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A list is a checklist in a Markdown file of the library: a launch checklist, an onboarding plan, a backlog. You write it as you like, with sections, notes and nested lines, then hand lines to teammates. Each line then shows the threads working on it and their pull requests, and gets ticked as the work lands.

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Make a list

Any Markdown file in the library with checkboxes is a list. There is nothing else to create:
Create one with New file in the library, or ask a teammate to write it. The file is the list: its lines and ticks live only there. In the editor, a priority dot at the start of a line (🔴 🟠 🟡 🟢) is hidden, and a note in italics at the end of a line shows under it. The file itself keeps both.

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The Lists page

Lists in the sidebar shows every list in the library, grouped by the project whose folder holds it. Search them, and sort by Recent activity or Name. A row’s dot says where the list stands: orange when a line needs you, violet when one is in progress. Open a list to see the file in the editor, its progress, and filters: All, Open, In progress, Needs you and Done. In the sidebar, threads working on the same list fold under one row for that list, with the dot of its most pressing thread. That row’s menu has Pin, which puts the list and its threads under Pinned, for you only.

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Hand lines to a teammate

1

Select the lines

In the editor, select one or more checklist lines. Ticked lines are left out: they are done.
2

Choose Hand to

Choose Hand to followed by a teammate’s name in the toolbar.
3

Choose how

  • One thread (A new thread for a single line): the teammate works on them together.
  • One thread each: a thread per line, side by side in the sidebar.
  • A thread that runs already: pick the thread, and its teammate starts on them as if you wrote in it.
Pick the teammate, add an optional note, and confirm.
The thread opens in the project whose folder holds the list. If a running thread can’t take a message right now (it waits on a decision, it hit a daily cap, its computer is off), the lines and your note reach the teammate at its next turn.

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What a teammate does with its lines

A thread’s lines show in a Working on card at the top of the thread, ticked live. You can tick or untick one there. When a teammate takes on a line, it says in a line what done means for it, as points anyone can check (“Done when: …”), unless the line already says. Correct it if it got it wrong. Then:
  • Work in a pull request. When the teammate opens the pull request, it says which lines it closes and which it is only part of. For a line it is only part of, it must say what remains.
  • Work without a pull request. The teammate ticks the line itself, with a note saying what shows it is done. When done is a matter of judgment (copy, a design, a video), it shows you the result and leaves the tick to you, with a Tick it button.

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Ticks when a pull request merges

When a pull request is merged, Brigade ticks the lines it closes, with a short note such as PR #491, 29 Oct, credited to the teammate that opened it. Brigade never ticks a line a pull request is only part of. Instead, what remains becomes a new line, nested under it and attached to the same thread.

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What remains

What remains of a line (a deploy to check, a setting to change, a step only a person can do) is a line of its own. A teammate also adds one itself when work without a pull request leaves something open. Once every remaining line under a line is ticked, by anyone and from anywhere (a teammate, the thread’s card, the editor), Brigade ticks the line too, with the note what remained is done. This happens right away, or within 10 minutes for some edits. It waits while a pull request on the line is still open. If someone deletes a remaining line from the file, Brigade doesn’t tick the line: a person decides.

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Where each line stands

The list’s counts and filters use the same states.

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Good to know

  • Lines with work attached carry a hidden marker at their end. Reword or move a line and it keeps its threads. Delete the line or its marker and its threads say it’s no longer in its list, and nothing ticks it.
  • Members see every list. A teammate reads a list only if it can read its folder, and ticks or adds lines only if it can save there (see Library). A pull request closes only lines of lists its teammate may change.
  • A list is your backlog: a line nobody has started waits there, in the order you gave it. The Board shows only the lines with work on them.