Manage projects

Use projects to organize your team's work within a workspace. Each project holds the work items, cycles, modules, pages and other resources for one product, launch or goal. This page covers a project's life: creating it, deciding who can see it, and archiving or deleting it when it's done.

Who can create a project

Workspace owners and admins can create projects. Workspace members can too, once an admin turns on Let members create projects in workspace settings. See Project states for where that switch lives. Workspace guests can't create projects.

Create a project

Quick access: Press N then P from anywhere in Plane.

1. Navigate to Work on the siderail, then select Projects in the sidebar.
2. Click Add Project.
3. Fill in the project details (described below).
4. Click Create project.

Project details:

• Project name (required) Give your project a clear and meaningful name that helps your team identify what it's for. Up to 255 characters. The name must be unique in the workspace, including archived projects.

• Project ID (required) This is a unique code that gets attached to every work item in the project (for example, PROJ-123, DEV-456). The identifier makes it easier to track and reference work items across your workspace. Plane fills it in from the name as you type, in capital letters, until you edit it yourself. It accepts letters and numbers only, up to 10 characters, and must be unique in the workspace, including archived projects. You can update this identifier later in project settings if needed.

• Description (optional) Provide a brief description to help your team understand what the project is about and what goals it serves.

• Network (required) Choose whether the project is Private or Public. This determines who can see and join the project. Public is the default. See Set project visibility below for details on each option.

• Lead (optional) You can designate a lead for the project. This person will be the go-to for queries related to the project's execution and can help guide the team's work. Plane makes the lead a project admin.

• Cover image and logo (optional) Plane picks a cover image and an emoji for you. Click Change cover or the emoji to choose your own.

If project states are turned on for the workspace, the form also shows State, Priority, a start and due date range, Members and Labels. See Project states.

You become the project's admin. After you click Create project, Plane shows "{name} created." with a switch for each project feature. Leave the defaults or turn features on, then click Open project. The project appears in the sidebar. All project details can be edited later under the General tab in project settings.

To start from a standard setup instead of a blank project, pick a template in the create form. See Project templates.

If Plane won't create the project

Message	What to do
"Project name already in use"	Another project, possibly archived, has that name. Choose a different one.
"Project identifier already in use"	Another project, possibly archived, has that ID. Choose a different one.
"The project name cannot contain special characters."	Remove characters like < > " { } [ ] * ^ ! # % \ from the name.
"Only Alphanumeric & Non-latin characters are allowed."	The Project ID has a character other than a letter or number.

Set project visibility

Choose who can access your project when creating it or change visibility later in settings.

Public projects

Who can access:

• All workspace members (Admins and Members)
• Guests cannot access public projects unless explicitly invited to them

Who can join:

• Any workspace member can discover and join public projects on their own
• No invitation required for members to join

Best for:

• Company-wide initiatives where everyone should have visibility
• Shared resources or documentation that benefits the entire team
• Cross-team collaboration projects
• Open projects where transparency and broad participation are valuable

Private projects

Who can access:

• Only members who have been explicitly invited to the project
• Workspace Admins automatically have access to all private projects

Who can join:

• Only Project Admins can add new members to the project
• Members must receive an invitation and cannot join on their own

Best for:

• Confidential or sensitive work that needs restricted access
• Client projects where only specific team members should have visibility
• Small team projects where you want to control exactly who participates
• Projects requiring tight access control for security or privacy reasons

Join a public project

1. In the sidebar, click Projects.
2. Find the project. Projects you're already in show a Joined badge.
3. Click Join.
4. In the Join {name} dialog, click Join.

Plane opens the project's work items. You join with the role that matches your workspace role: workspace owners and admins join as project admins, members join as contributors. Workspace guests can't browse or join projects. See Manage project members.

Change visibility

1. Open Project Settings (click … next to project name in sidebar).
2. Navigate to General tab.
3. Change the Network setting to Public or Private.
4. Click Update project.

WARNING

When you change a project from Private to Public, it becomes visible to all workspace members immediately. Make sure this is what you want before making the change, as you cannot undo the visibility that members gained.

Configure project settings

Access project settings to modify project details, manage members, and configure features.

1. Click the … icon next to your project name in the sidebar.
2. Select Settings.

Settings are grouped under General, Features, Work structure and Execution, with one tab per feature. For every tab, what it controls and where it's documented, see Project settings.

Set project timezone

Each project has its own timezone, independent of each member's personal timezone. Set it on the General tab in project settings. See Set the project timezone.

Enable project features

Cycles, Modules, Views, Pages, Intake, Time tracking, Milestones, Releases and Project Updates each have their own tab under Features in project settings, with a switch to turn them on or off. A new project starts with Views and Pages on and the rest off. See Features.

Archive a project

Archive projects you're no longer actively working on but want to keep for reference or historical purposes. Only project admins can archive a project.

1. Navigate to Project Settings.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the General tab.
3. In the Archive section, click Archive.
4. In the Archive {name} dialog, click Archive.

The dialog warns: "This project and its work items, cycles, modules, and pages will be archived. Its work items won't appear in search. Only project admins can restore the project."

Plane shows "{name} has been archived successfully" and takes you to the Projects page.

What happens when you archive:

• Plane removes the project from your sidebar to reduce clutter.
• The project remains fully accessible in the Archived projects section.
• You can restore the project at any time with all data intact.
• The project no longer appears in workspace search results or active project lists.
• Plane archives the project's work items, cycles, modules, milestones, views and pages along with it, and removes the project from everyone's favorites.

Restore archived projects

Only project admins can restore a project.

1. Navigate to Work on the siderail, then select Projects in the sidebar.
2. Scroll to the bottom to find the Archived projects section.
3. On the project you want back, open its menu and click Restore.
4. In the Restore {name} dialog, click Restore.

The dialog says: "Restoring a project will activate it and make it visible to all members of the project. Are you sure you want to continue?" Plane confirms with "You can find {name} in your projects." and the project returns to your active project list in the sidebar.

Restoring brings back the work items, cycles, modules, views and pages that were archived with the project. Anything you'd archived by hand before archiving the project stays archived.

Delete a project

Permanently remove a project and all its data from your workspace. Use this when you're certain you no longer need the project or any of its contents. Only project admins can delete a project.

WARNING

Deleting a project is permanent and cannot be undone. All work items, cycles, modules, views, pages, and other project data will be permanently deleted. Plane does not provide any way to recover a deleted project, so make sure you're certain before proceeding.

Before deleting, consider:

• Exporting any data you might need to keep for records or future reference
• Notifying all project members that the project will be deleted
• Archiving the project instead if you might need it later

To delete a project:

1. Navigate to Project Settings.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the General tab.
3. In the Delete section, click Delete.
4. In the Delete project dialog, type the project name exactly as shown.
5. Type delete my project in the second field.
6. Click Delete project. The button stays disabled until both fields match.

Plane shows "Project deleted successfully." Deleting a project also removes its published board, favorites and work item templates.

Troubleshooting

Unable to create new projects

When attempting to create a new project, the page auto-refreshes, but no project is created.

This issue occurs in self-hosted instances when the Unsplash API key configured in your instance has expired or is invalid.

Update the Unsplash Access key in God mode to resolve this issue.