team Cards default to board grouping and also offer the other choices.
- Expand or collapse a group by its heading. On desktop, drag the names-column edge to make long titles readable; double-click the edge to reset it.
- Use Hide completed for the active plan. It shares state with Filter -> Hide completed; clearing filters or choosing a completion-date range can show completed cards again.
Grouping, zoom, and chart presentation are remembered in this browser for the current scope. Search and filters control visible rows; they do not remove prerequisites from the underlying schedule calculation.
Change the plan
With edit access and a mouse or trackpad:
- Drag a bar left or right to move its dates while preserving its working-day duration.
- Pull either end of a bar to change its start or finish.
- Click an unscheduled card's empty lane to place it on that day, then stretch its bar as needed.
- Select a card's name or bar to open its details and enter exact dates.
Date changes update live for other people viewing the work. Rescheduling a card does not automatically reschedule its successors; inspect any conflicts and change their dates deliberately.
On touch devices, open the card to change dates or manage dependencies. Dragging bars and drawing wires are disabled so the chart remains scrollable.
Connect prerequisites
Turn on Dependencies to show blocking wires. Drag from the end handle of a prerequisite's bar onto a second card to make the second card wait on the first. Select a wire to reveal its remove action; Delete or Backspace removes a selected editable wire and Escape clears the selection.
These are the same Blocked by / Blocks relationships shown on cards. They connect cards within the same workspace, including across boards, and cycles are rejected. You need permission for the relationship change. Observers can inspect the chart without editing it.
Critical path, slack, and conflicts
The schedule uses Monday to Friday working days, with no holiday calendar. A Monday–Friday bar lasts five working days; a prerequisite finishing on Friday allows its successor to start on Monday. Finishing on the successor's start day is already a conflict: handoffs require the next working day.
Critical path highlights connected open cards with zero slack and fades the rest. Slack is the number of working days a card can slip before it delays the finish of its chain. The chart shows available slack beside non-critical bars. An independent card is not critical simply because it has a date.
A scheduling conflict means an open prerequisite is planned to finish on or after its dependent's start. The dependent and its wire are marked, and the toolbar counts cards with conflicts. This differs from Blocked, which means an open prerequisite exists even when its dates allow a healthy handoff.
Move the dependent later, bring the prerequisite earlier, complete finished work, or remove a relationship that no longer applies. The engine recalculates after changes; showing a conflict does not itself change any dates.
Completed cards can remain visible for context but no longer hold up the open schedule. The schedule follows accessible connected cards across boards. Cards you cannot open are excluded from the calculation, so a projection reflects the work visible to you. Use card details to inspect any hidden-blocker count before treating the projection as a delivery promise.
Plan across boards
Choose Timeline in My Cards or Team Cards for the same controls over the current cross-board scope. Rows default to board groups. Dependency wires and critical paths follow accessible chains within each workspace; cards retain their source board and edit permissions.
Notifications, automations, and agents
Assignees are notified when someone else changes a start date. When changing a due date also moves the start, the notification describes both. A card's assignees and watchers hear when it first gains a scheduling conflict, with the initiating person excluded; it must clear before another conflict notification is sent. The conflict also appears in card activity.
The daily digest and an agent's work.my_day response include assigned cards that missed their start without ever entering progress. Automations offer Start date arrives, Scheduling conflict appears, and Critical path slips triggers.
Agents use work.schedule with exactly one boardId or workspaceId to read the same scheduling engine: planned dates, working-day duration and slack, critical cards, conflicts, projected finish, and slip against the latest due date. See the MCP planning examples, schedule events, CLI, and SDK.
Availability and offline use
Organization and workspace administrators can turn off Enable start dates and timeline in their General settings. The effective setting hides the controls and pauses the corresponding events and automations; saved dates remain and return when the feature is enabled again. Dependency controls also require dependencies to be enabled. These settings apply to both self-hosted Kanera and Kanera Cloud.
When offline, the last saved Timeline remains readable. Date editing and dependency changes resume after reconnecting. If an agent receives TIMELINE_DISABLED or DEPENDENCIES_DISABLED, the relevant administrator must enable the feature before that operation is available.