# Cycles and the planning calendar

Turn on repeating work cycles, assign issues, let unfinished work roll forward on its own, and read the burnup without squinting.

A cycle is a fixed stretch of weeks with a list of work in it. Hydrant starts it, ends it, carries the leftovers into the next one and keeps score, so nobody has to run a ceremony to find out what happened.

## Before you start

- Cycles are **off** in a new workspace. An **Admin** or the **Owner** turns them on and edits individual cycles.
- **Anyone in the workspace** can view cycles and put issues in or take them out.
- Decide the timezone your cycle boundaries should follow. It can differ from the planning calendar.

[Who can do what](/help/workspace/members#who-can-do-what).

## Steps

### Turn cycles on

1. Go to **Settings › Cycles**, or click **Cycle settings** on the **Cycles** page (only Admins and the Owner see that link).
2. Under **Cadence**, set:
   - **Cycle length:** 1 to 6 weeks.
   - **Start date:** the first day of the first cycle. Hydrant suggests the coming Monday.
   - **Cycle timezone:** a named zone. Boundaries fall at local midnight there, on whole dates.
3. Optional: switch **Cooldown** on for a break between working cycles. Choose a **Cooldown length** of 1 to 14 days and a **Frequency** of every 1 to 12 working cycles.
4. Click **Preview and enable**. Hydrant lists the upcoming cycles with their dates.
5. Check them, then click **Save schedule**.

Cycles and cooldowns share one counter, so with a cooldown after every cycle you get **Cycle 1**, **Cooldown 2**, **Cycle 3** and so on. Without cooldowns it's simply **Cycle 1**, **Cycle 2**. Rename them later if you must.

Changing the schedule later (**Preview schedule**) applies after the current cycle. The current cycle's dates stay as they are.

### Let the schedule run itself

Once enabled, Hydrant starts and ends cycles on schedule without anyone clicking anything. When a working cycle ends:

"Unfinished work gets a forwarding address." Eligible issues move to the next working cycle, blockers and all. Snoozed and Iced work waits for your decision. Done, Canceled and trashed issues stay put.

Cooldowns are skipped by carryover. If you want work in a cooldown, assign it deliberately. Nothing in a cycle ever changes an issue's status, blockers or snooze.

### Assign issues

Each issue sits in at most one cycle.

- **On an issue:** use the **Cycle** row in the side panel. Pick a cycle, or **No cycle** to remove it.
- **When creating one:** set **Cycle** in the new-issue dialog, or click **New issue** on a cycle's page.
- **Several at once:** on a cycle's page, tick up to 50 issues, choose **Move to cycle**, click **Review move**, then confirm. Hydrant moves 5 at a time and shows each result.

The Cycle picker only appears while cycles are on (or when the issue already has one).

### Edit one cycle

On a cycle's page, open **Edit cycle and review**. You can change the **Name**, **Goal**, **Description** and **Review or correction** notes, adjust dates, archive it, or cancel an upcoming one ("retaining its slot as a gap"). **Action** offers **Start now** or **Delete unused future draft** for an upcoming cycle, **End now** for the current one, and **Mark reviewed** or **Reopen review** after it ends. Everything previews before it saves.

For several date changes at once, use **Adjust dates together** in **Settings › Cycles**.

### Pause or disable

Both sit in the **Danger zone** in **Settings › Cycles**, and both preview first.

- **Pause cycles** stops future starts and carryover. The current cycle may finish, and plans and assignments stay.
- **Disable cycles** ends the current period now and stops new assignments. History stays readable.

### Where the planning calendar fits

**Settings › Planning calendar** is a different clock. Its named timezone sets period boundaries for the [Roadmap](/help/planning/roadmap) and [Insights](/help/planning/insights), not for cycles. Cycles follow the **Cycle timezone** you chose above, and personal snoozes follow each person's own. An Admin confirms it once; see [Confirm the planning calendar](/help/planning/roadmap#confirm-the-planning-calendar).

## What you should see

**Cycles** has **Current**, **Upcoming** and **Past** tabs and a search box. Each cycle shows its dates, timezone and phase: **Upcoming**, **Current**, **Awaiting review**, **Reviewed**, **Canceled** or **Suspended**.

A cycle's page leads with its **Goal**, then **The receipts**, counting leaf issues (parents are counted separately as **Grouping parents**):

| Count | Means |
| --- | --- |
| **Original scope** | What was in the cycle when it started. |
| **Done** | Finished inside the cycle. |
| **Remaining** | Still open. |
| **Added scope** | Joined after it started. |

Click any number to filter the issue list to it. **Scope, carryover and exceptions** has the rest: removed, canceled, carried in and out, blocked, snoozed or Iced, and anything done or changed after close. A closed cycle keeps its numbers as they were at close.

If your workspace uses sizes, the receipts also show size points: points committed, points done and how many issues are unsized. Sizes are frozen when a cycle closes, so re-sizing later never rewrites a finished cycle. See [Labels, sizes and priority](/help/using/labels-sizes-priority).

Below that is the **burnup**, one chart per working cycle that has started:

- **Scope** is the issues in the cycle that are still open or were delivered in it. It drops when work is removed, canceled or trashed.
- **Completed** is what's been delivered.
- **Started** is open work in progress or review. It's drawn on top of Completed, so the gap between those two lines is the Started figure.
- A dotted line shows an even pace to the current scope by the last day. It's a pace line, not a prediction. Days still to come are hatched.

**Same numbers as a table** gives you the chart without the geometry. Burnup counts issues, not points.

## If it goes sideways

- **The Cycle picker is missing on an issue.** Cycles are off. An Admin can turn them on in **Settings › Cycles**.
- **"Your role in this workspace does not allow this action."** Schedules and cycle edits need an Admin or the Owner. Assigning issues doesn't.
- **An issue didn't carry over.** It was snoozed or Iced (those wait for you), Done, Canceled, trashed, or there's no next working cycle yet. Its label on the cycle page says which, for example **Needs your decision**.
- **The schedule change didn't touch this cycle.** By design. Changes start after the current cycle. Use **Edit cycle and review** to move this one's last day.
- **"Automation is suspended after recovery. Review a schedule to resume."** Preview and save the schedule again to restart it.
- **The burnup is empty.** "Nothing in scope yet. The chart starts with the first issue." An upcoming cycle has no chart until its first day.
- **A closed cycle shows no points.** It closed before sizes were recorded at close. Later cycles will have them.
- **"The affected issues changed. Review the latest plan before saving."** Someone moved work while you were reviewing. Click **Review latest changes with this draft**. Your choices are kept.

Contact: bots@hydrant.dev