# Board

- html: https://gettsk.sh/docs/board/
- source: https://github.com/smarzban/tsk/blob/main/site/src/content/docs/docs/board.md
- updated: 2026-09-17T10:07:00.566Z

Click to navigate, or use the keyboard. The footer shows actions for the cursor or your marked task set; those actions are clickable.

## Navigate

| View | Key | Contents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **desk** | `1` | Blocked/review and started tasks across all live projects; ready and open tasks from your desk |
| **selected project** | `2` | Tasks in the selected project |
| **projects** | `3` | Project overview |

Launching inside a Git repository opens that project. Outside Git, tsk opens **desk** and puts the current directory in the middle project tab.

In Herdr, `prefix+t` opens or focuses a board in the current workspace. If one is already open in another tab there, Herdr switches to that tab and focuses its pane, preserving its view and edits. Otherwise, it opens a board beside your work. Boards in other workspaces stay untouched; all boards share the same tasks.

The middle tab remembers your selected project. Press `2` to open it; if none is selected, `2` opens the project picker.

## Quit or go back

Press `ctrl+q` to quit from the board or a task view, including Help, pickers, and the wide project preview. While a text editor, board search, quick-add line, or palette query owns input, `ctrl+q` keeps its editing behavior instead. Unsaved drafts must be saved or cancelled before quitting, including drafts parked in another view while a project preview has focus. Save recovery must be resolved first; quit attempts leave its failure message intact.

`Esc` leaves multi-select and clears its marked tasks before it closes the current layer. At the full-board root, with multi-select inactive and no page, peek, popup, search, or header selection left to dismiss, it quits without confirmation. This applies on every tab, not just the desk. In either wide split, `Esc` closes the right column once any editor or overlay is dismissed, returning to the full-width board or projects index. Task drafts stay parked; a project preview with unsaved work refuses to close. After a narrow resize hides the right column, `Esc` treats the visible board/index as the root, with the same unsaved-draft protection. Quick capture's popup-close behavior is unchanged.

## Projects

Press `p` to choose a project, or open **projects** for an overview.

- Click a project to select it; double-click or press `Enter` to open it.
- Check the footer for the selected project's full path.

Projects Overview counts work in **NEEDS YOU**, **IN MOTION**, **ON DECK** (ready and open, including the inbox), and **DONE**. Archived tasks and archived projects are excluded. A dim `·` means zero. `here` marks the launch project. At 100 columns or wider, the overview also lists threads.

At **110 usable columns** or wider, Overview can preview the cursored project beside the index:

| Stage | What you see |
| --- | --- |
| Full board | Full-width projects index |
| Split | Index and a dim project preview; the index keeps focus |
| Rail | Narrow index and a live project board; the right column owns input |

The right preview names the selected project in its top row, in the space used by navigation tabs on the index. Clicking or moving the index selection opens Split automatically; press `→` to move from Split to Rail, and `←` to walk back. The project tab never opens a full-screen task stage. `Enter` on an index row still opens that project in tab 2, and choosing a thread with `v` drops back to the full-width index. The right column has its own selection, drawer, filters, task page, quick-add, and status actions; `Esc` from its board returns focus to the index.

## Search

Press `/` on any board tab to search the rows that tab currently shows. On the Projects overview it matches project names or paths. On the desk, a project board, or a cross-project thread view it matches tasks by title, notes, step text, thread, or task number such as `T12`, case-insensitively. Every whitespace-separated word must match somewhere in the same task.

Typing or pasting filters immediately. Empty sections disappear and section counts show only matches. Search combines with a project thread filter; the done drawer is searched only while it is open. In the wide Projects preview, `/` searches the right project board when that seat has focus.

Press `Enter` to pin the query and return to board keys. Navigation, task actions, the done drawer, and a second `Enter` then act on the filtered rows; the query remains in the footer. Press `Esc` while typing to clear and close search, or press it once on a pinned board to clear the query before normal `Esc` behavior resumes. Changing tab, project, or Projects view also clears it.

## Threads

A thread groups related tasks within a project, such as `release` or `login-fix`.

| Where | Action |
| --- | --- |
| Project board | Press `t` or click the filter to choose a thread |
| Projects overview | Press `v` or click **Overview** to view a thread across projects |

Type to filter the choices. Use arrows or `Tab` to select, `Enter` to choose, and `Esc` to close. `j` and `k` are search text in these selectors.

