Quick Start
This section helps you get comfortable with Plane and find your way around more effectively.
What is Plane?
Plane is a simple, extensible, open-source project and product management tool. It allows users to start with a basic task-tracking tool and gradually adopt various project management frameworks like Agile, Waterfall, and many more.
These frameworks come pre-built in Plane, making it easy for teams to switch, mix, or customize methodologies to suit their needs and preferences. Additionally, Plane boasts a stunning and elegant interface, which further enhances the user experience and overall aesthetics.
Setting up Plane
You can begin using Plane through our hosted version, Plane Cloud. Alternatively, if you prefer to self-host Plane, you can do so using Docker.
Cloud
Setting up Plane with Plane Cloud is just a matter of signing up for a new account. You can quickly get started with the free plan to get things up and running.
Self-hosted
If you prefer to self-host Plane on your machine, you can do so using Docker. However, please note that you’ll need to add additional configurations for email, authentication, and storage services. Plane is open-sourced under AGPL-3.0, and currently, we support self-hosting Plane using Docker. For detailed instructions, please refer to the self-hosting section.
Sign-up and sign-in
Our new sign-up and sign-in flows make it easier for Instance admins to identify themselves and unlock security + governance features for their instance. Our Cloud users also enjoy easier sign-ups and sign-ins. See Sign up and sign in for more.
Onboarding and Invitation
If you have signed up for the first time, the first step in Plane is to create a new workspace.
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If you are part of a team, you can invite your team members to the workspace before you can begin.
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If you are using Plane for personal use, you can skip the invitation part and be directly redirected to the workspace.
The Dashboard
After signing up or signing in to a workspace, you will be redirected to the Dashboard. This is where you will see all of the issues that are assigned and pending for you.
Creating Workspaces
Think of each workspace on Plane as a home for your content. Ideally, you can consider a workspace as a different company or organization you work with.
- Inside the workspace, you can create projects as an individual, or invite collaborators to share a workspace as a team - it’s up to you!
Creating Projects
Projects let you manage teams and issues within your Workspace. After creating your Workspace, you will need to create a new project.
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If you want to invite other members to a project, you’ll need to first add them to a workspace and give them access directly under Project settings after they have been invited.
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You can manage members either by navigating to Project > Member Settings page or by Workspace > Member Settings page.
Creating Issues
In Plane, an issue is a task or piece of work. It could be small, like Update the primary color to blue, or large, like Building GitHub integration on plane. It all depends on how you and your team decide to break down your work into issues.
Issues are identified by a project-specific and unique number (Example, VIH-19
), and they must be provided with a title and a state. All the other properties and relations are optional, know more about them here.
New Issue
button in the right-hand corner of your project, or by using C
shortcut.There’s a lot more about Issues, learn about them here.
Creating Cycles
A cycle is a group of issues with a custom time period in which a team works to complete items assigned to them. Cycles are similar to sprints in the agile world.
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You can move existing issues to a new or existing cycle, or create a new issue directly inside the Cycle
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Bulk operations are supported—you can add or update multiple issues to cycles at once.
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You can’t update issues after a cycle is completed, however, the pending issues can be transferred to a new or upcoming cycle.
Creating Modules
Modules are a flexible way to organise issues in your project. They allow you to break down your work into manageable chunks and track progress towards specific goals or objectives.
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You can create as many modules as you need within your workspace, and customize each one with its own set of issues, milestones, and team members.
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Modules allow you to add documents and links within them, providing a convenient way to share resources with others within the module.
Creating Pages
You can think of Pages as an AI-powered notepad. You can use Pages to quickly jot down issues when you’re in a meeting or starting a day. Later, you can directly push them to the respective projects to convert them into an issue.
You’ve reached the end of this section. But there’s more to it. Here are useful resources for you to deep dive into each of these components of Plane.