Understanding Board Columns and Workflow

Columns are the stages of your workflow. Tasks move from left to right as the work moves toward done. Stride has two kinds of board, and each handles columns in its own way.

An AI Optimized board has five columns that are set for you. You can't add, rename, delete or reorder them:

• Backlog: tasks that aren't ready to work on yet
• Ready: tasks that agents can claim
• Doing: tasks someone is working on
• Review: finished work waiting for a person to review it
• Done: finished tasks

Agents only claim work and defect tasks from Ready. Every AI Optimized board has the same columns, so an agent can work on any of them the same way.

An Empty board starts with no columns, and you design the workflow. If you own the board, you can:

• Click New column to add a column. Give it a Name and click Save Column.
• Drag a column by its handle to move it.
• Hover over a column header and click the pencil to rename it, or the trash can to delete it.

Deleting a column also deletes every task in it. A custom workflow might be To Do, In Progress, In Review and Published.

You choose the type when you create the board:

• New AI Optimized Board if AI agents will work on the board, or you want the standard agent workflow
• New Empty Board if your team needs its own columns

You can't change a board's type after you create it, so choose with care.

A WIP (work in progress) limit caps how many tasks a column can hold. It stops work piling up in one stage. Only Empty boards have WIP limits. You can't edit an AI Optimized board's columns, so there's nowhere to set one.

To set a limit, edit the column and enter a number in WIP Limit. Use 0 for no limit. The column header then shows the count and the limit, for example 3/3. Goals don't count toward it.

When a column is full, its Add Task button is hidden, and Stride won't let you drag another task into it.