# Work items (/docs/guides/users/work-items)



A work item is a task: the thing you create, assign, discuss, track time on, and finish.
This page walks through everything an item can hold today.

## The fields [#the-fields]

| Field       | What it holds                                                                                                                                                  |
| ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Title       | The one-line summary. Required.                                                                                                                                |
| Description | Long-form detail, written in markdown.                                                                                                                         |
| Status      | One of the project's statuses (see below).                                                                                                                     |
| Priority    | Urgent, High, Medium, Low, or None.                                                                                                                            |
| Assignee    | **One** person responsible. <StatusBadge status="coming-soon" /> [Multiple assignees and watchers](/docs/guides/roadmap/richer-work-items) are on the roadmap. |
| Reporter    | Who raised it. Set automatically; for items captured from Slack it's the mapped Slack user.                                                                    |
| Labels      | Any number of workspace-wide labels, for filtering across projects.                                                                                            |
| Estimate    | A number, treated as hours by the time meter.                                                                                                                  |
| Dates       | Start date, end date, and due date. Overdue items are flagged.                                                                                                 |
| Source      | Where the item came from: Web, Slack, Agent (MCP), or API. Set by the system, never editable.                                                                  |

## Statuses and categories [#statuses-and-categories]

Statuses are **per project** — rename, recolor, reorder, add, and remove them to match how
your team works. Every status maps to one of five fixed categories, which is how RyTask
knows what a status *means* no matter what you call it:

| Category  | Typical statuses       |
| --------- | ---------------------- |
| Backlog   | Backlog, Icebox        |
| Unstarted | To do, Ready           |
| Started   | In progress, In review |
| Completed | Done, Shipped          |
| Cancelled | Won't do, Duplicate    |

When a status is removed, its items aren't lost — they're reassigned to a status you choose.

## Sub-tasks [#sub-tasks]

Any item can have sub-tasks: smaller items nested under a parent. Sub-tasks are full work
items with their own assignee, status, and time tracking. RyTask guards the hierarchy for
you — you can't make an item its own ancestor, and nesting depth is capped, so the tree
stays a tree.

## Activity history [#activity-history]

Every change is recorded per field: who changed what, from which value to which, and when.
Status changes, assignments, label changes, comments, sub-tasks, and time events (timer
started/stopped, time logged/edited/deleted) all appear in one chronological feed on the
item, so "what happened here?" always has an answer.

## When two people edit at once [#when-two-people-edit-at-once]

If you and a teammate both open an item and both hit save, RyTask refuses to silently throw
one person's change away. The second save is rejected with a polite conflict, and that
person refreshes to see the latest version before re-applying their edit. You'll rarely
notice this — but when you do, it means your teammate's work was protected, not lost.

## Trash and restore [#trash-and-restore]

Deleting an item moves it to the project's trash (**Projects → your project → Trash**),
where it can be restored with everything intact — fields, comments, history, and time
entries. While an item sits in the trash, its logged time is excluded from every total and
report. Restore it and the time counts again.

## What's coming [#whats-coming]

These are planned but not in the app yet:

* <StatusBadge status="coming-soon" /> [Attachments, issue templates and types, recurring items, convert/split/merge, and bulk edit](/docs/guides/roadmap/richer-work-items)
* <StatusBadge status="coming-soon" /> [Dependencies and relations between items](/docs/guides/roadmap/dependencies-and-relations)
* <StatusBadge status="coming-soon" /> [Custom fields](/docs/guides/roadmap/custom-fields)
* <StatusBadge status="coming-soon" /> [Milestones and roadmaps](/docs/guides/roadmap/milestones-and-roadmap)
* <StatusBadge status="coming-soon" /> [Automations](/docs/guides/roadmap/automations)