Group work with epics

An epic is a color-coded label that groups related tasks inside a project: a phase, a theme, a deliverable (“Phase 1”, “Onboarding”, “Mobile app”). Tasks keep all their own fields; the epic just ties them together visually so you can groom and report theme by theme.

Epics are per-project. If you need labels that work across projects, use tags instead; tags are organization-wide.

Create and manage epics

1. Open your project’s Backlog tab and select Epics in the toolbar. The Project epics dialog lists every epic with its color and task count.

2. Select New epic, type a name, and pick a color from the palette.

3. Select Add epic.

From the same dialog you can:

• Rename an epic: double-click its name or use the pencil icon.
• Change its color: click the color swatch and pick a new one. The new color applies everywhere the epic appears.
• Delete an epic: the confirmation tells you how many tasks are linked. The tasks themselves are untouched; they just lose the epic label.

Tip

You do not have to leave the task form to create an epic. The Epic field in the task form has a + New epic shortcut that opens the same dialog.

Assign tasks to an epic

Open a task and pick the epic in the Epic dropdown, next to the Sprint field. Choosing the empty option removes the task from its epic. The field appears on top-level tasks, not on subtasks, and your organization can hide or relabel it in its form configuration.

You can also set the epic inline from the Grid view, which has an Epic column with a dropdown in every row.

Where epics show up

• Backlog: each task that belongs to an epic shows a chip in the epic’s color under its title, so a backlog grooming pass naturally reads theme by theme. See grooming the backlog.
• List view: an Epic column is available; turn it on from the view’s column controls (it is hidden by default).
• Grid view: same, an Epic column you can enable, with inline editing.

FAQs

What is the difference between an epic and a sprint? A sprint answers “when”: a time-boxed window of work. An epic answers “what”: a theme that can span many sprints. A task can have both at once.

What happens to tasks when I delete their epic? Nothing except the label. The tasks stay exactly where they are, with all fields intact, and simply show no epic chip anymore.

Can an epic span multiple projects? No. Epics belong to one project. For cross-project grouping, use tags or portfolios.