# Start here

AnyKanban is an Azure DevOps extension that turns **any saved work item query** into an interactive Kanban board and a reorderable, backlog-style list, including work item types that native Azure Boards cannot show because they live outside the backlog hierarchy, boards that span several projects, and bugs for teams that manage them with tasks, which Azure Boards leaves without a bug board.

*If you can query it, you can board it.*

It adds three surfaces to a project: a **hub** under Boards with named, shared board definitions; **Board** and **Aging WIP** tabs on any query's results for an ad-hoc board, and its aging chart, that need no configuration; and a **dashboard widget** showing a board's column counts with a direct link to it.

## Documentation

| Page | Audience | What you will find |
|---|---|---|
| [User Guide](https://anykanban.com/docs/user-guide/) | Everyone using a board; project admins configuring one | Quick start for your first board, step-by-step recipes for common tasks, the configuration tabs, how to read the board (WIP, styles, split columns, swimlanes, Unmapped), conflict behavior in plain words, troubleshooting/FAQ |
| [Prerequisites](https://anykanban.com/docs/prerequisites/) | Organization / process administrators | What must exist before the first board works: extension install, the process's order field on the work item type, the backing query, optional fields for split columns, for columns that share a state and for swimlanes, permissions |
| [Technical Documentation](https://anykanban.com/docs/technical-documentation/) | Developers and maintainers | Architecture and module map, data flows, the concurrency model with live-verified Azure DevOps error semantics, settings storage, the test harness and BDD suite, build/release, platform limits |
| [Security and data handling](https://anykanban.com/docs/security-and-data-handling/) | Security reviewers and administrators | What the extension requests, what it stores and where, and what it deliberately does not do |

### Guides

| Page | When to read it |
|---|---|
| [A board for what the business asked for](https://anykanban.com/docs/guide-business-requests/) | Your requests live in a work item type that never reaches a team backlog |
| [A board for types that never reach a backlog](https://anykanban.com/docs/guide-types-outside-the-backlog/) | You want a board for Support, Feedback, Impediment, Risk or Test Case items |
| [One board across several projects](https://anykanban.com/docs/guide-cross-project-boards/) | The work you follow is spread over more than one project |
| [One board across several teams' sprints](https://anykanban.com/docs/guide-several-teams-one-board/) | Several teams work on one program, each in its own sprint |
| [A board for bugs when bugs are configured as tasks](https://anykanban.com/docs/guide-bugs-as-tasks/) | Your team manages bugs with tasks and has no bug board |

### Tasks, by what you want to do

| Group | What you will find |
|---|---|
| [Get a board](https://anykanban.com/docs/get-a-board/) | Every way to end up looking at a board, from the quickest to one that spans projects |
| [Follow work through links](https://anykanban.com/docs/follow-work-through-links/) | How a card outside the backlog shows how far along its linked work is |
| [Move work](https://anykanban.com/docs/move-work/) | Changing state and order, with a mouse, with the keyboard, and when the process refuses |
| [Shape the board](https://anykanban.com/docs/shape-the-board/) | The settings that turn a list of cards into a board your process can be read from |
| [Find and analyze](https://anykanban.com/docs/find-and-analyze/) | Narrowing a large board to the card you need, and reading the board as evidence |
| [Edit in place](https://anykanban.com/docs/edit-in-place/) | Small changes without leaving the board |
| [Share and navigate](https://anykanban.com/docs/share-and-navigate/) | Putting a board in front of other people, and moving between boards |
| [Work with others](https://anykanban.com/docs/work-with-others/) | What happens when more than one person has the board open |
| [Concepts](https://anykanban.com/docs/concepts/) | Why the board behaves the way it does |

## In one paragraph

Columns come from the work item type's state model, unless the board defines its own list of columns over those states; board membership comes from the query; order comes from the one numeric order field your process uses, derived for the board's type, so the board, the list, the query and the backlog show the same order; a query with no sort of its own is shown in that order, and a query that sorts by another field keeps its own order, with reordering off. Every write is protected by a work item revision check, so simultaneous edits do not lose an update. The board refreshes itself (about every 20 seconds and on focus). Configuration is stored per named board: a board in a team's group or the project board list is listed for the project, and a board kept in **My board list** is in your own set, which nobody else's list shows. Personal choices such as Board or List view, collapsed columns and list column widths are remembered for each user. A filter applies only to the board you have open and is not saved, except on a saved query's page, where the filter you leave on is remembered for both of its tabs until you clear it.