Board Settings

Use the board settings panel to define automatic behaviors that act on your entire board. Configure rules that determine how tasks should be archived, how long tasks should stay in each column, and how columns might automatically assign work.

What this affects

Board settings apply to individual boards on a project. They govern default behaviors that are applied consistently across tasks when rules are triggered:

Archive actions — Automatically archive old tasks or mark them for archival to keep your board clean.
Staleness rules — Automatically detect tasks that have been idle for a set period and take action.
Auto-assign rules — Set per-column rules so new or unassigned tasks get attention where they belong.

Reach

You can open board settings from:

Ctrl+K command palette — Search for “Board settings” and select your board.
Board menu — Open a board’s menu and choose Settings.

CardGrid>

Auto-archive

Clear expired backlog and automate housekeeping.

Staleness detection

Identify tasks that haven’t moved recently.

Auto-assign rules

Propagate responsibilities to unassigned cards.

Auto-archive

Configure automatic archival of tasks that no longer require attention. Archive is different from deletion—it keeps history while removing items from the active view so you don’t have to manually clean up stale columns.

Available options

Rules you can set per board:

Enable auto-archive — Turn the rule on/off.
Archive after — Choose how many days tasks remain before archival.
- Common presets: 90, 120, 180, 365.
Archive unused — Automatically archive tasks that have not been touched recently (see Staleness).

How it behaves

When a task crosses your configured threshold:

The board removes the task from column counts.
Tasks are moved to the board’s Archive section.
History (comments, attachments, subtasks) remains intact.

Tasks in any column are eligible: backlog, in-progress, review, and so on.

Staleness detection

Staleness rules keep track of active tasks that have not been moved, updated, or interacted with in a defined window. This helps surface forgotten items that might need re-evaluation or removal.

Configuration:

Stale after — Number of days since the last change/due date.
- Suggested ranges: 30, 60, 90.
Auto-assign stale tasks (Optional) — Toggle the rule that moves or re-assigns stale tasks to a specific column or assignee.
Stale reminders (Optional) — Get notified when tasks reach the staleness threshold so you can prioritize review or cleanup.

Filtering stale vs healthy

The “No recent activity” and “Stuck in column” filters on saved views show only stale tasks by default. Both automatically apply the per-board staleness threshold, so stale items are surfaced at board and view level.

To separate stale from healthy tasks, add a “Not stale” filter to your view. This inverse filter identifies tasks that remain active in your defined window, letting you compare work that needs attention to work still in progress.

Auto-assign rules

Define rules that automatically assign or re-assign tasks to specific members. This is useful for ensuring that new pull requests, backlog items, or triage items land with the right people without manual overhead.

Per-column auto-assign on column move

In addition to setting a default for the entire board when a task is created or is unassigned, you can configure a per-column auto-assign rule: whenever a task is moved into this column, it will be assigned to the specified person or group. Ctrl+K “Auto-assign for this column” opens the per-column configuration.

To configure per-column auto-assign:

From the board or section header, open the context menu (or use Ctrl+K “Auto-assign for this column”) and select the section where you want the rule.
Pick an assignee (group or individual) to apply as tasks are moved into that column. The assignment is additive and idempotent—moving a task back into another column and then into this column again respects the rule.
When the rule applies, all tenants receive a notification and the assignee is messaged in the source channel if notifications are set up for the board.

How to configure (defaults)

Target columns — Specify which columns should apply auto-assign triggers:
- Any column that can receive tasks (e.g., In Progress, Review).
Assign to — Select a project member or a role-based assignment:
- Individual users.
- Groups (e.g., “Testers,” “Backend team”).
Optional priority filter — Apply only to tasks with certain priority levels (e.g., Urgent, High).

Scenarios

Backlog channel — Assign new backlog items to reviewers or maintainers.
Review overload — Auto-assign completed items to QA reviewers when they become “In Review”.
Slack alerts — Combine with board notifications to alert assignees when auto-assign runs.

Autosave drafts

Changes to board settings are saved automatically. If you navigate away or refresh the page, your settings persist:

No manual save needed — All toggles, number inputs, and column mappings are applied instantly.
Revert behavior — If you make a mistake, the board defaults (detected from project/staleness rules) can be used as a backup; update the offending rule and save again.

Logging and history

Hypertask tracks rule executions at the board level for review:

Rule runs — Historically, Hypertask logged rule runs to a log table (Admin role visible).
Rule hygiene — To keep logs manageable, Hypertask retains only recent rule executions (e.g., last 14–30 days) on the log table, while preserving a full backup in a more extensive repository for administrative use.