---
title: "Working the board"
description: "How work moves across a Maestro board: the stage column, what each stage means, and when to park an item instead of closing it."
canonical: "https://help.sitesmojo.com/kb/working-the-board/"
---

A board is where work waits. Each item carries a markdown description — the
workspec — and that description is the work record, not a file somewhere in a
repository.

Items move through the **stage** column.

## The stages

| Stage | Means |
|---|---|
| **Inbox** | Filed, not yet looked at by a human |
| **Accepted** | A human read it and agreed it is worth doing |
| **Planned** | Investigated; the workspec now carries a file-level `## Plan` |
| **Building** | Claimed by someone or something that is working on it now |
| **Review** | Built, tests green, waiting on a look |
| **Done** | Shipped |

**Parked** sits off to the side rather than at the end. It is deliberate
deferral — work you are keeping but not addressing. Parked items sort below
Done and hide behind the same "hide finished" control, and they remember the
stage they were parked from.

## Parking, and coming back

Resuming a parked item restores the stage it left. It also posts a warning, on
purpose: a plan written weeks ago describes a codebase that has moved. Treat a
resumed item as unplanned and scope it again before building. Automated
scoping and building both skip parked items for the same reason.

## Filing good items

The workspec is read by an agent that has none of your context. That changes
what a good description looks like:

- **Say what is wrong or wanted, not how to fix it.** The plan comes later, from
  someone who has read the code.
- **Name files and symbols** if you already know them. It saves a search.
- **Include how you would know it worked.** An item with no observable outcome
  cannot be closed honestly.

## Naming things

Boards and items have numeric ids, and those ids are internal keys. When you or
an agent reports work, the human name belongs alongside the id — item
`#586 "An agent cannot see what it deployed"`, not `#586`. An id on its own
makes the reader go look it up.

## Not everything needs an item

Small, single-session changes — a typo, a one-file fix, a config tweak — are
better done than tracked. Same discipline, tests and commits; no workspec, no
stage flips. Keep the board for work worth following.