Feature/Stacks

Big work, in stages, under one design.

A stack is one larger piece of work cut into ordered stages. Each stage holds one or more cards, each stage waits for the one before it, and the whole stack shares one approved design. The intake proposes it, you accept it from Drafts, and the Board runs it stage by stage.

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A stack page: three stages that build on each other, with their cards and the shared design. — A stack page: three stages that build on each other, their cards and the design switch. Demo project, fictional data.

What a stack is

Some work is bigger than one card and still has an order. Written as one card, it is too much for one agent. Written as a split, the order and the shared look are lost. A stack keeps both: a numbered group of cards in ordered stages, under one optional shared design.

Numbered S-<n> per project, with a title and a body for the whole result
Each stage holds one or more cards, and cards of one stage may run in parallel
Every card of stage N+1 depends on every card of stage N
A card belongs to at most one stack and one stage; there are no nested stacks

S-<n>one stack

One shared design, drawn for the whole result

Stage 1
card
every card here waits on every card above
Stage 2
cardcardrun in parallel
every card here waits on every card above
Stage 3
card

Two stacks, three stages each

Stages follow the order the work has to happen in. Line items need their tax before an editor can total them, and partial payments need invoices to pay. A phone app needs a local store before it can sync, and conflicts only exist once it syncs.

The first stage usually lays the ground the rest builds on
Parallel cards inside a stage keep each pull request small
Invoices v2 has its design switched off, so its cards run as soon as they are Ready
The technician app needs one shared design, so nothing runs until it is approved

S-4Invoices v2northwind-web1/3 accepted

Stack design · switched off: the cards run without waiting for one

1Data model
- C-51 Line items with per-line tax
  Completed
2Invoice editor
- C-52 Invoice editor with live totals
  In progressAuto-run started it
3Payments
- C-53 Partial payments and balance due
  Waitingafter C-52 · Auto-run on

S-5Offline mode for the technician appnorthwind-web0/5 accepted

Stack design · required and not approved yet: no card of the stack runs

1Local store
- C-61 Local job store with SQLite
  Held
  Run disabled: Waits for the stack design to be approved
2Sync
- C-62 Outbound queue for status updates
  Held
  Run disabled: Waits for the stack design to be approved
- C-63 Background sync on reconnect
  Held
  Run disabled: Waits for the stack design to be approved
3Conflicts and UI
- C-64 Resolve edit conflicts
  Held
  Run disabled: Waits for the stack design to be approved
- C-65 Offline banner and pending badge
  Held
  Run disabled: Waits for the stack design to be approved

Stack, split or one card

The intake picks the shape from what you describe. It only proposes; you can switch between Split and Stack in the review, or keep one card.

One clear task that one agent can finish in one pull request: one card, with any order written into What to do
Unrelated tasks, UI changes to different surfaces, or work with no UI: a split of independent cards
One larger piece of work whose parts must happen in order and share one look: a stack
Several UI changes to one screen, one page or one form factor: a stack with a design, Foundations first, even with no natural order

One card

One clear task for one agent and one pull request.

Split

2 to 8 independent cards: unrelated tasks, or one too big.

Stack

Ordered stages that share one look, under one design.

Candidates in Drafts, with their stage numbers

A proposed stack does not create cards. Its cards wait in the Drafts strip as candidates, each with its stage number on a line that runs down to the next stage, under a title like “Proposed stack · 3 stages”.

Open a candidate to read and edit its title, kind and body, or Reject it
Accept all takes the stack as proposed: its stages, its dependencies and its shared design, in one step
Accept a single candidate and it becomes an independent card; Accept rest takes what is left once a row is decided
Select candidates from several intakes and accept them as one new stack

Invoices v2

Proposed stack · 3 stages

Accept all

1
Line items with per-line taxOpenRejectAccept
2
Invoice editor with live totalsOpenRejectAccept
3
Partial payments and balance dueOpenRejectAccept

Drafts on the Board: an intake waiting on questions and a proposed stack of five cards to accept. — Drafts: an intake waiting on questions and a proposed stack of five cards.

One shared design, and the switch that holds it

A stack’s design is drawn for the whole result and approved once, through the same Generate, comment, Revise and Approve flow as a card’s. The intake suggests whether it is needed; the stack page has a Stack design required switch.

While the design is required and not approved, Run is disabled on every card with the reason shown
Generating a card’s own design waits too: it needs the stack design as its reference
Round 1 of each card commits the approved frames into its branch and names them in the worker prompt
Switch the design off and nothing is held; revisions and the approval are kept either way

Stack design requiredNo card of the stack runs until the design is approved.

C-63 Background sync on reconnect Run

Waits for the stack design to be approved

GenerateCommentsReviseApprovethen every card may run

Stage by stage, with Auto-run

Stages are written as ordinary card dependencies, so everything that reads dependencies works for a stack without knowing about it. Turn on Auto-run when ready and each card starts as soon as the stage before it is accepted.

A card of the next stage shows Waiting until every card before it is Completed, then Ready
Auto-run starts it exactly once, within the project’s slots and budget
Run on a waiting card is still possible, with a warning
Once any card has run, stages are no longer reordered

C-51 accepted. Stage 1 is done.
C-52 is Ready. Auto-run starts it, once, within the project’s slots and budget.
C-53 is Waiting on C-52. It starts when C-52 is accepted.

Auto-run when ready

One face on the Board, one page of its own

On the Board a stack is one face in the column of its least advanced unfinished card, with its progress and current stage. Expand it in place to see its cards by stage, or open the stack page.

Progress as accepted over total, and the current stage, like “Stage 2 of 3 · Invoice editor”
A card of the stack in another column shows its stack label on its own face
The stack page holds the design, the stages and the generate and approve controls
The stack page works on a phone

The Nautelle Board for a demo project: cards in Inbox, To Do, In progress and Finished, with PR chips, CI dots and a stack. — The Board with a stack folded into one face.

Make a stack by hand

A pile of related cards that already exists can be folded into one stack. Select two or more cards and choose Group into stack in the selection bar.

Cards must be in no stack and not in Inbox; one card that breaks the rule refuses the whole request
They go into one stage with no dependencies between them, so each still runs on its own
The shared design is off by default; switch it on and Run waits for its approval
A card can join or leave later

C-112 Rate-limit the sign-in endpoint
C-117 Rotate session tokens on password change
C-121 Add a CSP header to the web app

3 selectedGroup into stack

One stage, no dependencies between the cards, design off by default. One face on the Board instead of three.

Where it sits in the chain

The whole chain

A stack is one of the three results the interview can end in, before design and Run.

01Say what you want
02Interview
03Card, split or stack
04Design
05Run
06CI
07Merge

All features

Every screen and setting, in the stacks guide.

The guide covers each control, limit and rule on this page, with the exact names you will see in the app.

Stacks guide