Overview

ProjectLayer is a project management tool built for development teams. It provides kanban boards, task tracking with filtering, milestones, labels, a backlog with direct SupportLayer integration, reports, email notifications, a full activity audit log, and team management with role-based permissions.

Quick start

1. Create an account — Register here. Your first member seat is free.
2. Verify your email — Check your inbox for a verification link and click it to activate your account.
3. Create a project — Give it a name and a prefix (e.g. API). This prefix is used in task keys like API-42.
4. Add tasks — Create tasks with titles, descriptions, priorities, assignees, due dates, and labels.
5. Use the board — Every project gets a default Kanban board with To Do, In Progress, and Done columns. Move tasks between columns.
6. Create milestones — Set deadlines and track progress toward releases or goals.
7. Invite your team — Go to Team Members in the admin sidebar and send email invitations with a chosen role.

Key concepts

• Organization — Your workspace. All projects, members, and settings belong to an organization. A user can belong to multiple organizations.
• Project — Groups related tasks, boards, milestones, labels, and backlog items. Each project has a unique prefix for task keys.
• Task — An individual work item with a key (e.g. API-42), status, priority, assignee, due date, labels, and comments.
• Board — A Kanban view with ordered columns. Tasks are placed in columns and moved between them.
• Milestone — A target date or goal. Assign tasks to a milestone to track progress.
• Label — A color-coded tag for categorizing tasks within a project.
• Backlog — A holding area for items that haven't been promoted to tasks yet. Items can arrive from the API (e.g. SupportLayer) or be converted to tasks.
• Access group — A role that defines what a member can do. Default groups: Administrator, Member, Viewer.

Projects

Projects are the top-level container for all work. Each project has:

• Name and prefix — The prefix (e.g. WEB) is used in task keys like WEB-15.
• Description — Optional project description visible on the overview page.
• Owner — An optional team member who owns the project.
• Status — Active, Completed, or Archived. Archived projects are hidden from the main list.

From a project's overview page, you can navigate to Tasks, Board, Backlog, Milestones, and Labels using the tabbed sub-navigation.

Projects can be edited or archived from the project overview page.

Tasks & filtering

Tasks are the core work items. Each task includes:

• Task key — Auto-generated from the project prefix (e.g. API-42).
• Status — Open, In Progress, Done, or Closed. Change inline on the task detail page.
• Priority — Low, Medium, High, or Critical.
• Assignee — A team member responsible for the task. Change inline.
• Due date — Optional deadline. Set at creation or change inline.
• Labels — Color-coded tags from the project's label set.
• Description — Detailed information about the work.
• Comments — Threaded discussion on each task.

Filtering tasks

The task list includes a filter toolbar. You can filter by:

• Text search — Matches against task titles.
• Status — Show only tasks in a specific status.
• Priority — Show only tasks of a specific priority.
• Assignee — Show tasks assigned to a specific member, or show unassigned tasks.

Filters are applied via URL query parameters, so filtered views can be bookmarked or shared.

Deleting tasks

Tasks can be permanently deleted from the task detail page. This requires the task.delete permission.

Kanban boards

Every project comes with a default Kanban board containing three columns: To Do, In Progress, and Done.

Tasks can be moved between columns using the move buttons on each task card. Moving a task to a "complete" column (like Done) automatically sets its status to Done.

Tasks not assigned to any column appear in a separate "No Column" section on the board, with buttons to move them into any column.

Milestones

Milestones represent releases, sprints, or goals with optional due dates.

• Create milestones from the Milestones tab within a project.
• Assign tasks to milestones to track progress.
• Open or close milestones to mark them as complete.
• The milestone list shows the number of associated tasks.

Labels

Labels are color-coded tags for categorizing tasks within a project.

• Create labels from the Labels tab — pick a name and color.
• Assign labels to tasks using checkboxes on the task detail page.
• Labels appear as colored pills on both the task list and task detail views.

Backlog

The backlog is a holding area for work items that haven't been promoted to full tasks.

• Items can arrive via the Backlog API (e.g. from SupportLayer).
• Each item shows its source, priority, and a link back to the originating ticket.
• Accept — Mark as approved for future work.
• Reject — Decline the item.
• Convert to task — Create a full task from the backlog item, with the title, description, and priority carried over.

Reports

The Reports page (available to admins) provides an overview of your organization's work:

• Summary stats — Total tasks, overdue count, active tasks, completed tasks.
• Tasks by status — Bar chart showing the distribution of tasks across statuses.
• Tasks by priority — Bar chart showing priority distribution.
• Tasks by project — Count of tasks per project.
• Team workload — Bar chart showing how many open tasks each team member has.

Email notifications

ProjectLayer sends email notifications for key task events. Each user can control their preferences from the Profile & Notifications page.

All notifications include a direct link to the task.

