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Core concepts

This page explains how Plane is structured and how its features work together. Understanding these concepts helps you organize work effectively and collaborate with your team.

Understand Plane's structure​

Plane is organized in a hierarchy that reflects how teams naturally work together:

At the top level, Workspaces contain everything—typically one per organization, team, or client. Inside workspaces, you create Projects for specific products, initiatives, or goals. Within projects, you manage Work items (the individual tasks your team completes). You can organize these work items using Cycles (time-boxed periods) and Views (saved filters and layouts). Finally, Pages provide space to document context and decisions alongside your work.

This structure gives you flexibility to work at whatever level makes sense. Sometimes you'll focus on a single work item. Other times, you'll view an entire project or cycle to understand the bigger picture.

How features connect​

Understanding relationships between Plane's features helps you use them effectively.

Workspaces​

Think of a workspace as the central hub for everything you do on Plane. It’s the top-level space where all your projects and work items live. Workspaces are typically set up for a team, department, or company, and everyone within a workspace can collaborate on projects and access shared resources. You can also think of each workspace as a different organization or client you're working with, keeping things separate and organized.

Inside a workspace, you have the freedom to create projects on your own or invite collaborators to join and share it as a team—it’s entirely up to you!

Learn more about Workspaces.

Projects​

Projects are the big, overarching containers for related tasks and work items. You might create a project for a product launch, major features, or even an ongoing initiative. Each project keeps everything in one place, making it easy to track progress and focus on specific goals. Inside a project, you’ll organize and manage work items, assign team members, set deadlines, and structure work into more manageable parts.

Learn more about Projects.

Work items​

Work items are the heart of task management in Plane. Each work item represents a specific task or item of work within a project, whether that’s a bug fix, a new feature, or a to-do. You can assign work items to team members, add due dates, prioritize them, and link related work items together to give context. Work items in Plane are highly customizable, making it easy to tailor them to the needs of your team.

Each work item is identified by a unique, project-specific number (e.g., VIH-19), making it easy to track and reference. At a minimum, every work item needs a title and a state, but you can customize it further with additional properties and relations as needed.

Learn more about Work items.

Cycles​

Cycles help you organize work into time-bound periods, like sprints or phases. They’re perfect for planning work over specific intervals, letting your team know what’s coming up and what needs to be wrapped up. Cycles can contain multiple work items from different projects, making it easy to see your team’s workload at a glance and keep an eye on deadlines.

  • You can move existing work items into a new or ongoing cycle or create new work items directly within a cycle.
  • Bulk operations are supported--you can add or update multiple work items to cycles at once.
  • You can't update work items after a cycle is completed, however, the pending work items can be transferred to a new or upcoming cycle.

Learn more about Cycles.

Views​

Views help you filter and organize work items to see exactly what matters right now. Instead of manually configuring filters every time, views save your layout, filters, and display settings so you can access them instantly. The same work item can appear in multiple views simultaneously.

Views exist at both project and workspace levels. Project views show work from a single project, while workspace views can display work items across all projects you have access to.

Learn more about Views.

Pages​

Pages are where you can jot down notes, add documentation, or outline plans—think of them as an AI-powered notepad. They’re perfect for quickly capturing ideas, taking notes during meetings, or starting your day with an organized list. Pages help you keep all your project-related information in one place, and because they’re easily accessible, you can refer to them whenever needed.

Use Pages to record processes, share best practices, or simply keep team notes that everyone can refer to as needed.

Learn more about Pages.

With these core concepts under your belt, you’re ready to start exploring Plane and putting it to work for your team. Each feature is designed to help you and your team stay organized, collaborate effectively, and deliver your projects with ease.

Have questions? Ask the Plane Community.