# Plan a release

A release is a row across the map: the stories you plan to ship together, from all along the user's journey. Releases go from top to bottom in the order you plan to ship them. Stories without a release sit in the backlog, the last row when rows are by release. Why the first release should be thin is on [The slice](/docs/concepts/slice/).

## See releases as rows

On the Map tab, open **Display** and set **Rows by** to Release. Each row header shows the release color, its name, its dates, an **Active** badge on the active release, how many stories it has and how many are done.

## Create a release

Click **New release** next to the release filter above the map, type a name and press Enter. A new release goes to the end of the queue. If the map has no active release yet, the one you create becomes active.

To rename a release, click its name in the row header. To change its place in the queue, open the row menu and choose **Ship earlier** or **Ship later**.

## Give it dates and a goal

Open the row menu and choose **Settings**. The dialog has a name, a start, an end and a goal.

- **Dates are optional.** A weekly sprint is a release with a start and an end; an MVP can be a release with no dates at all. One date without the other works too: the row then reads "from" or "until" that date. The end can't come before the start.
- **The goal** is plain text up to 1,000 characters: what should be true by the end of the release. The row header shows it under the name, up to two lines; hover for the full text.

People who open the map by its public link see the dates and the goal too.

## The active release

The active release is the one your agent takes work from on its own. When you ask it for the next story, it gets the first open story of the active release: steps from left to right, then the order of stories under each step. Dates don't change which release is active.

When every story of the active release is in a stage marked Closed, the board shows a banner that the release is complete, and your agent gets no more stories from the queue. To go on, click the **Activate** button in the banner for the next release. A map with no active release shows a banner too, with the release to activate. Anyone who can edit the map can activate a release, and your agent does it too when you ask.

A story you name is different: your agent can take it from anywhere on the map, including a later release or the backlog.

## The backlog

The backlog holds every story of the map that has no release: ideas, requests, things noticed along the way. It is a place on the map, not a stage. On the board it is **Backlog** with the number of stories in it: the last row when rows are by release, or the last part of each step's column on the default Map tab. You can't rename, move or delete it, but you can collapse it. Your browser remembers that for each map, and people who open the public link see it collapsed.

Your agent never takes a story from the backlog on its own. When the active release is complete, it lists the backlog stories for you to choose from. Stories your agent adds without naming a release go to the backlog, so they don't grow the release you planned.

## Move a story to the backlog

Drag the card to the Backlog row, or set the story's release to **Backlog** in the story itself or in its menu. The story keeps its stage: a story moved to the backlog while in development still says so.

Deleting a release moves all its stories to the backlog. If some of them have shipped, the confirmation says how many. The release stays in the [trash](/docs/how-to/trash/) for 30 days, and restoring it puts its stories back.

## Plan releases with your agent

Your agent can create releases, rename them, change their color, move them in the queue and set their dates and goal, for example: "Create a release Week 43 from October 19 to 25, goal: a new user connects the agent without manual steps." It uses `slicemap_create_release` and `slicemap_update_release`. When you ask, it also makes a release active with `slicemap_activate_release` and deletes one into the trash with `slicemap_delete_release`. The first release the agent creates on a map with none becomes active by itself.