Kanban Boards

A Kanban board turns any sheet into a visual board where cards move between columns — like a Trello board, but connected directly to your data. Drag a card from "To Do" to "Done," and the underlying sheet updates automatically.

Create a Kanban Board

The quickest way: ask the agent.

Turn my Tasks sheet into a board

The agent creates the board, picks the right status field for columns, and opens it. You can review and adjust from there.

To create one manually:

1. Click + in the project sidebar, then select Board.

2. Choose the sheet you want to visualize. Obvious shows every sheet in the project — pick the one with a status-type field (like "Stage," "Priority," or "Status").

3. Obvious creates the board and maps your sheet's status field to columns automatically. Each record becomes a card.

Tip: Boards work best with sheets that have an enum or select field for status. If your sheet uses a plain text field, Obvious reads the unique values and creates columns from those instead.

Move Cards Between Columns

Drag any card from one column to another. That's it — the status field on the underlying record updates instantly.

A few things to know about dragging:

• Cards within a column can be reordered by dragging up or down. Obvious saves the custom order.
• Cards across columns update the record's status field to match the destination column. Drag a card from "In Progress" to "Done," and the sheet reflects the change.
• Keyboard support is built in. Use arrow keys to move cards between columns and positions — screen readers announce each move.

The board and the sheet stay in sync. Edit a record in the sheet, and the card updates on the board. Move a card on the board, and the sheet updates to match.

Filter Cards

Click the Filter button in the toolbar to narrow down which cards appear. Filters work the same way they do in sheets — pick a field, set a condition, and the board shows only matching cards.

Columns stay visible even when filtering empties them. This is intentional: empty columns are still valid places to drag cards into.

Active filters show as pills below the toolbar so you can see what's applied at a glance.

Configure Your Board

Click the settings icon to open the Configure View sidebar. Three options:

• Status field — Choose which field controls the columns. Switch from "Status" to "Priority" and the board reorganizes around priority levels instead.
• Title field — Pick which field shows as the card's headline. Defaults to the first text field in your sheet.
• Display fields — Check or uncheck fields to control what extra information appears on each card. Dates, assignees, tags — toggle whatever helps you scan at a glance.

Click Save to apply your changes.

Tip: Cards show field values the same way your sheet does — colored pills for select fields, formatted dates, clickable links. What you see in the sheet is what you see on the card.

Reorder Columns

Drag columns left or right to arrange them in the order that matches your workflow. The board remembers your column order separately from the field's option order, so rearranging columns doesn't change the sheet schema.

Add and Edit Records

Click the + button at the bottom of any column to add a new record. The record editor opens with the status field pre-filled to match that column.

Double-click any card to open it in the record editor. Make your changes and close the sidebar — the card updates immediately.

How It Connects to Your Sheet

A Kanban board is a view, not a copy. It reads from the same sheet data and writes back to it:

• One sheet, many views. You can create multiple boards from the same sheet — one grouped by status, another by priority — without duplicating data.
• Changes go both ways. Edits in the sheet appear on the board. Moves on the board update the sheet.
• The board has a limit. It loads up to 1,000 records for performance. If your sheet has more, use filters to focus on the records that matter.

Next Steps

• Views Overview — How views work across Obvious and when to use each type
• Sheets — Working with the data behind your board
• Filtering Data — Advanced filter options for narrowing down records