---
title: "Sprints"
slug: workspace/cycles
url: https://projectri.com/docs/workspace/cycles
section: workspace
audience: workspace
app_route: "/[slug]/[user]/cycles"
permissions: [sprint.view, sprint.create, sprint.update, sprint.run, sprint.scope, sprint.delete]
mobile: "/cycles"
updated: 2026-09-08
source: Projectri documentation
---

# Sprints

Fixed windows of committed work inside a project, with a board, a backlog you pull from, and burndown, velocity and cumulative-flow charts.

![Sprints](https://projectri.com/docs-shots/workspace-cycles.png)

## What it is

A sprint is a fixed window in one project with a commitment attached: the work
that was in it when it started. This screen lists a project's sprints, shows the
board for the one you pick, lets you pull work in from the backlog, and draws the
burndown, velocity and cumulative flow behind it.

## How to get there

**Sprints** sits directly under Projects in the main navigation, and in the ⌘K
page search. The **New** menu in the header has a **Sprint** row that brings you
here with the create dialog open.

The page needs `sprint.view`. The rest is split:

- `sprint.create` — create a sprint. Without it there is no **New sprint**
  button.
- `sprint.update` — edit a sprint's name, goal and dates.
- `sprint.run` — start and complete a sprint.
- `sprint.scope` — move tasks in and out of a sprint and reorder the backlog.
- `sprint.delete` — delete a sprint. This one is **not** a member default:
  deleting a sprint detaches every task on it at once.

Members hold view, create, update, run and scope by default.

## How to use it

### Pick a project and a sprint

1. The project picker is beside the title. Sprints live inside a project; the
   page picks your first one and remembers your choice in the URL.
2. The rail on the left groups sprints as **Active**, **Upcoming** and
   **Completed**. The page selects the running one, failing that the next one,
   failing that the most recent.
3. The URL carries the project, the sprint and the tab, so the link you paste
   into a channel opens *this sprint* rather than the sprints page.

### Create a sprint

1. Press **New sprint**.
2. Give it a **Name** — *"Sprint 14"* — and a **Goal**: what this sprint is for,
   in one sentence.
3. Set **Starts** and **Ends**. A new sprint defaults to a two-week window from
   today.
4. Save. It appears under **Upcoming**.

### Pull work in from the backlog

1. Open the **Backlog** tab. It lists everything in the project not committed to
   a sprint, in a hand-set order.
2. Tick the rows you want — sprint planning moves twenty items, not one — and
   the bar at the bottom shows how many and how many points.
3. Choose **Move to sprint…** and pick the sprint.
4. Drag rows to reorder the backlog. Story points are editable inline.

### Start it

1. Select an upcoming sprint and press **Start sprint**.
2. The dialog shows the **Tasks** and **Story points** about to be committed, and
   says plainly that everything added after today counts as scope change rather
   than commitment.
3. A sprint with no work can still be started — it will commit to nothing, and
   the dialog says so.
4. Press **Start sprint**. Day one is recorded and the first snapshot is taken
   immediately, so the burndown starts on the day the sprint actually began.

### Complete it

1. Press **Complete sprint** on the running one.
2. The dialog shows what was **Delivered** and what is **Not finished**, with
   points.
3. Choose what happens to the unfinished work: back to the **backlog**, **carry
   into another sprint** — you then pick which — or **keep** it in this sprint as
   a record.
4. Press **Complete sprint**. A toast names how many items carried over.

The final snapshot is taken *before* anything moves, so the chart records what
the sprint actually ended with.

### Read the charts

Open the **Charts** tab on a selected sprint.

- **Burndown** — remaining work against the ideal line, in points if anything is
  estimated and in tasks otherwise.
- **Velocity** — delivered points per completed sprint, with an average, and a
  predictability figure: what share of commitments were delivered. It needs at
  least one completed sprint.
- **Cumulative flow** — where work is piling up by status. It needs at least two
  days of history.

## What it affects

- **Tasks.** Moving work into a sprint sets the task's sprint; completing one
  either clears it, points it at the next sprint, or leaves it. Every task in
  scope when a sprint starts gets an activity entry naming the sprint.
- **The commitment, once.** Starting a sprint snapshots the committed task count
  and point total. That is what **Scope change** is measured against afterwards,
  and it is why starting and completing have their own actions rather than being
  a status field somebody could set directly.
- **Daily snapshots.** A snapshot row is written per sprint per day — by the
  cron, and again whenever the charts are opened, so a chart is never a day stale
  on a workspace whose cron has not fired. Running it twice in a day overwrites
  the day rather than drawing two points.
- **Progress arithmetic.** Progress is by points once anything is pointed, and by
  task count otherwise, so a team that does not estimate gets a real figure
  instead of a permanent 0%. **Cancelled** work counts as closed — not done, but
  no longer remaining, and a burndown that keeps drawing cancelled work never
  reaches zero.
- **The "behind" warning.** The amber marker on a running sprint means it has
  burnt more of its calendar than of its work, by more than 15 points. It only
  appears while a sprint is running.

## On mobile

The **Sprints** screen in the Expo app is the list — active, then upcoming, then
completed — and tapping one pushes its board. Every number on a card is computed
by the same server-side transform the web uses, so the two cannot disagree.
Planning a sprint and moving a backlog selection stay on the web.

## Limits and gotchas

- **One running sprint per project.** Starting a second is refused, and the
  refusal names the sprint that is still running rather than saying "a sprint is
  already running" and sending you hunting.
- **A completed sprint cannot be restarted.**
- **Editing dates does not start or complete anything.** The status is not
  writable through the edit dialog on purpose — starting and completing have side
  effects (the commitment snapshot, the carry-over) that a field write would
  skip, leaving a sprint marked finished with no record of what it committed to.
- **Sprints are per project.** There is no cross-project sprint view here; switch
  projects with the picker.
- A workspace with no projects shows an empty state rather than a picker — and it
  offers a **Create a project** button only if you may create one.

## Related

- [Projects](/docs/workspace/projects) — sprints live inside one.
- [My tasks](/docs/workspace/my-tasks) — where the work itself is worked.
- [Goals](/docs/workspace/goals) — the longer-horizon commitment.
- [Reports](/docs/workspace/reports) — delivery read across projects rather than within one.

## Related

- [Projects](https://projectri.com/docs/workspace/projects.md): The project list and the project itself — its people, milestones and progress, its tasks as a table, board, timeline or roadmap, and its documents, boards and meetings.
- [My Tasks](https://projectri.com/docs/workspace/my-tasks.md): Every task assigned to you — or the whole workspace — as a Kanban board, a table or a timeline, with counts, a due-date strip, saved views and board setup.
- [Goals](https://projectri.com/docs/workspace/goals.md): Objectives with key results — the numbers that would tell you the goal worked — and a check-in trail showing when each one moved and why.
- [Reports](https://projectri.com/docs/workspace/reports.md): The fixed report page — completion, throughput, burndown, team performance and the effort figures, for this week, this sprint, this month or all time.
