# Project Timelines A Project's Timeline tracks progress against a set of milestones defined by a [Timeline Template](urls/timeline_templates.html.md#timeline-templates). A Project can have at most one timeline at a time. ## Applying a Timeline to a Project The Project's timeline is applied from the Project settings page (the *Timelines* tab). Users with the Project-level **Manage Project** permission can: - Select a [Timeline Template](urls/timeline_templates.html.md#timeline-templates) from the URL to apply — the Project receives its own copy of the template's milestones. - Switch to a different template — the existing milestones are deleted and replaced with the new template's milestones. - Clear the template — the Project's timeline is removed. Changes to the source template after a Project has applied it do not affect the Project. Each Project keeps the milestones it had at application time. ## Working with the Timeline tab Once a timeline has been applied, the Timelines tab on the Project home page shows the list of milestones and their status. Users with the Project-level **Manage Timelines** permission can: - **Set the Project Start Date**. The Start Date is used together with each milestone's *Target Days* offset to compute target dates. - **Recalculate target dates** — when the Start Date is changed a "Recalculate target dates" button appears. Checking it recomputes each milestone's target date as `start date + target days`. - **Set each milestone's Status, Target Date and Completion Date**. For manual milestones all three are directly editable. For auto-derived milestones the Status is computed from Label data and is not directly editable (see below). Users without the Manage Timelines permission see the timeline read-only: dates render formatted according to the user's profile Date Display and Date Format preferences. Every status / date / Start Date change is recorded on the Project's [activities](project_activities.html.md#project-activities) log so timeline edits are auditable. ## Auto-derived milestones Auto-derived milestones compute their completion from Labels applied to objects within the Project's tracked Drafts. The template defines: - The **Drafts label** — only Drafts carrying this [Label](urls/labels.html.md#labels) on the Project contribute to the milestone. This lets you exclude archived or experimental Drafts from timeline tracking without removing them from the Project. - The **Object type** the milestone watches, and the **Completion Label** that marks an object as complete for this milestone. An auto-derived milestone is **Complete** when every active object of the configured type across all tracked Drafts has the Completion Label. It is **In Progress** when some but not all do, and **Not Started** when none do. The milestone's progress column shows a `labeled / total` count so the team can see at a glance how close the milestone is. Auto-derived milestones are recomputed each time someone opens the Timelines tab — there is no need to click anything to refresh the view. ## Permissions summary - **Manage Project** — apply, switch or clear the Timeline Template (on the Project settings page). - **Manage Timelines** — edit Start Date, milestone dates and milestone status on the Timelines tab. - Without either permission a user sees the Timelines tab read-only. See [Timeline Templates](urls/timeline_templates.html.md#timeline-templates) for the URL-level configuration that drives Project timelines.