Projects (Kanban)

Projects are how you keep track of work inside Coffield.io. Each project is a Kanban board — columns left to right, cards inside each column. Drag cards across the board as work moves forward.

If you've used Trello, Asana, or Linear, you already know how to use this. If you haven't — keep reading. The whole guide takes about ten minutes.

Where do I find Projects? Sidebar → Projects. URL ends in /projects.

#What you get out of the box

The moment your account is set up, Coffield.io creates three projects for you automatically:

All three start with the visibility All Tenant Users — every teammate you've invited can see them. You can change that any time on the Edit Project page (see § 7.7).

You can also create as many of your own projects as you want — work backlogs, client onboardings, marketing calendars, whatever you need. Projects you create are Restricted by default; only you can see them until you change the visibility or add members.

#The 30-second tour

Open any project → click View. You land on the Board view:

• Columns run left to right. They're the workflow stages (for Agent Leads: New Leads → Contacted → Qualified → Converted → Lost).
• Cards live inside columns. Each card is one piece of work.
• Add Card at the bottom of each column creates a new card.
• The pencil icon next to a column header renames it. The trash icon deletes it (a column with no cards in it).
• The top-right toggle switches between Board view and List view. List view is helpful when you want a flat, scrollable view of everything in the project.
• Show completed cards (top-right checkbox) reveals cards you've marked done. By default they're hidden so the board stays clean.

To drag a card to another column: click and hold its top edge, drag, drop. The change saves instantly.

#Opening a card

Click anywhere on a card to open it. You'll see a modal with three tabs:

#Details tab (read-only)

Title, description, and when the card was created. Good for a quick look.

#Edit tab

Everything is editable here:

• Title (required)
• Description — rich text with bold, italic, lists, links
• Column — moves the card to a different column (same as drag-and-drop)
• Assigned To — pick one or more teammates. They get a notification in their bell menu when assigned
• Due Date — appears as a badge on the card itself; turns red if overdue
• Progress — a 0%→100% slider for "how far along is this?"
• Mark as Completed — checks the card off and hides it from the board (until you tick Show completed cards)
• Attachments — drag-and-drop files, or click Browse. Files are stored privately in your account's cloud storage. Original filenames are preserved (so a PDF you upload as contract-acme.pdf is downloaded by your teammate as contract-acme.pdf — not a random hash).

Click Save when you're done.

#Activity tab

This is your card-level chat. Comments are threaded under the card so the full conversation history lives with the work. The chat behaves like iMessage:

• Type at the bottom, press Enter to send.
• Each message shows who sent it and when.
• A red, pulsing badge appears on the card if there are unread messages from someone else. It turns blue once you've read them.
• The total unread count shows up in your sidebar too — so you'll see "you have 3 unread project messages" without having to open every project.

Heads up: Comments are how teammates ping each other inside a project. They do not notify the lead, the visitor, or anyone outside your account. Use them freely.

#Shareable card links

Every card has a deep link that opens straight to that card, on whichever tab you choose:

/dashboard/{your-tenant-id}/projects/{project-id}/kanban#card=123&tab=Activity

Copy the URL from your browser address bar and paste it into Slack, email, or anywhere else. When a teammate clicks it (and they have access to the project), the card pops open on the Activity tab automatically.

This is also how leads-list rows link straight into their card on the Agent Leads board.

#Creating your own project

1. Projects → New Project (top right of the Projects list).
2. Project Name (required) — keep it short and human, e.g. Q3 Marketing, Acme onboarding.
3. Description (optional) — one line that explains what the project is for. Shows up in tooltips and the project header.
4. Visibility (required):
   • Restricted (Team or Members Only) — only people you explicitly add can see it. Default for projects you create.
   • All Tenant Users — everyone in your account.
5. Team (optional) — link the project to a team you've already set up. Anyone in that team gets access automatically when visibility is Restricted.
6. Members (optional) — pick individual teammates from the dropdown. They get access immediately, without needing a team. You (the creator) are always a member — you don't need to add yourself.
7. Create — or Create & create another if you're setting up several at once.

After it's created, hit View to open the board. The new project starts with one column called To Do — rename it and add more from the board.

Tip: Both Team and Members are additive. Picking a team gives that whole team access; picking individuals adds them on top. Use Team for a stable group (e.g. Marketing) and Members for one-off additions (e.g. a contractor who only needs to see this project).

#Renaming, deleting, and rearranging columns

On any board:

• Rename — click the pencil icon next to the column header.
• Delete — click the trash icon. You'll be asked to confirm. Cards in the column move to the leftmost column so nothing is lost; you can't delete a column and lose work.
• Reorder — drag the column's drag handle (the small = icon on the left of the header) left or right.
• Add a new column — there's a + Add Column button at the far right of the board.

#Editing the project itself

From the board, click Edit Project (top right). From here you can change:

• Project Name
• Description
• Visibility — flip between Restricted and All Tenant Users
• Team — link or unlink a team
• Members — add or remove individual teammates (chip removes with the ×; the creator's row is protected and cannot be removed via the picker)

Save with Save changes. Anyone who lost access (because you flipped Restricted on, removed their team, or removed them from Members) won't see the project on their next page refresh.

