Creating an Exploration
New explorations are created through a Linear-style composer modal — context pills for cycle and owner, optional time-box and environment chips, and template-driven custom fields. Press Enter to create when the form is valid.
Step by step
- Click New exploration in the toolbar (or land with
?new=1from a cycle deep-link). - Enter a title for the charter. Optionally expand the rich-text charter field and paste or drag images inline — they upload as you compose and carry through when you create the exploration.
- Optionally set context pills: cycle, owner (defaults to you), environment, time box, tags, and template.
- Fill in required custom fields from the selected template.
- Click Create exploration or press Enter.
The exploration opens in Planned state. Click Start on the detail page when you are ready to begin logging.
Exploration metadata fields
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | Short title for the exploration. Maximum 255 characters. |
| Cycle | No | Sprint, release, or iteration. Only active and upcoming cycles appear. See Cycles. |
| Environment | No | Platform and browser combination. Only enabled environments appear. See Environments. |
| Template | Conditional | Required if exploration templates exist in the workspace. Controls which custom fields appear. See Exploration Templates. |
| State | Conditional | Required if lifecycle states exist for explorations. See Lifecycles. |
| Assigned To | No | Searchable combobox showing project members with avatars. |
| Estimate | No | Expected duration. Accepts token format (1h, 5m, 30s, 1h 30m) and colon format (01:30:00, 23:30). |
| Tags | No | One or more labels for categorisation and filtering. See Tags. |
| Custom Fields | Varies | Determined by the selected template. Each field’s required state is configured per-template. |
Templates and custom fields
Changing the template dynamically loads a different set of custom fields. Required fields (marked with a red asterisk) must have a value before saving. Default values from the template configuration are pre-filled automatically.
TEXT and STRING fields appear in the left column below Environment. All other field types (CHECKBOX, DROPDOWN, MULTI_SELECT, INTEGER, FLOAT, DATE, LINK) appear in the right column card.
No STEPS field. The STEPS field type is not available for exploration templates. If you need structured step-by-step testing, use Test Runs instead.
Template fields describe the exploration, not individual results. Custom fields are set when creating or editing the exploration. On the session runner, TEXT and STRING fields are editable inline in the main column; chip fields (dropdown, multi-select, checkbox, and so on) stay in the Details card on the right rail. They are not recorded per result — each result entry uses its own notes and status.
Estimate format
Two supported formats:
- Token format
- Combine hours, minutes, and seconds:
1h,5m,30s,1h 30m,1h 30m 45s. - Colon format
- Use colons:
01:30:00(1 hour 30 minutes),23:30(23 minutes 30 seconds).
Invalid formats show a validation error and prevent saving.
What happens on save
The exploration is created in Planned state with an empty session log. Navigate to the detail page and click Start to begin the live session.
Edit later. You can adjust all metadata, custom fields, and the template at any time by editing the exploration — see Managing Explorations.