Activity log

Every task has a full activity log visible on its detail page, below the comments section. The log records:

• Task creation (including creation from backlog items)
• Status changes (with old and new values)
• Priority changes
• Assignee changes
• Due date changes
• Comments added

Each entry shows the actor, the action, and the timestamp.

Team management

Manage your organization's members from Admin → Team Members.

• View members — See name, email, role, and status for every member.
• Change roles — Use the role dropdown on any member to change their access group instantly.
• Suspend members — Temporarily revoke access. Suspended members cannot log in to the organization.
• Reactivate members — Restore access for a suspended member.

You cannot suspend the last administrator — at least one admin must remain active.

Inviting members

Invite new members from the Team Members page:

1. Enter the invitee's email address.
2. Select a role (Administrator, Member, or Viewer).
3. Click Send invite.

The invitee receives an email with a link to join. If they already have a ProjectLayer account, they are automatically added to your organization. If not, they are prompted to create an account and are added upon completion.

Invitations expire after 7 days.

Roles & permissions

Every member belongs to one access group within an organization. Three default groups are created with each organization:

Custom access groups can be created from Admin → Access Groups with any combination of permissions:

Registration

Create an account at the registration page. You'll provide your name, email, password, and organization name. A new organization is created automatically with you as the administrator.

Three default access groups (Administrator, Member, Viewer) are provisioned with your organization.

Email verification

After registration, you'll receive a verification email. Click the link to verify your email address. You must verify before you can sign in.

If you didn't receive the email, use the resend verification page.

Password reset

If you've forgotten your password:

1. Go to Forgot password from the sign-in page.
2. Enter your email address.
3. Check your inbox for a reset link (valid for 1 hour).
4. Click the link and set a new password (minimum 8 characters).

Branding

Customize the portal appearance from Admin → Branding:

• Primary colour — Used for the sidebar, buttons, and links. Enter a hex value (e.g. #3d2f7c).
• Accent colour — Used for highlights and secondary actions.

Leave fields empty to use ProjectLayer's default colours. Changes take effect immediately for all members.

Billing

ProjectLayer uses simple per-seat pricing:

• Free plan — 1 member seat included. No credit card required.
• Pro plan — 1 free seat + additional paid seats at $12 USD / £10 GBP / €12 EUR per month.

All features are available on both plans. There are no feature gates. Administrators and viewers do not count toward paid seat limits.

Manage your subscription from Account & Plan. Pro plan customers can manage billing, change payment methods, and adjust seat counts via the Stripe billing portal.

API Authentication

The ProjectLayer API uses Bearer token authentication. Generate API keys from Settings → API Keys in the portal.

Include the key in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer pl_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

API keys are scoped to your organization. All requests made with a key will only see and modify data within that organization.

Base URL

https://your-projectlayer-domain.com/api/v1/

Error responses

Errors return a JSON object with an error field:

{
  "error": {
    "code": "authentication_failed",
    "message": "Invalid or revoked API key."
  }
}

API — Projects

List projects

GET /api/v1/projects

Returns all active projects in your organization.

Response:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "name": "API Platform",
      "slug": "api-platform",
      "prefix": "API",
      "status": "active"
    }
  ]
}

API — Backlog

Create a backlog item

POST /api/v1/backlog

Request body:

{
  "project_id": 1,
  "title": "Customer reports broken CSV export",
  "description": "Details from the support ticket...",
  "priority": "high",
  "source_service": "supportlayer",
  "source_ticket_id": 1842,
  "source_ticket_url": "https://support.example.com/portal/tickets/1842"
}

Response (201 Created):

{
  "id": 15,
  "status": "pending"
}

Duplicate detection: If a backlog item already exists for the same source_service + source_ticket_id, the API returns 409 Conflict with the existing item's ID and status.

Get a backlog item

GET /api/v1/backlog/{id}

Response:

{
  "id": 15,
  "title": "Customer reports broken CSV export",
  "status": "pending",
  "priority": "high",
  "project_id": 1,
  "source_service": "supportlayer",
  "source_ticket_id": 1842,
  "converted_task_id": null,
  "created_at": "2026-04-10T14:30:00+00:00"
}

List backlog items

GET /api/v1/backlog?project_id=1&status=pending

Both query parameters are optional. Returns up to 100 items, newest first.

SupportLayer Integration

ProjectLayer integrates with SupportLayer to convert support tickets into backlog items automatically.

How it works

1. Generate an API key in ProjectLayer (Settings → API Keys).
2. Configure the key in your SupportLayer instance under Integrations.
3. When a support agent clicks "Send to ProjectLayer" on a ticket, SupportLayer calls the POST /api/v1/backlog endpoint.
4. The ticket appears in your ProjectLayer backlog with a link back to the original ticket.
5. Your team reviews the backlog and converts accepted items into tasks.

Backlog statuses

Deduplication

If SupportLayer sends the same ticket twice (same source_service + source_ticket_id), the API returns 409 Conflict instead of creating a duplicate. The response includes the existing backlog item's ID and current status.