For AI agents: a documentation index is available at /llms.txt. A markdown version of this page is available at /guide/cloud/views/gantt-chart.md.
Gantt chart
Plan work against a timeline, see dependencies, and find the path that actually determines your end date.
The Gantt chart lays tasks along a timeline with their dependencies drawn between them. Available on every tier; critical path analysis is Premium.
Use it when dates and sequence matter — client commitments, hardware lead times, regulatory deadlines. For continuous flow, the board tells you more.
#What you see
- Each task as a bar spanning its start and due dates
- Arrows for dependencies
- Milestones as markers
- Progress shading within each bar
- Today as a vertical line
Drag a bar to move it, or drag its edge to resize. Dependent tasks shift with it.
#Getting a useful chart
A Gantt is only as good as its inputs. Three things must be true:
Tasks have real dates
A task without dates cannot appear on a timeline. This is the usual reason a Gantt looks empty or wrong.
Dependencies reflect hard constraints
Record what genuinely blocks what. Preferences about ordering are not dependencies.
Estimates are honest
Optimistic durations produce a plan that was never achievable. It will slip on schedule.
Over-linking makes it brittle
Every dependency constrains the schedule. Hundreds of them mean one slipped task redraws the whole timeline, and the team stops trusting the chart. Link only real constraints.
#Critical path Premium
The critical path is the longest chain of dependent tasks. Its length is your project duration — so a delay to any task on it delays the whole project, while a delay to anything off it may cost nothing.
This is the single most useful thing a Gantt can tell you:
Put your most reliable people on it. Watch it daily.
A task with two weeks of slack slipping by three days is not a problem. Do not spend the team's attention on it.
To pull in the date, remove a link or parallelise — squeezing individual estimates rarely works.
The critical path moves. Yesterday's safe task can be today's constraint.
#Milestones
Milestones appear as markers — the fixed points a client or stakeholder actually cares about. Anchor the plan on them.
#Baselines and slippage
The comparison worth making is plan versus actual. When a bar extends past where it started, ask why before redrawing the dates:
- Was the estimate wrong, or was the work interrupted?
- Did scope change?
- Is a dependency late?
Redrawing dates without answering that produces a plan that will slip again.
Tip
Re-plan deliberately, not continuously. A Gantt updated daily to match reality stops being a plan and becomes a diary.
#When not to use it
Continuous, unpredictable work
Support, maintenance, anything reactive. Use the board.
Sprint-based delivery
Sprints already provide the cadence. Use Agile and Scrum; a Gantt over sprints usually just duplicates it.
Genuinely uncertain scope
A precise timeline over unknown work is false precision. Plan the next milestone properly and leave the rest coarse.