Assign threads when [capturing](/docs/capture/#title-tokens) or [editing a task](/docs/task-page/#scope-and-thread).

## Status

| Section | Status |
| --- | --- |
| **NEEDS YOU** | `blocked`, `review` |
| **IN MOTION** | `started` |
| **ON DECK** | `ready`, `open` |
| ↳ **inbox** | `open` |
| Done drawer | `done` |

On your desk, **ON DECK** contains only desk tasks. On a project board, it contains that project's ready and open tasks. Ready tasks are the picked queue; open tasks are the untriaged inbox below it. Ready tasks sort by oldest pick first, open tasks by oldest capture first, and notice tasks lead within each group. The **inbox** group starts expanded; press `Enter` on its heading or `g` while the done drawer is closed to fold or unfold it. With the drawer open and archived tasks available, `g` addresses its archived group; otherwise it addresses the inbox. Use the thread filter to narrow the tasks.

Sections hold their order while you work: NEEDS YOU, IN MOTION, DONE, and the drawer's ARCHIVED group keep the most recent status change on top, while ON DECK lists ready and inbox backlogs oldest first. (`N` tasks lead each group until you clear them.) Editing a task or ticking a step never moves it; setting a status moves it to the top of its new section.

Move the cursor with `↑`/`↓` or `j`/`k`. Press `Shift+M` to enter multi-select. While it is active, press `Space` to toggle the cursored task, hold `Shift` with `↑`/`↓` to mark the current task before moving, or click a task to toggle it. Marked rows show `▪`; the cursor remains `▸`. Removing the last mark leaves the mode active. `Shift+M` again while the board owns input, a task action, `Esc`, or a view change such as folding a group or switching tabs, projects, threads, or the done drawer exits the mode and clears the session-only set. Text entry keeps `Shift+M` as a capital `M`; `Esc` leaves multi-select before cancelling that surface.

On a task-board list, `ctrl+s`, `ctrl+n`, `ctrl+o`, `ctrl+d`, `ctrl+b`, `ctrl+r`, `ctrl+x`, and `ctrl+f` act on the marked set when it is non-empty. With no marks they act on the cursor. `Enter`, `ctrl+e`, and actions from the task page always use only the cursor.

| Key | Action |
| --- | --- |
| `ctrl+s` | Start an open or ready task |
| `ctrl+n` | Set ready, the picked on-deck queue |
| `ctrl+o` | Set open, the inbox |
| `ctrl+d` | Mark done |
| `ctrl+b` | Set blocked; press again to return to ready |
| `ctrl+r` | Set review; press again to return to ready |

`ctrl+s` starts each eligible open or ready task and leaves started, blocked, and review tasks unchanged. Bulk block and review toggles are all-or-nothing: if every target already has that status they all return to ready, otherwise they all move to that status. Other status verbs are absolute, so repeating the current status does nothing. Done tasks can be sent directly to ready or open.

Agents can set any status with [the CLI](/docs/cli/#status). Task status does not change automatically when steps are checked or an agent stops.

## Notices

Your first board open seeds four desk tasks with `N` ids (not `T`). They teach the board by being ordinary tasks: open, peek, change status, archive, or delete. `ctrl+d`, `ctrl+f`, and `ctrl+x` all dismiss a notice the same way; that starter task never re-seeds. After an upgrade, one `What's new in tsk` task can appear the same way. Details and the delivery record live under [storage](/docs/storage/#starter-guides-and-release-notes). Starter notices keep their seeded statuses so the tour order stays useful; a new release notice lands in NEEDS YOU as `review`, so it sits where you look first.

## Mouse

| Action | Result |
| --- | --- |
| Click a tab or selector | Change view or open its choices |
| Click a task outside multi-select | Peek in narrow panes; open or update details beside the board in wide panes |
| Click a task or its `T`/`N` number in multi-select | Move the cursor there and toggle its mark |
| Click the same task again in a narrow pane | Close its peek |
| Double-click a task | Open it full screen |
| Click its `T` or `N` number | Copy that id |
| Click a footer action | Run that action |
| Wheel or drag a scrollbar | Scroll |
| Drag across text | Select and copy on release |

Open peeks show notes and the task's project or thread. Below 110 columns, `→` opens a peek and `←` closes it. Peeks show up to five wrapped note lines; the [task page](/docs/task-page/) shows the rest.

