# Codecks Manual > Codecks is a Project Management Tool made for Game Developers ## Fundamentals - [First Steps](https://manual.codecks.io/first-steps/): An introductory guide covering core Codecks concepts like cards (states, conversations), organizing with decks, planning with milestones/runs, the personal hand dashboard, community features, and suggests a project setup. - [Scope-Driven Production](https://manual.codecks.io/scope-driven-production/): Scope-Driven Production is a methodology built around five tenets: organizing work around assets, tracking effort by discipline, using relative complexity for estimation, managing parallel pipelines, and controlling scope through data. - [Project Setup](https://manual.codecks.io/project-setup/): A battle-tested structure for organizing game projects using spaces for GDD and tasks, asset decks with journeys for pipeline templates, and dual perspectives for producers and individual contributors. - [Hero Cards and Journeys](https://manual.codecks.io/hero-cards/): Hero Cards bundle related sub-cards (like Epics), while Journeys template sequences of these sub-cards, enabling repeatable asset pipelines and providing overviews of complex features. ## Card Basics - [Workflow](https://manual.codecks.io/workflow/): Describes the built-in card workflow states (Unassigned, Assigned, Started, Blocked, In-Review, Done, Archived), detailing state transitions, the role of Blocked/Review in conversations, auto-archiving, and snoozing for inactive cards. - [Conversations](https://manual.codecks.io/conversations/): Conversations within Codecks Cards facilitate team communication using closable, threaded discussions tied to specific Cards, featuring notifications, reminders, and emoji reactions to ensure topics reach conclusions. - [Hand](https://manual.codecks.io/hand/): The Hand is a personal dashboard showing a user's prioritized task queue (Card Hand), ongoing conversations needing attention, bookmarks, pinned milestones/runs, team hands, activity, and private ghost Cards. - [Text Editor](https://manual.codecks.io/text-editor/): The card text editor supports Markdown formatting with helpers (slash commands, floating bar), checklists, referencing other cards ($) and users (@), embedding images/emojis, focus/wide modes, and tags (#). - [Owner](https://manual.codecks.io/owner/): Each card has a single Owner, the person responsible for the task, assigned via properties or shortcuts; Codecks enforces single ownership to ensure clarity. - [Priority](https://manual.codecks.io/priority/): Cards have a Priority level (High, Medium, Low, or None) to indicate importance, assignable via various methods, with customizable labels and used for sorting and filtering tasks. - [Effort](https://manual.codecks.io/effort/): Effort is a numerical property on cards representing estimated work size (using time or points), assignable via various methods, customizable with different scales, and used in progress tracking and metrics. - [Attachments](https://manual.codecks.io/attachments/): Cards can contain file or image attachments, accessible via a sidebar, which can be added via drag-and-drop or pasting; images can also be set as custom card covers. - [Tags](https://manual.codecks.io/tags/): Tags allow free-form categorization of cards across decks using #tag syntax; differentiates between admin-managed Project Tags (with optional colors/emojis, auto-assignment) and User Tags for flexible organization and search. - [Doc Cards](https://manual.codecks.io/doc-cards/): Doc Cards are a special card type without workflow states, priority, or effort, designed for game design documents and reference material, featuring a visible word count and supporting linking for wiki structures. ## Organizing Cards - [Decks](https://manual.codecks.io/decks/): Decks in Codecks are collections where Cards (tasks, ideas, bugs) are organized. Each Card belongs to one Deck, forming a backlog. Decks can be structured by department or asset type and utilize Spaces for navigation. They support descriptions, default inbox settings, and can hold thousands of Cards. - [Projects](https://manual.codecks.io/projects/): Projects are containers for decks and define user access boundaries; they can be organized with images and spaces, hidden/shown in Mission Control, archived, or deleted. - [Sorting & Grouping](https://manual.codecks.io/sorting/): Details Codecks' flexible card sorting and grouping options within views like Decks and Milestones, including manual ordering with zones, various property-based sorts, drag-and-drop interactions, table view, and setting default sorts. - [Runs](https://manual.codecks.io/runs/): Runs are Codecks' version of Sprints, allowing setup of recurring work cycles with capacity tracking, statistics, and an optional 'Beast Mode' (Pro) to track tasks delayed across multiple Runs. - [Milestones](https://manual.codecks.io/milestones/): Milestones associate cards with specific deadlines