Working with your tracker
Connecting a tracker is covered in Get started. This guide is about ongoing use: what to link, how type, status, and assignee behave, and how to handle drift.
What to link, what not to link
Section titled “What to link, what not to link”Link cards that represent real tracker items (stories, tasks). Don’t link discussion cards, parking-lot cards, or open questions. The tracker is for committed work.
Who can edit tracker-linked cards
Section titled “Who can edit tracker-linked cards”Zip codes and addresses
Section titled “Zip codes and addresses”CardBoard and your tracker each have their own word for what a card is and where it stands. CardBoard’s word is the zip code, a short vocabulary it owns (story, Started), and the tracker’s word is the address, the exact value inside that zip (User Story, Committed), so a story card can sit at the address “Product Backlog Item” without either side losing track of it. Sync translates. Neither side overwrites the other’s word.
| Zip code (CardBoard owns it) | Address (the tracker owns it) | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | The card type: epic, feature, story, task, bug on a story map, or your map type’s own vocabulary | The work item type: User Story, Product Backlog Item, Issue, Chore |
| Status | The category: Backlog, Not started, Started, Done, Canceled | The workflow state: New, Committed, In Review, Ready for QA |
Work item type
Section titled “Work item type”| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| You send a card to the tracker | CardBoard suggests the work item type that matches the card type: a story card suggests Story or User Story. An untyped card on a story map gets a suggestion from its lane (activities suggest Epic, tasks suggest Task). You can change it before sending. |
| You bring a tracker item in | The item’s type sets the card type once. A Bug arrives as a bug card. |
| Someone re-types the item in the tracker | Only the address changes. The card’s sync panel shows the new tracker type, and the card type stays put. |
| You change the card type in CardBoard | Only the zip changes. The tracker item keeps its type. |
| You disconnect | The card keeps its type. |
A card type is part of how your map reads, so a tracker can’t quietly rewrite it.
Status
Section titled “Status”| On a linked card | On an unlinked card |
|---|---|
| The tracker owns the address. The status menu lists the tracker’s own states, and the card shows the exact one (Committed, not Started). | You own it. Pick a standard status or type your own. |
| The category comes from the tracker, which reports which category each state belongs to. | CardBoard works out the category from the status you chose. |
| Picking a status moves the item to that state in the tracker. Jira goes through your workflow’s transitions, and Trello moves the card to the matching list. | Nothing leaves CardBoard. |
CardBoard colors a card’s status by its zip. Committed, In Progress, and Doing on the same board all read as started work.
Assignee
Section titled “Assignee”A CardBoard assignee is a person on CardBoard, and a tracker assignee is an account in the tracker. Different directories. Sync matches them by email.
| Direction | What happens |
|---|---|
| Tracker to CardBoard (Azure DevOps, Jira) | The card shows who holds the item in the tracker, even if that person has no CardBoard account. If their email matches a CardBoard user, the card is assigned to them and they’re added to the board: as an editor if they’re in the workspace, as a guest if they aren’t. If they aren’t on CardBoard at all, CardBoard emails them an invitation to the board. |
| CardBoard to tracker (Azure DevOps) | The work item is assigned to the Azure DevOps user with the same email. Unassigning the card unassigns the item. |
| CardBoard to tracker (Jira) | Works when CardBoard knows the person’s Jira account, because they’ve connected Jira or have been an assignee before. Otherwise the change is skipped and the card says why. Unassigning the card unassigns the issue. |
| Linear, Shortcut, Trello | Assignees don’t sync. |
Which fields sync
Section titled “Which fields sync”Fields and statuses map automatically; there’s no mapping to configure. Which fields sync depends on the tracker. See the field table in Trackers and each tracker’s page. Position never syncs, so rearranging the map is always safe.
When both sides change
Section titled “When both sides change”The latest change to a field wins. CardBoard ignores tracker updates older than the last one it applied, so a delayed webhook can’t roll a card back.
Tracker reorganization
Section titled “Tracker reorganization”If someone moves a work item to a different project or changes its type, CardBoard re-syncs and broken links surface on the board.
Migrating off a tracker
Section titled “Migrating off a tracker”Disconnecting a board keeps cards, outcomes, and comments; it loses tracker IDs and sync history. Decide whether to migrate or start fresh.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”“I tried to edit a tracker-linked card and got a permission error.” Check whether the user is a workspace guest (rather than a member) and whether the card is linked to a tracker. Guests can edit cards freely, but tracker-linked cards require member status. On Azure DevOps and Jira boards, also check that the member has connected their own tracker account.