Backlog

The Backlog is a staging area for tasks before they reach the board. Switch between Board and Backlog views using the tabs at the top of the window.

Use the backlog to plan work, triage incoming issues, and batch-promote tasks when you’re ready to run agents.

Creating Items

Click New Task in the backlog toolbar. Enter a title, description, priority, labels, and optional file attachments. You can paste or drag-and-drop any file type as an attachment.

Descriptions support Markdown with full GitHub Flavored Markdown — tables, task lists, strikethrough, and links all render in the edit and detail views. Type @ in the description field for file path autocomplete — a dropdown lists files and directories from the project root.

Labels

Click Labels in the toolbar to manage labels. Labels are free-form text tags added during item creation or editing. From the Labels popover you can:

• Rename a label across all items
• Delete a label
• Assign colors to labels for visual distinction

Labels and their colors are shared between the backlog and the board. When you promote a backlog item, its labels carry over to the board task.

Priorities

Click Priorities in the toolbar to manage the priority scale. The default scale is:

Level	Label	Color
0	None	Gray
1	Low	Blue
2	Medium	Yellow
3	High	Orange
4	Urgent	Red

You can rename priority levels, reorder them, add new ones, or remove existing ones. Priority colors are customizable. The priority scale is configured in backlog.priorities — see Configuration Reference.

Filtering and Search

Click Filter to filter by priority level and/or label. Active filters show a count badge on the Filter button. Use the search bar to filter items by title, description, or label text.

Editing Items

Double-click any row to open it for editing. You can also click the pencil icon in the row’s action buttons, or right-click and select Edit from the context menu.

Multi-Selection and Bulk Operations

Click a row to select it, or use the checkboxes. The header checkbox selects/deselects all visible items. When multiple items are selected, a bulk toolbar appears at the bottom with Move to Board and Delete actions.

Right-clicking with multiple items selected shows a context menu that operates on the entire selection (e.g., “Move 5 to Board”, “Delete 3 items”).

Context Menu

Right-click any backlog row to open a context menu:

• Move to Board — submenu listing all available columns as targets
• Edit — open the item for editing
• Delete — permanently remove the item

Drag to Reorder

Drag rows by the grip handle on the left to manually reorder items. Drag-to-reorder works even when filters or search are active.

When you sort by a column header (priority, title, created date), manual reorder is disabled until the sort is cleared.

Promoting to the Board

Select one or more items, then click Move to Board in the bulk toolbar. Choose a target column and the items become board tasks. If the target column has auto-spawn enabled, an agent session starts immediately.

You can also promote individual items using the arrow icon in the row action buttons or the context menu.

Labels and priorities carry over from backlog items to board tasks.

Importing from External Sources

Click Import in the backlog toolbar to pull tasks from external project management tools.

Supported Sources

• GitHub Issues — import issues from any GitHub repository
• GitHub Projects — import items from a GitHub Project board
• Azure DevOps Work Items — import work items from Azure DevOps boards, sprints, or backlogs
• Asana — import tasks from an Asana project

Prerequisites

• GitHub: The gh CLI must be installed and authenticated. For GitHub Projects, the project scope is required (gh auth refresh -s project).
• Azure DevOps: The az CLI must be installed, authenticated (az login), and the azure-devops extension installed (az extension add --name azure-devops).
• Asana: A personal access token (PAT). Generate one at Asana Developer Console and paste it into the Asana connect dialog on first use.

Adding a Source

1. Click Import > Add Source
2. Choose a provider (GitHub, Azure DevOps, or Asana) and source type
3. Paste the full URL (e.g., https://github.com/owner/repo, https://github.com/orgs/owner/projects/1, https://dev.azure.com/org/project, or https://app.asana.com/0/<project-id>)
4. Click Connect — Kangentic verifies CLI authentication (GitHub, Azure DevOps) or prompts for the PAT (Asana) and saves the source
5. For Azure DevOps sprint URLs, items are automatically scoped to that sprint’s iteration path

Importing Items

1. Click a saved source to open the import dialog
2. Browse items with filtering by title, type, status, assignee, and labels
3. Use the “Imported” toggle to hide already-imported items (on by default)
4. Click anywhere on a row to select it (or use the checkbox)
5. Click Import (N) to pull selected items into the backlog

Imported items include the title, description (markdown), labels, and assignee from the source. Inline images in issue bodies are downloaded as backlog attachments. A small source icon (e.g., the GitHub mark) appears on imported items linking back to the original ticket.

Tip

Items that have already been imported are detected automatically and shown with a checkmark. Re-importing the same source skips duplicates.

Saved sources persist in .kangentic/config.json per project and appear in the Import dropdown for quick re-syncing.