Projects
A project holds one piece of work: a product, a client engagement or an internal initiative. It contains the project's entries, releases, files and wiki, and it has its own settings, people and integrations. Every project belongs to one workspace and has an owner: the client, manager or admin accountable for it. An owner who is a client sees the project in their client view.
Finding a project
- Portfolio, in the sidebar, shows your active projects grouped by program, with the ones at risk first. Switch between Cards and Plan at the top. Admins and managers can add a New Program. Clients see the same page as Your Projects.
- The project picker at the top of the sidebar lists every project you can see. Choosing one opens its pages in the sidebar's Workspace section.
- Search (⌘K, or Ctrl+K on Windows) finds projects by name.
Who sees which projects:
| Role | Sees |
|---|---|
| Admin | Every project in the workspace |
| Manager | Projects they own, projects of clients assigned to them, and projects they have been added to |
| Developer, Tester, Tech Lead, Product Owner, DevOps Engineer | Only projects they have been added to under Project Access |
| Client | Projects they own, and projects they have been given access to |
| User | Projects they have been given access to |
Creating a project
Workspace admins create projects. Anyone else who opens the New Project wizard is told that creating a project takes a workspace admin.
Start the wizard from any of these:
- New project in the project picker at the top of the sidebar.
- New Project in Settings → Projects.
- Create your first project in the dashboard's Get Started with Align checklist.
- The First project step of Workspace Setup (see Getting Started).
The wizard follows one rule: name the project and it exists. Everything after the first step is optional and saves as you leave each step.
Step 1: Basics
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Project name | Required, at least two characters. What the team calls it. You can rename it later. |
| Description | Optional. Clients read this, so use plain language. |
| Owner | Required. The client or lead accountable for the project. Their client view shows it. |
| Program | Where it rolls up in Portfolio. Shown only when your workspace has programs. |
| Kind of work | Software (repositories, CI and deploys; includes the GitHub step) or Business (phases and deliverables, without the engineering surfaces). |
| Logo | Optional. |
| Start from an existing project | Optional. Copies how another project is run: its GitHub automation, CI and AI settings, invoicing and approvals. Addresses, links, budget and repositories stay with the original. Steps filled this way are marked Copied so you can check them. |
Then choose:
- Create and continue to create the project and move to the next step.
- Create and finish later to create the project and open it.
- Cancel to leave without creating anything.
The remaining steps
Once the project exists, each step edits it in place. Save and continue saves the step; Skip this step (or Discard and skip, if you have typed something) keeps the defaults. The step rail marks each step Saved, Copied, Defaults kept or Not set.
| Step | What you set |
|---|---|
| Environments & links | The Development URL and Production URL shown on the project, any other links the team opens every day, and the deploy pipeline. Align sets up three stages for you: Testing, Staging and Production. |
| GitHub | Link a repository and choose how much Align does on its own, such as Sync pull request comments and Move entries when their pull request merges (to Deployed or Solved). Not shown for business projects. See GitHub Integration. |
| CI & AI | What holds work back (Require CI to pass, Enforce dependencies), what moves work on (Move an entry when its last blocker closes, optionally with Ask a manager first), and AI assists. All of them start off. |
| Cost & billing | Budget (USD); invoicing, either Manual or Automatic (an invoice is generated when a release is completed), and Bill from logged time; and Approve cascading date changes. See Cost Management. |
| Review | What is set, what kept its defaults, and where to change each one later. Open project finishes. |
Every setting in the wizard is also in the project's settings, described below.