or release dates, visible on the Timeline view; they support descriptions, statistics, burndown charts, capacity tracking, and can be pinned for quick access. - [Vision Board](https://manual.codecks.io/vision-board/): An introduction to Vision Boards, a whiteboard feature that integrates with your production backlog. Use it for brainstorming, mood boards, and creating live, high-level dashboards with smart nodes that track real-time progress on your project goals. - [Dependencies](https://manual.codecks.io/dependencies/): Dependencies (Pro feature) link cards to track relationships, preventing work on a card until its prerequisites are done and notifying owners when a card becomes unblocked. - [Due Dates](https://manual.codecks.io/due-dates/): Due Dates (Pro feature) allow associating cards with specific dates, triggering notifications for owners on the due date and highlighting upcoming deadlines in the Hand and Timeline views. ## Advanced - [Search & Navigation](https://manual.codecks.io/search/): The search system in Codecks combines powerful filtering with instant navigation. Use triggers like @ for users, # for tags, and $ for card IDs to quickly find what you need or jump directly to any card or deck. - [Bulk Actions](https://manual.codecks.io/bulk-actions/): Bulk Actions enable you to select multiple cards and perform operations on them simultaneously, including changing properties (owner, tags, effort, priority), moving cards (deck, hand, run, milestone), creating hero cards, archiving, deleting, copying, and exporting to CSV. - [Quick Settings and Card Actions](https://manual.codecks.io/quick-settings/): The Quick Settings panel is a keyboard-friendly overlay for rapidly modifying a card's core properties (Deck, Owner, Run, Milestone, Priority, Effort), while the More Options (…) menu collects card-level actions like copying content, converting list items, bookmarking, and archiving. - [Activity](https://manual.codecks.io/activity/): The activity feed tracks Codecks updates, filtering by action type and scope (user, deck library, deck, run, milestone), aiding in progress monitoring and answering questions about project developments. - [Time Tracking](https://manual.codecks.io/time-tracking/): Time Tracking (Pro feature) allows logging work duration on cards either manually or via a real-time timer (auto-started with workflow state changes), with reports for analysis and export. - [Shortcuts](https://manual.codecks.io/shortcuts/): Provides a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts for navigating Codecks, manipulating cards (creation, editing, workflow, properties), managing bulk selections, and accessing different views. - [User Management & Permissions](https://manual.codecks.io/users/): Covers user management, roles (Owner, Admin, Staff, Observer, Producer), project access control based on roles and visibility settings, and a detailed permission matrix for various actions. - [History](https://manual.codecks.io/history/): The card history panel displays a chronological log of all changes to a card, including edits, property updates, workflow transitions, conversations, and time tracking entries, and allows managing watchers. - [Guardians](https://manual.codecks.io/guardians/): Guardians (Pro feature) are designated approvers for a deck; cards in that deck require review and approval from all Guardians before non-Guardians can mark them as done. - [Plans & Pricing](https://manual.codecks.io/plans/): Explains the Free, Plus, and Pro plans with their features, user/project limits, storage, and billing information including subscriptions, invoices, and payment methods. ## Integrations - [User Reports & Unity Integration](https://manual.codecks.io/user-reports/): Enables collecting feedback directly from applications (via API or Unity plugin) into Codecks cards, using Report Tokens for builds and Access Keys for managing tokens, with configurable settings and email updates. - [Open Decks](https://manual.codecks.io/open-decks/): Open Decks allow publicly sharing project content online, enabling visitors to view cards, join a community, upvote items (optional), and receive updates, with configurable presentation and statistics. - [API](https://manual.codecks.io/api/): A guide for developers on using the Codecks API to read and write data, covering authentication, query examples (GraphQL-like), data restrictions, and integration examples like file uploads with Python. - [Importers](https://manual.codecks.io/import/): Provides options to import data into Codecks via a generic CSV importer (with column mapping and update capabilities) or specific importers for Trello and HacknPlan, detailing the mapping of properties. - [Discord](https://manual.codecks.io/discord/): Integrates the Decky bot with Discord for community feedback via slash commands, upvoting, automated status updates on cards, direct messaging between Codecks and Discord users, leaderboards, and karma.