Entries

An entry is one piece of work or feedback: a bug, a feature request, a task. It is tracked from the moment someone raises it until it is finished. Every entry belongs to one project and gets a number in that project, shown as ALN-<number> (for example ALN-42). That reference is what you use in commit messages and pull requests.

Entry types

Type	Shown in the form as	Use it for
Feature request	Feature	A new capability or an improvement
Bug report	Bug	Something that doesn't work as it should
Feedback	Feedback	General feedback or an observation
Validation	Validation	Something to test or verify
Documentation	Docs	Documentation or content work
Platform / Infrastructure	Infra	Hosting, cloud and infrastructure changes
CI / CD	CI/CD	Pipelines, builds and deploy jobs
Security	Security	Security findings and hardening
Task	Task	General work

On software projects, clients choose from Feature, Bug and Feedback. Business projects offer everyone Task, Feedback and Documentation.

Some types ask for extra details once you pick them:

Type	Extra fields
Bug, Validation	Steps to reproduce (Test steps for Validation), Expected, Actual, Environment
Feature, Docs	Use case (Documentation scope for Docs), Proposed solution (Key changes for Docs)
Infra	Affected environment (required), Cloud provider, Change window
CI/CD	Pipeline name (required), Failing job, Last known green
Security	Severity and Disclosure (both required), CVE / reference
Task, and every entry on a business project	Work type, Deliverable target, Split across assignees, Repeat

Creating an entry

1. Open the project and click New Entry. It is at the top right of the project's pages.
2. Type a title: one clear sentence.
3. Choose a Type, then fill in any details it asks for.
4. Add a Description (optional; Markdown works) and a Web link (optional), such as the page with the problem or a screenshot.
5. Team members can fill in Triage now: Priority, Assignee, Release, Epic and Work types.
6. Fill in the project's own fields, if it has any.
7. To attach screenshots or files, click the attachments area (browse) and pick a file.
8. Click Create entry, or Create & add another to start the next one straight away.

Clients see the same form as New request, with Send request and Send & add another.

A new entry starts Open, in the project's triage queue, with Medium priority unless you chose another. If you set an assignee under Triage now, it starts Assigned instead. On a project with its own statuses, it starts in that workflow's starting status.

Entries created by people with the User role, and entries that arrive by email, wait for approval. See Approvals.

Quick add: on a project's Entries page, team members can click Quick add (or press c), type a title and press Enter. The entry is created in the triage queue.

The New entry page: title, Type, Description, Triage now and the attachments area.

Statuses

Every entry is in one of eight statuses, in this order:

Status	Meaning
Open	Reported, not yet picked up. Open entries form the triage queue.
Assigned	Someone owns it.
In Progress	Being worked on.
Blocked	Waiting on something outside the team.
Testing	On a testing or staging environment, being checked.
Deployed	Shipped to production.
Done	Verified and closed after a deploy.
Solved	Closed without a deploy: a duplicate, a configuration change, an answered question.

In Progress, Blocked and Testing all count as work in progress in burndown, velocity and work-in-progress figures. Done and Solved are both finished.

Team members change an entry's status from Status on the entry page, from the bulk actions on the Entries page, or on the Flow Board. A project can also have its own statuses, set on its Statuses page; each one counts as one of the eight above.

What moves an entry automatically

What happens	What moves
A pull request merges	Only when the project has Move entries when their pull request merges turned on (it starts off). A Closes ALN-42, Fixes ALN-42 or Resolves ALN-42 line in the pull request description moves the entry to the project's chosen target, Deployed or Solved. Naming the entry only in the pull request's title or branch moves an Open or Assigned entry to In Progress and nothing further. See GitHub Integration.
A deploy to a testing environment	A successful deploy to the project's Testing or Staging environment moves the Open, Assigned and In Progress entries it carries to Testing. Blocked entries stay Blocked.
A deploy to production	Entries that a merged pull request closed (Closes, Fixes or Resolves) move to Deployed, from any unfinished status, Blocked and Testing included. If the deploy reports its URL, Align first checks <url>/api/health; if that check fails, the entries stay where they are. Entries only named in a pull request's title or branch move from Open or Assigned to In Progress.
An entry's last blocker closes	Only when the project has Move an entry when its last blocker closes turned on (it starts off). Once every entry blocking it is Deployed, Done or Solved, the entry moves to the project's target, In progress or Assigned. With Ask a manager first, the move waits in My Approvals for a manager or admin.
A client verifies it	On an entry deployed to production, clients see Verify & mark done. It moves the entry to Done.
30 days in Deployed	An entry that has been Deployed for 30 days moves to Done on its own. Nobody is notified.
A client reopens it	On a Done or Solved entry, clients see Reopen Issue. It moves an entry they raised back to Open.
Assigning from the Entries page	Assigning an Open entry from the Entries page also moves it to Assigned.

