# Give expedited work its own lane

Two support requests have breached their SLA: "Kestrel Logistics: claim
2026-04417 stuck after adjuster upload" and "Lakeshore Hospitality: duplicate
payout on claim 2026-03980". They sit in different columns, one in **In
Progress** and the other in **In Review**, so nobody sees them as one thing. A
lane puts them in their own row, across the whole board.

## Before you start

A named board in the AnyKanban hub that does not take its layout from a team's
board. On a board that does, the **Swimlanes** tab shows that team's rows
instead of a lane editor, with a link to the team's board, where the rows are
changed. Named lanes take precedence over the **Lane field**, so if that box is
filled in, it is ignored from the moment the first named lane exists.

## Steps

1. Open the board and select **Settings**.
2. Open the **Swimlanes** tab.
3. Select **Add lane** and type a **Lane name**, for example `Expedite`.
4. Select **Add condition** and set it: field `Tags`, operator `contains`,
   value `sla-breach`.
5. Add a second condition if the lane needs one. All conditions of a lane must
   match. Add further lanes the same way; they are matched from the top down
   and the first lane that matches takes the card.
6. Select **Save**.

## What you should see

The board is now a stack of rows: one per named lane, in the order you defined
them, then a **(no lane)** row at the bottom holding everything that matched
nothing. That last row appears the moment an item matches no lane and is not
drawn while nothing is in it. Each row has a chevron, its name and a count, and
repeats the full set of columns.

Both breached support requests are in the Expedite row, in whichever column
their state puts them.

![Criteria-based swimlanes: the two breached support requests in their own Expedite row](https://anykanban.com/docs/_img/swimlanes-criteria.png)

## Notes

Dropping a card into a lane applies that lane's literal `=` conditions as field
writes, which is the native swimlane rule. A lane defined with `contains`, or with a
macro value, has nothing to write, so cards cannot be moved into it by
dragging; they arrive when the data matches. The same holds for the
**(no lane)** row, which collects items that match no lane and cannot be aimed
at. While a card is in the air, every such row is dimmed, with the reason as
its tip; releasing the card there cancels the move and changes nothing on the
item, its order included. A lane with no conditions at all never matches
anything.

Every empty cell the card may enter opens into a dashed slot one card high
while the card is in the air, so there is something to aim at; at rest the
rows stay compact. A drop into an empty cell changes the lane, and the state
when the cell is in another column, but never the order: the card keeps its
place. The same holds for an empty column on a board without swimlanes.
Dropped below the last card of a cell that has cards, it lands right after
that card, not at the end of the whole column.

The row count is every loaded item in that lane, including items in removed
states and items sitting in **Unmapped**, so it can legitimately exceed the sum
of the column counts in its row. Note also that the inline **New item** button
is not shown while swimlanes are on.

## Related

- [Get one row per work item type](https://anykanban.com/docs/shape-the-board/one-row-per-work-item-type/)
- [Make regulatory work impossible to miss](https://anykanban.com/docs/shape-the-board/make-work-impossible-to-miss/)
- [Collapse the parts of the board you are not using](https://anykanban.com/docs/shape-the-board/collapse-what-you-are-not-working-on/)