Turn a workflow into cards and tests

Create the plan makes an epic and cards on a board, saved requests and a test suite in API Tester, and a build brief for each card - all from one workflow.

In short

"Create the plan" turns a workflow into work. It makes an epic for the workflow with cards under it on a board. It also makes saved requests and a test suite in an API Tester project, and a build brief on each card. You see everything it will make before anything is made.

Before you start

The plan reads action steps that need building. A step with "Build this step" switched off makes no card.
Give a step an "API call" (method, path and "Success status") when it calls an API. Only steps with an API call make requests and tests. "Pick from API Tester" fills it from a saved request.
Give each error path the "Status it answers", such as 409, so the error cases have a status to check.
The "Problems" panel shows "Ready to build: 11 of 14 steps". Each gap in the list selects the step it names.
Requirement IDs on a step travel into its card's build brief. See /help/designer/requirement-ids.
Who: making the plan needs Edit on the workflow while you are the one editing it, and the right to add to the board and to the API Tester project. Everyone else can look at it.
Plan: Designer, Boards and API Tester must be on your plan. The plan's cards count against the board's card limit, and its requests against the plan's allowance when run.

Steps

Open the workflow and press "Create the plan", the toolbar's main button (or the "Ready to build" line in "Problems", under "Review").
Under "Cards", choose the "Board". Under "Group under", keep "A new card named" with the workflow's name, or choose "An existing card".
Choose the "Detail": "A task per step", or "One card per journey".
Under "API and tests", choose the "Project", or "Make a new project" and give it a name.
Read the cards it makes, the endpoints and the tests line, such as "1 suite · 23 cases". Switch off a row you do not want.
Read "Before you make it" for warnings, then press "Make it".

Result: "The plan is made." From there, "Open epic" opens the cards and "Open suite" opens the tests. "Copy agent line" copies the line a coding agent runs to read the briefs.

Change the design and sync

The plan stays matched to the workflow. After you change the workflow, open "Create the plan" again. "What syncing changes" lists what will change, and the button reads "Sync the plan".

Only the fields the design owns change: the title, the acceptance criteria and the checklist. Nothing is deleted.
When a person changed a card, its row says "Changed on the card". "Keep the card's" is chosen; pick "Take the design's" to replace it.
A card whose step left the design is marked "No longer in the design" and stays on the board as it is.

Good to know

One plan makes at most 200 cards at a time. Choose "One card per journey", or split the workflow, when it makes more.
"Room for N more cards on your plan" shows the room your plan has left. Archive cards you no longer need to make room.
A plan's cards stay on one board and its tests in one project. Choosing another later is refused.
"Undo" takes the new cards back for 24 hours, while nobody has worked on them, and only for the person who made the plan.
"Brief" on a card shows its build brief, live from the design. "Copy brief" copies it for a person or a coding agent.
Making the plan needs Edit on the workflow while you are the one editing it. Everyone else can look at it.
What happens next: the epic, its cards, the requests and the suite appear on the board and in API Tester, linked to the workflow. Nothing is deleted when you sync.
"Create the plan" opens as a side sheet on a computer and a tablet, and as a sheet from the bottom on a phone.

Run it before the code exists When the project's mock is on, "Run against the mock" opens the mock server, so the designed requests answer before anyone writes code.

See estimates and time

Once the plan is made, its row "Estimate and time" shows each card's estimate on the board and the time tracked on it, added up over the cards under it. A step's inspector shows the same line for its own card, such as "5 points · 3 h 20 min".

Open "Create the plan" on a workflow whose plan is made and find "Estimate and time". "Show estimates" opens it and "Hide estimates" closes it.
Read the table: "Card", "Estimate" and "Time spent". "Whole plan" adds them up and says how many cards are estimated.
To estimate the open cards together, press "Estimate this plan". It opens an estimation session on the board with the plan's open cards.

A card without an estimate reads "Not estimated", and one with no time reads "No time tracked".
Time follows who may see whose time (see /help/time-tracker/who-sees-your-time). The panel says "Time includes your team's, as the Time tracker lets you see it." or "Time shows only what the Time tracker lets you see."
The button says "Every card of the plan is done, or Boards is off for you." when there is nothing left to estimate.

If something goes wrong

"This workflow has no action step that needs building yet." - add an action step, or switch "Build this step" on.
"No step has an API call yet, so no requests or tests are made." - add an "API call" to the steps that call an API.
"Your plan has room for N more cards and this plan makes M." - archive cards, choose "One card per journey", or move to a plan with more room.
"This board is not connected to the project." - cards will not link their tests until a board manager connects the board in its settings.
"Your organization asks for a design to be approved before a plan is made." - press "Ask for sign-off" in the warning.
"Partly made: apply again to finish." - one part failed; the result says which and why. Press "Apply again".

/help/designer/design-a-workflow
/help/designer/build-and-proof-on-the-canvas
/help/designer/build-a-feature-with-coding-agents
/help/boards/coding-agent-on-a-card