---
title: Sprints
description: Turn a board into a repeating cycle, roll unfinished work into the next sprint, and read back over finished ones.
section: Boards and tickets
order: 5
---

# Sprints

## What this is for

A sprint series turns one board into a repeating cycle of boards. Each sprint
is a board of its own, named from a prefix and a number — _Sprint 1_, _Sprint
2_, and so on — with the same columns, the same groups and the same people as
the one before it.

When a sprint ends, Laver creates the next board and moves the **unfinished**
tickets across. Finished tickets stay behind, so the board you have just
closed becomes a record of what that cycle actually delivered, and the new
board starts as the honest remainder rather than a fresh guess.

If you do not work in cycles, you never need any of this: a board without a
sprint series behaves exactly as described in
[Boards](/docs/boards-and-tickets/boards).

## Before you start

- You need to be a workspace **owner** or **admin**. Members and viewers can
  work on sprint boards but cannot create a series or roll one over.
- The board must not already belong to a sprint series.
- Every sprint adds a board to the workspace, so the sidebar grows by one board
  per cycle.

## Start a sprint series

1. Open the board you want to turn into Sprint 1.
2. Click **Set up sprints** in the board header.
3. Fill in the dialog:
    - **Name prefix** — defaults to `Sprint`. Sprint boards are named
      "_prefix_ _number_".
    - **Sprint duration** — 7, 14 or 21 days, or **Custom** for anything from 1
      to 90 days.
    - **Start date and time** — optional; leave it blank to start now.
4. Click **Create Sprint 1**.

Laver creates a new board called _Sprint 1_, copies the source board's columns,
groups and board access onto it, and moves **all** of the source board's active
tickets into it. Not just the unfinished ones — the first sprint takes
everything, so the original board is left empty. It is not deleted; you can
keep it as a backlog or delete it yourself.

If a board with the name the series wants already exists, creation is refused
with "An active board named "Sprint 1" already exists." Rename the other board
or pick a different prefix.

## What rollover does

Rollover happens automatically once the sprint's end date passes — Laver checks
for due sprints every minute — or on demand from **Sprint overview** →
**Start next sprint now** → **Start next sprint**.

Rollover creates the next board and then:

| What                                                       | Happens to it                                          |
| ---------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| Tickets **not** in the completion column                   | Moved to the new board, keeping their column and group |
| Tickets in the completion column                           | Left behind on the sprint that just ended              |
| Columns and groups                                         | Copied to the new board, in the same order             |
| Board access                                               | Copied, so the same people can see the new sprint      |
| Comments, attachments, assignees, labels, success criteria | Travel with the ticket that moves                      |

"Unfinished" means precisely one thing: the ticket is not in the column marked
as the board's completion column. That mark is set when a board is first
created and cannot be moved to a different column afterwards — see
[Boards](/docs/boards-and-tickets/boards) — so if you want a different column
to count as finished, rename the existing completion column rather than adding
one.

The new sprint's dates run from the moment the old one was due to end, so an
automatic rollover keeps the cadence even if nobody was looking.

## What "locked" means for a finished sprint

Once a sprint has rolled over, its board is no longer the current sprint, and
Laver stops work from flowing _into_ it:

- Creating a ticket on it is refused: "New tasks can only be added to the
  current sprint."
- Moving a ticket into it from another board is refused: "Tasks can only move
  to the current sprint board." Closed sprint boards are not offered in the
  **Move to board** menu.
- Duplicating a ticket on it is refused: "Tasks can only be duplicated in the
  current sprint."

It is not frozen, though, and it is worth being clear about that: tickets
already on a past sprint board can still be opened, edited, commented on,
reassigned, dragged between that board's columns, and deleted. If you need a
past sprint to be a true unchanged record, agree with your team that you do not
edit it — the product does not enforce it.

## What you will see

On a sprint board, the header carries **Sprint _n_** and the cycle's date
range under the board name, and the **Set up sprints** button becomes **Sprint
overview**.

**Sprint overview** shows:

- The **current cycle** — its dates and length in days.
- **Previous sprints** — every earlier board in the series, newest first. Click
  one to open it; a button then offers to return you to the current sprint.
- **Start next sprint now**, with a confirmation step that names the sprint the
  unfinished tickets will move into.

## Stopping a series

There is no "end series" button. Deleting the board that is the current sprint
switches the series off, and no further rollovers happen. Earlier sprint boards
stay where they are and remain readable.

## Sprints and API keys

Sprint endpoints accept your signed-in session only. An
[API key](/docs/agents-and-api/tickets-by-api) can read and write tickets on a
sprint board but cannot create a series or trigger a rollover.