tiki/view/help/custom.md

Customization

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tiki is highly customizable. workflow.yaml lets you define your workflow statuses and configure views (plugins) for how tikis are displayed and organized. Statuses define the lifecycle stages your tasks move through, while plugins control what you see and how you interact with your work. This section covers both.

Statuses

Workflow statuses are defined in workflow.yaml under the statuses: key. Every tiki project must define its statuses here — there is no hardcoded fallback. The default workflow.yaml ships with:

statuses:
  - key: backlog
    label: Backlog
    emoji: "📥"
    default: true
  - key: ready
    label: Ready
    emoji: "📋"
    active: true
  - key: in_progress
    label: "In Progress"
    emoji: "⚙️"
    active: true
  - key: review
    label: Review
    emoji: "👀"
    active: true
  - key: done
    label: Done
    emoji: "✅"
    done: true

Each status has:

• key — canonical identifier (lowercase, underscores). Used in filters, actions, and frontmatter.
• label — display name shown in the UI
• emoji — emoji shown alongside the label
• active — marks the status as "active work" (used for burndown charts and activity tracking)
• default — the status assigned to new tikis (exactly one status should have this)
• done — marks the status as "completed" (used for completion tracking)

You can customize these to match your team's workflow. All filters and actions in view definitions must reference valid status keys.

Plugins

tiki TUI app is much like a lego - everything is a customizable view. Here is, for example, how Backlog is defined:

views:
  plugins:
    - name: Backlog
      key: "F3"
      lanes:
        - name: Backlog
          columns: 4
          filter: select where status = "backlog" and type != "epic" order by priority, id
      actions:
        - key: "b"
          label: "Add to board"
          action: update where id = id() set status="ready"

that translates to - show all tikis in the status backlog, sort by priority and then by ID arranged visually in 4 columns in a single lane. The actions section defines a keyboard shortcut b that moves the selected tiki to the board by setting its status to ready You define the name, description, hotkey, and ruki expressions for filtering and actions. Save this into a workflow.yaml file in the config directory

Likewise the documentation is just a plugin:

views:
  plugins:
    - name: Docs
      type: doki
      fetcher: file
      url: "index.md"
      key: "F2"

that translates to - show index.md file located under .doc/doki installed in the same way

Multi-lane plugin

Backlog is a pretty simple plugin in that it displays all tikis in a single lane. Multi-lane tiki plugins offer functionality similar to that of the board. You can define multiple lanes per view and move tikis around with Shift-Left/Shift-Right much like in the board. You can create a multi-lane plugin by defining multiple lanes in its definition and assigning actions to each lane. An action defines what happens when you move a tiki into the lane. Here is a multi-lane plugin definition that roughly mimics the board:

name: Custom
key: "F4"
lanes:
  - name: Ready
    columns: 1
    width: 20
    filter: select where status = "ready" order by priority, title
    action: update where id = id() set status="ready"
  - name: In Progress
    columns: 1
    width: 30
    filter: select where status = "inProgress" order by priority, title
    action: update where id = id() set status="inProgress"
  - name: Review
    columns: 1
    width: 30
    filter: select where status = "review" order by priority, title
    action: update where id = id() set status="review"
  - name: Done
    columns: 1
    width: 20
    filter: select where status = "done" order by priority, title
    action: update where id = id() set status="done"

Lane width

Each lane can optionally specify a width as a percentage (1-100) to control how much horizontal space it occupies. Widths are relative proportions — they don't need to sum to 100. If width is omitted, the lane gets an equal share of the remaining space.

lanes:
  - name: Sidebar
    width: 25
  - name: Main
    width: 50
  - name: Details
    width: 25

If no lanes specify width, all lanes are equally sized (the default behavior).

Global plugin actions

You can define actions under views.actions that are available in all tiki plugin views:

views:
  actions:
    - key: "a"
      label: "Assign to me"
      action: update where id = id() set assignee=user()
  plugins:
    - name: Kanban
      ...

Global actions appear in the header alongside per-plugin actions. If a per-plugin action uses the same key, the per-plugin action takes precedence for that view. When multiple workflow files define views.actions, they merge by key — later files override same-keyed globals from earlier files.

Per-plugin actions

In addition to lane actions that trigger when moving tikis between lanes, you can define plugin-level actions that apply to the currently selected tiki via a keyboard shortcut. These shortcuts are displayed in the header when the plugin is active.

actions:
  - key: "b"
    label: "Add to board"
    action: update where id = id() set status="ready"
  - key: "a"
    label: "Assign to me"
    action: update where id = id() set assignee=user()

Each action has:

• key - a single printable character used as the keyboard shortcut
• label - description shown in the header
• action - a ruki statement (update, create, delete, or select)

When the shortcut key is pressed, the action is applied to the currently selected tiki. For example, pressing b in the Backlog plugin changes the selected tiki's status to ready, effectively moving it to the board.

select actions execute for side-effects only — the output is ignored. They don't require a selected tiki.

ruki expressions

Plugin filters, lane actions, and plugin actions all use the ruki language. Filters use select statements. Actions support update, create, delete, and select statements (select for side-effects only, output ignored).

Filter (select)

The filter field uses a ruki select statement to determine which tikis appear in a lane. Sorting is part of the select — use order by to control display order.

-- basic filter with sort
select where status = "backlog" and type != "epic" order by priority, id

-- recent items, most recent first
select where now() - updatedAt < 24hour order by updatedAt desc

-- multiple conditions
select where type = "epic" and status = "backlog" and priority > 1 order by priority, points desc

-- assigned to me
select where assignee = user() order by priority

Action (update)

The action field uses a ruki update statement. In plugin context, id() refers to the currently selected tiki.

-- set status on move
update where id = id() set status="ready"

-- set multiple fields
update where id = id() set status="backlog" priority=2

-- assign to current user
update where id = id() set assignee=user()

Supported fields

• id - task identifier (e.g., "TIKI-M7N2XK")
• title - task title text
• type - task type (must match a key defined in workflow.yaml types)
• status - workflow status (must match a key defined in workflow.yaml statuses)
• assignee - assigned user
• priority - numeric priority value (1-5)
• points - story points estimate
• tags - list of tags
• dependsOn - list of dependency tiki IDs
• due - due date (YYYY-MM-DD format)
• recurrence - recurrence pattern (cron format)
• createdAt - creation timestamp
• updatedAt - last update timestamp

Conditions

• Comparison: =, !=, >, >=, <, <=
• Logical: and, or, not (precedence: not > and > or)
• Membership: "value" in field, status not in ["done", "cancelled"]
• Emptiness: assignee is empty, tags is not empty
• Quantifiers: dependsOn any status != "done", dependsOn all status = "done"
• Grouping: parentheses () to control evaluation order

Literals and built-ins

• Strings: double-quoted ("ready", "alex")
• Integers: 1, 5
• Dates: 2026-03-25
• Durations: 2hour, 14day, 3week, 1month
• Lists: ["bug", "frontend"]
• user() — current git user
• now() — current timestamp
• id() — currently selected tiki (in plugin context)
• count(select where ...) — count matching tikis