Working in a project
Choose a project and the sidebar's Workspace section lists its pages. On every page in the table below except Plan, Increment, Flow and Dependencies, the project's name and status sit at the top right beside New Entry.
| Page | What it shows | In the menu for |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | Whether the project is on track and where to act next: open work, delivery measures, releases, epics and, where you can see them, budget and approvals. What appears depends on your role. | Everyone |
| Entries | The project's entries. See Entries. | Everyone |
| Plan | The project's releases. See Releases. | Everyone |
| Increment | Increments: plan work into phases across teams and capacity. | Team members |
| Flow | The Flow Board: entries as cards in workflow columns. | Team members |
| Dependencies | The dependency graph: which entries block which. | Team members |
| Files | Project documents and attachments. | Everyone |
| Wiki | The project's knowledge base. | Team members |
| Activity | Recent changes across the project. | Admins and managers |
| Statuses | The project's own entry statuses and the moves allowed between them. Each status counts as one of the eight standard statuses, so reports still read it. | Admins and managers |
| Service levels | How long the project has to resolve an entry, by priority. | Admins and managers |
| Templates | Save this project's setup for reuse, or start from one someone already saved. | Admins and managers |
| Automation | Rules for things Align does when something happens on the project. An internal note never triggers a rule: a rule that runs when someone comments runs only for comments the client can see. | Admins and managers |
| Intake | Intake forms: a link people can use to send you a request without an Align account. | Admins and managers |
| Approvals | Everything on this project waiting on you. See Approvals. | Admins and managers |
| Email Diagnostics: the project's email address and recent delivery attempts. | Admins, managers and the project's owner |
"Team members" means everyone except people with the Client or User role.
Project settings
Admins manage a project's settings from Settings → Projects. The list has a search box and a status filter. Click the pencil next to a project to open its settings, or Approvals to go straight to its approval templates. Click Save Changes to save edits to the project's details and settings.
| Tab | What's there |
|---|---|
| Details | Project Logo, Project Name, Description, Project Owner, Status and Work mode (Software delivery or Business work). |
| Project Access | Which team members can see the project (see below). |
| Teams | Named teams within the project. |
| Integrations | The project's Slack webhook, its development and production URLs, additional links, its linked GitHub repositories and its GitHub options. Where the workspace has connected SonarQube, the SonarQube panel binds the project to a SonarQube project (or sets one up for you), and under it Suggest SonarQube findings decides what Align posts after each analysis. Both are for the workspace's staff only. See SonarQube Integration. |
| Settings | Release cascade, release checks with SonarQube quality gate can block beside them (where SonarQube is connected; staff only), invoicing, dependency blocking and auto-status on unblock, and the Danger Zone (see Archiving and deleting). |
| Embed / API | Code for a feedback widget you can add to your own React app. It sends feedback to the project's email address. |
| Environments | The project's deploy stages: Testing, Staging and Production to begin with. Each has Advance entries on deploy; see Entries. |
| Components | Group a project's repositories, environments and Sentry projects into deployable pieces, so that, say, a web app and an iPhone app can share one backlog. |
| Approvals | The approval templates that decide who signs off on a release. |
Project Access
Admins see every project. Developers, testers, tech leads, product owners and DevOps engineers see a project only once they have been added to it here.
- Open the project's settings and choose Project Access.
- Pick a person from the list. It lists the workspace's members who aren't on the project yet.
- Click Add.
To remove someone, click the bin icon next to their name. Clients reach a project by owning it or by being given access to it.
Project statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active | Work is under way. Portfolio shows active projects. |
| On Hold | Paused. |
| Completed | The planned work is done. |
| Archived | Closed and hidden from project lists. |
Set the status on the Details tab.
Archiving and deleting
Both are in the Danger Zone at the bottom of the Settings tab.
- Archive sets the project's status to Archived; click Save Changes to apply it. Archived projects no longer appear in Portfolio, the project picker or Settings → Projects, so archive a project only when its work is over.
- Delete permanently deletes the project with its entries, releases, files and wiki pages. Type the project's name and click Delete Forever. It cannot be undone.
Receiving entries by email
Each project can have its own email address, <slug>@send.alignsoft.us, where the slug comes from the project's name. Email from approved senders becomes entries in the project. An admin sets this up in Settings → Notifications → Project Inbound Email. See Entries.