Add a task

A task is the basic unit of work in TaskTree. You can create one from either view, and fill in as much or as little detail as you like — only a title is required.

Open the New task dialog

There are four ways to start a new task:

• List view — click + New task at the top right.
• Canvas view — click + New task, or click any empty spot on the canvas to drop the new task right there.
• Keyboard — press N from either view (as long as you're not typing in a field).
• Under another task — open a task or section, then click + Add sub-task in its Sub-tasks box. See Add a sub-task under a task below.

The dialog is titled New task.

Fill in the task

Only Title is required; everything else is optional.

Field	What it's for
Title	The name of the task. Required — the Create button stays disabled until you enter one.
Stage	Which phase of the project this work belongs to. Defaults to the project's first stage. See Statuses and stages.
Parent task (optional)	Nest this task under another. Start typing to search; the picker shows the task tree indented, and hides any task that would create a loop.
Assignees (optional)	Click a person's chip to add them; click again to remove. A task can have any number of assignees — see Assigning a task to multiple people.
Reviewer (optional)	The one person who checks the work before it counts as done. Start typing to search the project's members; pick None to leave it empty. Hidden for sections, like Assignees.
Status	Where the work stands right now: Backlog, Not started, In progress, Blocked, QA, Complete, or Dropped. Defaults to Backlog, so new work waits in the backlog until you schedule it. See Statuses and stages.
Days of work (optional)	How many working days (Monday–Friday) you expect the task to take — the easiest way to size a task. When you enter one, TaskTree works out the due date for you (shown next to the field) and keeps it up to date as the schedule moves; weekends never count.
Start date (optional)	When the work begins. Without one, a task starts today — or, if other tasks block it, when the last of those is due.
Due date (optional)	A hand-set date the work is due. Use this instead of Days of work when a task has a fixed deadline rather than an effort estimate — a task takes one or the other, not both. If you set both a start and a due date, the start must be on or before the due date.
Description	Any free-text notes.
Completion criteria (optional)	What has to be true for this task to count as done. Sits just below Description here and in the task detail panel. When you later mark the task Complete — from the detail panel, the board, or a list — TaskTree shows these criteria and asks you to confirm, as a reminder to check the work really is finished. Tasks with no completion criteria complete without the prompt.
Dependencies (optional)	Set up blocker links right away: Blocking lists tasks this one blocks, Blocked by lists tasks that block this one. You can also draw these later — see Drawing dependencies.

Create it

Click Create. The task appears immediately in both views, and everyone with the project open sees it within a couple of seconds.

If you added dependencies in the dialog, they're applied right after the task is created. In the rare case one can't be applied (for example, it would create a circular dependency), you'll see a "Task created, but some dependencies failed" message — the task is still created; just re-draw the dependency that didn't take.

Where does a new task appear on the canvas?

If you start the task by clicking empty canvas, it lands where you clicked. A sub-task added with + Add sub-task lands in the row just below its parent, beside any sub-tasks already there. Started any other way, it appears at a default spot — drag it wherever you like, or use Auto-arrange (see Use the canvas).

Add a sub-task under a task

To break a task or section down, you don't need to search for it in the Parent picker:

1. Open the task or section, from any view.
2. In the detail panel, find the Sub-tasks box. It lists the task's sub-tasks and their status.
3. Click + Add sub-task. The New task dialog opens with Parent already set to this task. Stage and Reviewer are copied from it too. You can change any of them before you click Create.

After you create the sub-task, the panel stays on the parent. The new sub-task shows up in its Sub-tasks list, so you can add the next one straight away. Click a sub-task in the list to open it.

If the parent is collapsed on the canvas or in the list, the new sub-task stays hidden there until you expand the parent.