## Wide stage slider

At **110 usable columns** or wider, use `→` and `←` to move through a four-stage slider:

| View | What you see |
| --- | --- |
| Board | Full-width board |
| Split | Board beside task details; selecting another task updates the details |
| Task | Task details beside a narrow board rail |
| Full screen | Task details only |

Press `Enter` from the board to open a task full screen. `Esc` returns to the view you left. From task focus, `Esc` returns focus to the board beside it. On Projects Overview, the slider stops at Rail: it shows a live project board beside the index and never opens a full-screen task; `Enter` in that right column opens the task page inside the column.

Click a task on the full-width board to open its details alongside it, keeping board focus. Click inside the task column to focus it. Click a task in the rail to bring back the split board. While editing, arrows move the text cursor instead. On the projects tab, click the right preview to focus its live board, or click an index row from Rail to rebind it and return to Split.

Narrowing the pane shows one surface; widening it restores the selected view. Each new session starts with the board alone.

| Pane size | Layout |
| --- | --- |
| 110 columns or wider | Board and task views |
| At least 78×24, below 110 columns | Single board or task page |
| Smaller | Compact layout; usable down to 40×10 |

## Completed tasks

Press `d` to open or close the done drawer. Select a done task and press `ctrl+n` to return it to ready, or `ctrl+o` to send it to the inbox.

The drawer's **archived** group starts closed. Click its heading or press `Enter` on it to expand. `g` folds or unfolds the group while the drawer is open.

## Archive

Archiving hides work without changing its status.

| Archive | Restore |
| --- | --- |
| Task: select it and press `ctrl+f` | Open the done drawer's archived group, select it, then press `ctrl+u` or `ctrl+f` |
| Project: press `p`, select it, then `ctrl+f` | Switch to the picker's **archived** tab, select it, then `ctrl+u` or `ctrl+f` |

Use `Tab`, `←`, or `→` to switch project-picker tabs. Archiving has no undo entry.

### View an archived project

Press `Enter` on a project in the picker's **archived** tab. Its tasks open read-only. Press `ctrl+u` to restore the project, or `Esc`, `p`, or `1`–`3` to leave.

Archived projects are excluded from task-destination pickers. Restoring a project leaves individually archived tasks archived.

### Launch inside an archived project

tsk asks whether to restore it. Choose `y` to restore, or `n`/`Esc` to keep it archived. Keeping it archived sends new captures to your desk for that session.

## Delete and undo

Press `ctrl+x` twice to delete the marked tasks, or the cursored task when nothing is marked. The confirmation and recovery messages show the task count for a marked set. `ctrl+Delete` is an alternative.

One `ctrl+u` undoes the whole marked deletion or completion. If another writer has changed any task in that batch since the action, undo refuses without changing any of them and remains available to retry. On an archived cursor with no marks, `ctrl+u` restores that task instead.

Deleted tasks remain available through [trash commands](/docs/cli/#trash) for a limited time. They do not appear on the board.

## Palette

Press `:` and type to find an action. Use arrows or `Tab` to select, `Enter` to run, and `Esc` to close.

| Available actions | When |
| --- | --- |
| New task, undo, done drawer, help, quit | Always |
| Set open/ready/started/blocked/review, edit notes, change scope, delete | A task is selected |
| Retry save, cancel save | A save has failed |

Search matches letters in order: `ssr` finds `set status: review`.

## Help

Press `?` on the board, task page, or another non-text surface to open the searchable shortcut reference. A dim divider separates its focused search field from shortcuts, grouped one binding per row by function. Long descriptions wrap beneath the description column. The card uses at most half the terminal height, except below 15 rows where it may grow to six rows so one result stays visible. Type or paste to filter by a key, action, group, or related term; use arrows, page keys, or the wheel to scroll. `Esc` clears a nonempty search first, then closes Help.

When a text field already owns input, `?` remains text instead of opening Help.

## Save failures

If saving fails, the draft stays open.

- `r` or `Enter`: retry.
- `c` or `Esc`: cancel the pending change.

Resolve the failure before making another change. See [storage](/docs/storage/) for directory and backup information.