Epics
Epics let you group related tasks into a single initiative. Think of an epic as a big goal — like "Q3 Product Launch" or "Office Relocation" — that's broken down into smaller, trackable tasks.
Each task can belong to one epic at a time. Once tasks are linked, the epic keeps a running picture of how far the whole initiative has come.
Why Use Epics?
Without epics, large projects become a scattered list of tasks. Epics give you:
- Organization — All related tasks under one umbrella
- Progress tracking — An automatic completion percentage based on the linked tasks
- Visibility — See the big picture instead of individual tasks
- Filtering — Filter the task board to show only the tasks of a specific epic
Where to Find Epics
Go to Tasks → Epics tab to see the epics you have access to.
Everyone can open the Epics tab. What you can do there depends on your role — see Who Can Use Epics below.
If nothing has been created yet, you'll see No epics yet. People who are allowed to create epics also get a + Create first epic link there.
What an Epic Shows
Each epic in the list shows:
| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Epic ID | The short reference code, such as EPC-1 |
| Title | The name of the initiative |
| Status badge | The epic's current state, color-coded (see Epic Statuses) |
| Description | A short summary — shown only if one was written, and shortened to a couple of lines |
| Progress bar and percentage | How far along the initiative is, for example 40% |
| Task count | How many tasks are linked to this epic, for example 5 tasks |
Click an epic to open its detail view, where you'll also see its full description and the list of its tasks. Each task row there shows a colored status dot, the task title, its priority and its status — and clicking a task opens it.
An epic can be tied to a department or left open to the whole organization — that choice is made when the epic is created. It can also carry a Start Date and an End Date. The dates are kept with the epic and you see them again when you open it for editing; they are not shown on the epic's card or in its detail view. See Managing Epics.
Epic Numbering
Epics are automatically numbered in sequence: EPC-1, EPC-2, EPC-3, and so on. This makes them easy to refer to in conversations and comments.
Mention the epic ID (like EPC-7) when you talk about an initiative with colleagues. It's shorter than the title and never ambiguous.
Epic Statuses
An epic's status tells everyone where the initiative stands.
| Status | What it means | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | The initiative is defined but work hasn't started yet | Gray |
| Active | Work is under way. This is the status every new epic starts with | Green |
| Completed | The initiative is finished | Blue |
| Cancelled | The initiative was dropped and won't be continued | Gray |
| Archived | The epic has been put away with everything intact, but is hidden from the normal list | Gray |
How each status is set
- Active is applied automatically when an epic is created — the New Epic form has no status field.
- Planning, Completed and Cancelled are chosen later, from the Status dropdown that appears when you edit an epic.
- Archived isn't in that dropdown. It's applied by the archive icon on the epic ("Archive (recoverable)"), and undone by the restore icon ("Restore from archive"), which puts the epic back to Active.
:::info Archived and cancelled epics are hidden by default The Epics tab normally hides epics that are archived or cancelled, so the list stays focused on live work. People who manage epics can bring them back into view with the Show archived button at the top of the tab — useful when you need to restore something. See Managing Epics. :::
:::tip Archive instead of deleting Archiving is reversible and keeps every task link in place. Deleting is permanent and detaches all the tasks from the epic. If there's a chance you'll want the initiative back, archive it. :::
Progress and Task Counts
The percentage on an epic is calculated from its linked tasks — you never set it by hand. It updates on its own as the tasks move.
How it's worked out:
- Only tasks in the Done state count as finished.
- Cancelled tasks are left out of the calculation entirely — they don't count as done, and they don't count against you either.
- The percentage is the finished tasks measured against the linked tasks that haven't been cancelled, rounded to a whole number.
- If an epic has no linked tasks left after cancelled ones are set aside, its progress shows 0%.
The task count next to the bar is the number of tasks linked to the epic.
Cancelling a task you've genuinely abandoned is the right way to stop it from holding an epic's percentage down — better than leaving it sitting open forever.
:::caution The percentage measures task count, not effort Every task weighs the same in the calculation. An epic that is 80% done has 80% of its live tasks finished — that isn't necessarily 80% of the work. :::
Epics and Departments
An epic can be attached to a department, or left without one so that it belongs to the whole organization. This choice affects which department managers see the epic in their list and who can manage it. An epic keeps the department it was created with, so pick it deliberately when you create the epic.
Who Can Use Epics
The table shows what each role can do by default:
| What you want to do | Members | Department managers, Executives and Admins |
|---|---|---|
| Open the Epics tab | ✅ | ✅ |
| See epics and open their detail view | ✅ | ✅ |
| Create a new epic | ❌ | ✅ |
| Edit an epic, including its status | ❌ | ✅ |
| Archive an epic | ❌ | ✅ |
| Restore an archived epic | ❌ | ✅ |
| Delete an epic | ❌ | ✅ |
| Add or link tasks from the epic detail view | ❌ | ✅ |
"Department managers" here means people who manage at least one department. A department manager creates and manages epics for the departments they manage; epics that belong to the whole organization are managed by Executives and Admins.
Creating, editing, archiving, restoring and deleting are each allowed separately. Your organization can give any of them to other people through a custom role — see Roles & Permissions — so someone may, for example, be able to edit epics but not delete them. A button you are not allowed to use simply doesn't appear.
What you see in the list also depends on your role:
- Admins and Executives see every epic in the organization.
- Department managers see the epics of the departments they belong to or manage, epics that belong to the whole organization, epics with a task in a department they can reach, epics with a task assigned to them, and epics they created themselves.
- Members see epics where they have a task assigned, epics they created, and epics with a task shared with them or their department.
:::info When some tasks are hidden from you On an epic's detail view you may see a note reading "Your visible tasks (X of Y) — others belong to departments you cannot see." That means the epic contains tasks in departments outside your access. The epic's overall progress still reflects all of its tasks, not only the ones you can open. :::
Where to Go Next
- Managing Epics — create, edit, link tasks, archive, restore and delete
- Tasks Overview — how tasks themselves work
- Creating Tasks — including choosing the epic a task belongs to
- Kanban Board — where you can filter the board down to a single epic