Cycle Types
A cycle type is a reusable category of cycle — its name, icon and colour — and it decides which projects can plan cycles of that kind. Project members pick from the types available to their project when they create a cycle, so the vocabulary and the visual language stay the same across teams.
Where to find them
Open Settings → Cycles, listed under Execution in the settings menu. The page is headed Cycles and holds one panel, Cycle types, with the number of types beside the title.
The list
Two columns and a row menu:
- Cycle type — the icon in its colour, then the name. The workspace default carries a Default chip beside its name; there is no separate Default column.
- Projects — All, a count, or None shown as a warning. Hovering None explains the consequence: “Not available in any project, so no cycle can use this type.”
Types are listed newest first and there is no sort control, so a type you have just created sits at the top. Search cycle types filters the list as you type; when nothing matches, the panel reads “No cycle types match ‘…’” with “Try a different name or icon.” and a Clear search button. Refresh cycle types re-reads the list from the server.
The row menu
Each row carries one menu — Actions for <name> — and nothing else. There are no per-row edit, delete or default controls.
| Menu item | What it does | When you cannot use it |
|---|---|---|
| Edit cycle type… | Opens the editor. | Always available. |
| Set as default | Makes this the workspace default. | Absent on the type that already is the default. Greyed on a type scoped to selected projects, labelled Only a type available in all projects can be the default. |
| Delete cycle type… | Removes the type. | Greyed on the default, labelled Default. |
A blocked item carries its reason in the label, so you can see why before you click rather than after.
Creating and editing a type
Click New cycle type, or Edit cycle type… in a row’s menu. Either opens a dialog — one scroll, no tabs — introduced as “The kind of cycle teams plan in — a sprint, a release, an iteration.”
- Icon — the button beside the name opens a picker holding a filter box, a grid of icons, and a set of named colours (Gray, Red, Orange, Amber, Yellow, Lime, Green and so on). Colour is chosen from that set; there is no free hex field. A new type opens on a default icon and colour, so it is never blank.
- Name — required, up to 100 characters, with the placeholder e.g. Sprint, Release, Iteration and the hint “Shown wherever a cycle of this type appears.” Names are unique within the workspace, ignoring case.
- Appears as — a live preview of the icon, colour and name as project members will see them.
- Availability — All projects (Including new ones) or Selected projects.
- Projects — shown only when Availability is Selected projects. A searchable picker; once you have chosen, the count joins the row’s label (Projects (1)). Switching to Selected projects starts from an empty selection, so the choice is deliberate.
On an edit, Save changes stays greyed until something actually changes.
When errors appear
Requirements sit in the hints and only become errors when you try to save — never on leaving a field. Pressing Create cycle type with an empty name replaces the name hint with Name is required; typing clears it and the hint comes back. The Projects row behaves the same way, with Choose at least one project.
A name that is already taken comes back to the form. If the server refuses the name, the dialog reopens on exactly what you submitted, with the reason on the name field — “A cycle type with this name already exists. Choose a different name.” — cleared the moment you type. Nothing you entered is lost, and the list is unchanged.
The default cycle type
Exactly one type in the workspace is the default. It is the one pre-selected in the cycle composer’s Type pill; project members can change it before creating the cycle.
- To change it, use Set as default in the row menu of the type you want. The previous holder is demoted in the same move — there is always exactly one default.
- The toast confirms it (“Release is now the default cycle type”) and offers Undo, which restores the previous default (“Sprint is the default cycle type again”).
- There is no way to have no default at all: the flag moves from one type to another, it is never cleared.
- The default type cannot be deleted.
- Types you add here reach the project composer on their own — nothing has to be configured on the project side.
The default must be available in all projects. Every project pre-selects it, so a default only some projects could use would leave the rest pre-selecting a type they are not allowed to create. The product says so before you act, in both directions:
- Set as default is greyed on a type scoped to selected projects, labelled “Only a type available in all projects can be the default”.
- In the editor for the current default, Availability is locked, with “The default type must be available in all projects” as the reason.
To scope today’s default to specific projects, make another all-projects type the default first, then edit the original.
Deleting a type
Row menu → Delete cycle type…. The confirm names where anything already using the type will land:
“The type is removed from the workspace. Cycles already using it are reassigned to the default type, <default>. The cycles themselves are kept.”
No cycle is lost: every cycle that used the deleted type moves to the workspace default and keeps its name, dates, runs and progress — only the type association changes. There is nothing to type to confirm, and no Undo. Deletion is permanent.
When someone else changed it first
Two admins can have the same list open. If the type you acted on moved underneath you, your change is not applied and a dialog says which case it was. Both offer Close and Refresh list, and neither offers a retry — retrying would fail the same way.
- It was deleted — “<name> no longer exists”, “Someone else deleted this cycle type before your change was saved. Nothing was applied.”
- It changed — “<name> changed while you were editing”, “Someone else saved a different version. Refreshing loads theirs so you can re-apply your change on top.” followed by the server’s own reason, such as “It is now set as the default type. You cannot delete or modify the default cycle type.”
Project availability
Use availability to scope a type to the teams that need it:
- A Sprint type every team plans in → All projects.
- A Discovery type only one team runs → Selected projects, with that project chosen.
A project’s composer offers exactly the types available to it, each with its admin icon and colour. With Sprint and Release on all projects and Discovery scoped to one of them, that project’s Type picker lists all three and every other project’s lists two.
Changes are live rather than deferred: rename a type and existing cycles show the new name on their type chip, and the composer offers it under the new name. Existing cycles keep their type through a rename or a change of scope.