Boards and columns
You need to see what is happening across human and agent work without opening six terminals. A board gives you that view: one place where every task, every agent's progress, and every blocker is visible. Without this centralized visibility, you get lost in tabs and have no idea who is doing what.
A board is a Kanban board within a project. Each board has configurable columns that represent the phases of the workflow. Work items move between columns by dragging cards or through the AI.
A project can have multiple boards, each with its own configuration, area, and set of columns.
Creating a board
- Access the project where you want to create the board.
- Select New Board.
- Complete the fields:
| Field | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
name | Board name (e.g., "Backend Sprint Board") | Yes |
description | Description of the board's purpose | No |
area | Functional area of the board | Yes |
- Optionally, select a predefined template.
- Confirm the creation.
Areas
Each board belongs to a functional area that indicates its main purpose. The available areas are:
| Area | Typical use |
|---|---|
| development | Software development, bugs, technical features |
| sales | Sales pipeline, opportunity tracking |
| marketing | Campaigns, content, marketing actions |
| support | Support tickets, customer incidents |
| general | General tasks that don't fit other areas |
The area influences the suggested column templates and how the AI interprets the board's context.
Column templates
When creating a board you can select a predefined template that automatically configures columns with appropriate semantic roles. Templates are optimized for each area and provide a productive starting point.
Examples of typical templates:
- Basic development: Backlog, To Do, In Progress, Review, Done
- Development with QA: Backlog, To Do, In Progress, Code Review, Testing, Done
- Support: New, Under Investigation, Waiting on Customer, Resolved, Closed
- Marketing: Ideas, Planned, In Progress, Published
You can modify columns after creating the board.
Columns
Columns define the workflow phases within the board. Each column has a name and semantic roles that Almirant uses to automate behaviors.
Managing columns
- Create: Add a new column to the board with a descriptive name.
- Reorder: Drag columns to change their position in the flow.
- Rename: Change the name of an existing column.
- Delete: Remove a column. Work items in that column must be moved to another column before deleting it.
Semantic roles
Each column can have semantic roles that determine automatic behaviors:
| Role | Description | Effect |
|---|---|---|
isDefault | Default column | New work items created on this board automatically land in this column. Only one column per board can have this role. |
isDone | Completion column | Work items in this column are considered completed. The sprint counts them as finished when closing. |
Work items do not have a status field of their own. A work item's status is derived directly from the board column it is in. If the column has isDone = true, the item is considered completed.
Extended semantic roles
In addition to isDefault and isDone, columns have a semantic role field that helps the AI understand the flow:
| Semantic role | Meaning |
|---|---|
backlog | Items pending prioritization |
todo | Prioritized items, ready to start |
in_progress | Items being actively worked on |
review | Items under review (code review, QA) |
testing | Items in the testing phase |
done | Completed items |
These roles allow the AI to correctly interpret the state of the work. For example, when using the move_work_item tool, the AI can automatically identify which column to move an item to based on the semantic role.
Allowed types per board
Each board can restrict which types of work items it accepts. For example:
- A development board can accept tasks, stories, features, and epics.
- A support board can accept only tasks.
- A planning board can accept epics and features.
This keeps each board focused on its purpose and avoids mixing items of different granularities.
Kanban view
The main board view is a Kanban board with:
- Columns arranged horizontally, ordered according to the configured flow.
- Cards for work items within each column, ordered by priority.
- Drag and drop to move items between columns.
- Visual indicators for type, priority, and assignees on each card.
- Filters to show/hide items by type, priority, assignee, or tags.
When dragging a work item to another column, its status is automatically updated according to the semantic role of the destination column.
Multiple boards per project
A project can have multiple boards to separate different workflows. Examples:
- Development board (area: development) -- For the technical team.
- Bugs board (area: development) -- Exclusively for incidents.
- Marketing board (area: marketing) -- For campaigns and content.
- Support board (area: support) -- For customer tickets.
Each board has its own column configuration, allowed types, and independent sprints.
For developers
MCP tools
| Tool | Description | Main parameters |
|---|---|---|
list_boards | Lists the boards of a project | projectId (optional if session has project) |
get_board | Gets a board with its columns and configuration | boardId |
get_board_context | Gets the complete board context: columns, roles, items, and active sprint | boardId |
Example: Get the complete context of a board
Tool: get_board_context
Parameters:
boardId: "board-uuid"
Returns:
- Board name and area.
- List of columns with their semantic roles.
- Work items in each column.
- Active sprint (if one exists) with its dates and goal.
This tool is especially useful for the AI to understand the current state of work before executing actions like creating or moving items.
Example: List boards of a project
Tool: list_boards
Parameters:
projectId: "project-uuid"
Returns an array with all the project's boards, including name, area, description, and number of columns.