To delete the project, go back to the Projects list and click the red Delete button on its row. You'll be asked to confirm. Deleting a project removes all cards, comments, and attachments inside it. This action cannot be undone — export anything you need first.

Heads up: Auto-handoff projects (Agent Leads, Quote Requests, Support Inbox) can be deleted, but the next lead/quote/ticket your agent captures will not have anywhere to land. If you ever delete one by mistake, contact support@coffield.io — we can recreate it for you.

#The Activity Log (project-level)

The Activity Log button (top right of the board) opens a chronological feed of everything that's happened in this project:

• Cards created / renamed / moved between columns / completed / deleted
• Comments posted
• Members added or removed
• Attachments added or removed
• Column changes

Each entry shows who did it and when. This is your audit trail — useful if a teammate asks "who moved the Sarah Chen card to Lost?" or "where did that PDF go?"

The log is read-only; you cannot edit or delete entries.

#Notifications

Project events trigger bell notifications (the bell in the top-right of every page):

Clicking a notification opens the card directly on the relevant tab — comments take you to Activity, assignments take you to Edit. Notifications are real-time over WebSockets and persist in the bell until you mark them read.

#Get project notifications by email too

Open Account → Notification Preferences in the left navigation. Flip the "Something happens on a project card I am on" toggle on and click Save preferences. Project notifications will now be delivered to both the bell and the email address on your account.

Project email is off by default because most teams find that bell + real-time WebSocket is enough for internal collaboration and turning email on for every comment becomes noisy. The toggle is per-user, so each teammate sets their own preference.

Two things to know:

• The agent activity toggle ("A new lead, booking, quote, or support request arrives") is on by default because those are time-sensitive customer events — your business loses money if you miss them.
• If your email address bounces, we automatically stop sending email until you fix it. The dashboard bell still works.

#Visibility, in plain English

Visibility decides who can see and edit this project. Pick the one that matches reality:

Coffield.io administrators (us, on the platform side) never see your projects unless you've explicitly added them as a member. Visibility settings apply to your teammates only.

#Attachments — security & limits

• Files are stored privately in cloud storage (Amazon S3, US-East region).
• A signed, expiring URL is generated per-download — direct S3 links are never exposed publicly.
• Original filenames are preserved for downloads; storage filenames are randomized (so two files named contract.pdf don't collide).
• File-size cap: 100 MB per attachment.
• Allowed types: images (jpg, png, gif, webp), PDFs, Office documents, plain text, and common archives (.zip, .tar.gz). Anything else may upload but won't preview.
• Files count against your File Manager storage quota (see 06-file-manager.md § 6.11). Deleting a card or its attachments frees the storage.

There's no virus scanning on uploads today. Treat attachments the same way you'd treat email attachments — only open files from teammates you trust. See Known gaps § 7.3.

#What the AI agent creates inside Projects

When the agent captures something, it creates a card automatically:

#Agent Leads project

• Card title: {Lead name} — {Agent name} (e.g. Sarah Chen — Visual Demo Agent)
• Card description: structured contact info + the lead's project details
• Column: New Leads
• Move it manually to Contacted → Qualified → Converted → Lost as your sales follow-up progresses. The card's column and the lead's status (chapter 4) are linked — moving the card updates the lead status and vice-versa.

#Quote Requests project

• Card title: quote summary (service + estimated total or "needs estimate")
• Card description: the full quote-line breakdown the agent built with the visitor
• Column: New
• Move it manually as you build the formal quote and send it out.

#Support Inbox project

• Card title: the ticket subject the agent classified
• Card description: the visitor's stated problem + any troubleshooting steps the agent already tried
• Column: New
• Move it manually as you triage / respond / close.

Each of these projects starts with a default column layout you can change at will. If you add a column called Awaiting Customer, the agent's future cards still land in New (or New Leads) — agent automation only writes to the leftmost / default column, never the ones you create. So feel free to customize.

#Tips that save time

• Tab between cards: open the keyboard arrow keys on a board to move focus card-by-card (Tab key advances), then Enter to open. Saves a lot of clicking.
• Use Activity instead of email for project chatter. Email gets buried; activity threads live forever and are searchable.
• One project per outcome, not one per person. Q3 marketing campaign beats Sara's marketing tasks — when Sara goes on vacation, the project doesn't have to be renamed.
• Restricted by default, opened up later. It's easier to grant access than to undo a leak.
• The "Mark as Completed" checkbox is non-destructive. Completed cards stay in the database and the activity log; they just hide from the board. Toggle Show completed cards to bring them back.

#Limits

There are no per-plan caps on projects, cards, or attachments — total storage is governed by your File Manager quota (see chapter 6).

#Troubleshooting

Still stuck? Email support@coffield.io with a screenshot and the URL of the page where it happened.

#What's next

• Chapter 4 — Capturing leads for how the Agent Leads board fills itself
• Chapter 6 — Files for how attachments share storage with your standalone files
• Chapter 9 — Outbound webhooks to mirror card creation into your own systems