Capturing an Idea in the Backlog

When you have a new feature idea, bug to fix, or any work you want to track, add it to your backlog as a todo item. Todos live in the To Do column and serve as a lightweight way to capture ideas before you’re ready to plan them out. Atelier stores todos in a TODO.md file in your workspace, so they remain human-readable and editable outside the tool.

Prerequisites

• Atelier extension installed and kanban board accessible
• A workspace open in VS Code

Steps

1. Open the Atelier kanban board using the Command Palette (Ctrl + Shift + P on Windows/Linux or Cmd + Shift + P on macOS) and selecting “Atelier: Show Kanban Board”.

2. Click the Add Todo button in the toolbar at the top of the board.

A text input field appears where you can enter your todo item.

3. Type a brief description of the work you want to track, such as “Add dark mode support” or “Fix mobile layout issues”.

4. Press Enter to save the todo.

The new todo appears as a card in the To Do column. Atelier automatically adds this item to your workspace’s TODO.md file.

5. To verify the todo was saved, open the TODO.md file in your workspace root.

You should see your new item listed as an unchecked markdown checkbox, such as - [ ] Add dark mode support.

Tip

You can also add todos by editing TODO.md directly. Atelier watches this file for changes, so any items you add manually will appear on the board automatically.

6. If you want to organize your todos into sections, edit TODO.md and add markdown headers above groups of items.

For example:

# TODO

## High Priority
- [ ] Fix mobile layout issues
- [ ] Add dark mode support

## Ideas
- [ ] Explore GraphQL migration
- [ ] Redis caching

Atelier will display these section headers as categories on your todo cards.

You now have a todo item captured in your backlog. The item will remain in the To Do column until you promote it to a plan, at which point Claude Code can help you break it down into implementable tasks.