Deploys reach Align from GitHub deployments and from Railway; see Railway Integration. Each project environment has Advance entries on deploy (project settings, Environments tab). Turn it off and deploys to that environment are still recorded on the entries, but move nothing. Merges and deploys never move a Done or Solved entry, and never move an entry backwards.

If the project is linked to TaskFlow, status changes sync between Align and TaskFlow in both directions.

Priorities

Entries have one of four priorities: Low, Medium, High and Critical. New entries are Medium unless a team member sets another under Triage now. Team members change priority from Priority on the entry page. A project's Service levels page sets how long it has to resolve an entry at each priority.

The entry page

Click an entry to open it. The page shows its ALN-<number> and title, then:

• The description, and any type-specific details, such as Bug Report Details.
• Attachments.
• GitHub Activity: linked commits, pull requests and deploys. Put ALN-<number> in a commit message to link the commit, or use Link commit.
• Comments & Updates.
• Details, at the side: Status, Priority, Assigned To, Contributors, Release, Team, Epic and Work types.
• Linked Entries: other entries this one Blocks, Is blocked by, Duplicates, Is duplicated by or Relates to.

Team members and the person who created an entry can edit its title and description with the pencil icon. Status, priority, assignee, release and the other details are for team members.

If the project has Catch likely duplicates at intake turned on, the entry page also suggests possible duplicates, and values for the type, priority, epic, team and assignee, based on similar entries. Nothing changes until you accept a suggestion.

An entry page: the description, Attachments, GitHub Activity and Comments & Updates, with Details at the side.

Comments

Anyone who can see an entry can comment: type in the box and click Post Comment. Team members can switch the box to Internal Note (Staff Only) and click Post Internal Note; clients don't see internal notes. You can delete your own comments, and admins can delete any comment.

Markdown

Descriptions, the Use case and Proposed solution fields, and comments are shown as GitHub-flavoured Markdown: headings, bold and italics, lists, links, tables and fenced code blocks. Raw HTML is not rendered.

Attachments

• On the new-entry form, click the attachments area (browse) and pick a file.
• On an entry, click Upload File under Attachments.
• Where Google Drive is available, Attach from Drive copies files you pick from your Drive. Connect Drive first under Profile Settings → Integrations.

Each attachment has a category; click it to change it. Team members and the person who created the entry can add and remove attachments.

The Attachments section of an entry, with Upload File and each file's category.

Finding entries

A project's Entries page groups its entries. Team members see Needs triage (Open entries), In progress and Recently done (Deployed, Done and Solved). Clients see In progress and Recently done. Recently done starts collapsed.

• Views. Team members switch between All, My work, Triage and Bugs; clients between All and My requests. Team members can save the current filters with Save view.
• Search. The search box matches an entry's title, description, ALN- number, type or status.
• Filter. Narrow by Status, Type, Release, Assigned To and the project's own fields.
• Sort. By priority, newest or oldest first, assigned to you first, ALN- number, or status.
• Archived entries are hidden until you click the archive button beside the sort menu.
• Status and Structure. Team members can switch to Structure to see entries grouped under their epics.

The Entries page with the Filter panel open: Status, Type, Release and Assigned To.

Bulk changes

Team members can tick several entries to bring up a bar with Assign ▾, Status ▾, Release ▾ and Archive. Each change offers Undo straight afterwards.

The Entries page with several entries ticked, showing Assign, Status, Release and Archive.

Entries by email

Each project can receive entries by email at its own address, <slug>@send.alignsoft.us. The slug comes from the project's name.

Turning it on

An admin sets this up in Settings → Notifications → Project Inbound Email:

1. Select Project. The panel shows the project's address.
2. Switch on Enable Inbound Email.
3. Choose a Default Entry Type: Bug Report, Feature Request or General Feedback.
4. Under Approved Senders, add who may send, then click Add. Each sender is either a full address, which must match exactly, or a whole domain such as acme.com, which matches any address at that domain but not its subdomains.

Only approved senders create entries. Mail from anyone else, or to a project with no approved senders, is not turned into an entry. The project's Email page shows its address, with a copy button, and recent delivery attempts.

What the entry looks like

• Title: a Title: line in the body if there is one, otherwise the subject.
• Type: a Type: line (bug, feature, feedback, question, validation or docs), otherwise the project's default type.
• Priority: a Priority: line (low, medium, high or critical), otherwise Medium.
• Description: the body. Lines starting Steps to reproduce:, Expected:, Actual:, Environment:, Use case: or Proposed solution: start their own sections, and a Link: or URL: line becomes the entry's web link. A line containing only --- ends the entry, which keeps signatures out. Align adds the sender's address at the end.
• Attachments on the email become attachments on the entry.

The entry arrives Open and waits for approval; see Approvals.