Project dependencies

Overview

Project relationships describe delivery order and other meaningful connections. Use Blocked by when the current Project depends on another Project, Blocks when another Project depends on the current one, and Related for a connection that no longer represents active blocking work.

Each relationship is stored once and shown from both endpoints. Reversing a dependency updates both Projects rather than creating a second conflicting link. When a blocking Project becomes Completed or Canceled, or is archived, Integrity converts each incoming dependency to Related. Completing one of several blockers changes only that relationship. Reopening or restoring the blocker leaves the pair Related until a person changes it.

Create a dependency

Open a Project and use the add action beside its relationship properties, or open a Project row's More properties → Relations. Choose Related, Blocked by, or Blocking, search accessible Projects, and confirm the relationship. The outgoing row is labelled Blocks in Project properties, matching Issue properties.

Search results show each Project's name together with its stable slug. If two Projects share a name, use the slug to identify or search for the intended one; the selection still uses the Project's internal identity, not its name.

The picker excludes the current Project, existing relationships, invalid dependency cycles, and targets you are not allowed to use. Creating or changing a relationship requires Project dependency edit access; seeing a Project does not by itself grant mutation permission.

View dependencies

Project properties list non-empty Blocked by, Blocks, and Related groups. These groups also appear in the Project's main Overview content before Resources.

List, Board, Timeline, and Flow show one badge beside the Project name for its relations. Its first part is the Project's Readiness: a red blocked icon with the number of open blockers, or a green play icon when the Project is Ready. The play icon means "can start now"; a finished Project keeps its status check. Board cards and Flow cards show it as a band down the card's left edge instead: green for Ready (with no play icon on the card) and red for Blocked (the badge still shows the count). Flow cards also write Ready or Blocked by and the count on their top row. A Project in progress gets a yellow band, so started work stands out from work that has not started. On a Ready Board card whose blockers have finished, a gray blocked icon with the number of finished blockers opens Was blocked by. Timeline colors the Project's bar the same way and keeps the badge beside the name. Other Projects keep their usual look. The number is the true count of open blockers, however many there are. After it come the number of Projects it blocks and the number of related Projects. Click the badge to see a short list for each with every Project's status; open the Project to inspect the complete authorized list. Use the Blocked by, Blocking, Related, or With relations filters to narrow the table. The same filtered membership applies to List, Board, and Timeline and can be saved in a view or a browser-local draft. Tables, relationship rows, and badge previews show the Project name; turn on the Slug display property to show slugs in the Project table, Board, or Timeline. Assistive technology receives the complete name-and-slug identity either way.

Accessible dependencies link to their stable Project routes. A dependency you may know exists but cannot read is shown as a generic restricted reference without its title or parent context. Hidden Projects are not disclosed.

Readiness

Readiness answers one question for committed work that has not started: can someone pick it up now? Integrity works it out from the Project's status category and its open blockers. Nobody sets it by hand, so it cannot go stale.

A Backlog Project is an idea nobody has committed to, so it is never Ready or Blocked. When it has open blockers, the badge shows their number with a gray icon instead of a red one, and you can still open it to see Blocked by.

A Project that is already in progress can still have an open blocker. It keeps its red count, because the blocker is holding up started work, but it has no Readiness: it has started, so "can it be picked up" no longer applies. It matches neither value of the Readiness filter.

Open the badge of a Blocked Project to see Blocked by with the Projects it is waiting on. Open the badge of a Ready Project that used to have blockers to see Was blocked by with the finished Projects that were in its way. A Ready Project that never had a blocker shows a plain play icon and opens nothing. The Project's properties show the same result in a read-only Readiness row.

A blocker counts as open until it is Completed or Canceled. A blocker that is no longer an active Project, for example one that was deleted while the link stayed, still counts, but it is never named: the card says Unavailable blocker or the number of unavailable blockers. A blocker you are not allowed to read is not counted for you.

The Readiness filter has the values Ready and Blocked and selects the same Projects in List, Board, Timeline, and Flow. You can also order a view by Readiness, and group Board columns by it into Ready, Blocked, and No readiness. Cards cannot be dragged between those columns, because Readiness follows from status and blockers. The filter, ordering, and grouping are saved with a view like any other option.

While Readiness is loading, or if it cannot be loaded, no Project shows the green play icon or a Readiness color. The other parts of the badge stay, and the card says Readiness unavailable.

Reverse or remove a dependency

Open the actions on a relationship reference to change it to a meaningful direction, mark it Related, or remove it. Integrity keeps the relationship visible while a mutation is pending and restores the previous state if the save fails.

Relationship changes and automatic terminal conversion create endpoint-relative Activity for both Projects. They do not automatically change the dependent Project's status, priority, dates, health, Phase state, Issue state, or notifications.

Timeline behavior

Project Timeline shows each Project's planned date window, but it does not currently draw or drag dependency connector lines. Moving a Project bar does not automatically move its dependency chain. Review Blocked by and Blocking before changing a schedule.

To see dependencies as ordered steps within an Initiative, use Flow. See Project order and Flow.

FAQ