Templates

Validation, metadata, and retired fields

Development docs · main. Your installed version may differ.

Optional rules that validate the template before use. See Validation Modes for details on strict vs lenient behavior.

validation:
  mode: "lenient"             # lenient or strict
  totalEstimationMustBe: 100  # Total must equal exactly this
  totalEstimationRange:       # OR use a range instead
    min: 95
    max: 105
  minTasks: 3                 # Minimum number of tasks required
  maxTasks: 10                # Maximum number of tasks allowed
  maxRepeat: 30               # Highest repeat any task may use (default 20)
  taskEstimationRange:        # Inclusive percentage bounds per task
    min: 10
    max: 30
  requiredTasks:              # Tasks that must be present
    - title: "Code Review"
      id: "review"

See the validation field reference for field details, defaults and constraints.

Choose either an exact total or a range. If both are supplied, totalEstimationMustBe takes precedence and totalEstimationRange is ignored.

taskEstimationRange bounds are percentages from 0 to 100, with min <= max. Validation checks final allocation percentages after normalization, including the normalizer's percentage rounding. With normalize: never, percentages remain as written. A lone 20% task normalized to 100% fails a 10–30% range; four 50% tasks normalized to 25% each pass. Task Estimate rounding in hours or points does not change this percentage constraint. Fixed estimates are excluded. Each repeated copy is checked separately. Offline and Online Validation check unconditional allocations on the Resolved Template (including inherited and Mixin tasks). Story-dependent conditions and percentage overrides defer this check to preview and generation, with an informational warning; the final active allocation is checked before any Tasks are created. Violations are errors in both lenient and strict mode. Normalization never clamps percentages to satisfy the bounds.

metadata

Optional metadata to help others discover and use your template.

metadata:
  category: "Backend"
  estimationGuidelines: "Based on typical backend API workflows for 5-13 point stories."
  notes: "Owned by the platform team."

See the metadata field reference for field details, defaults and constraints.

Deprecated Fields

Deprecated fields remain readable in format 1.0 and produce non-blocking warnings, even in strict mode. Most offer a VS Code removal quick fix. When a field contains author-written text, such as acceptance criteria, move that text to the suggested replacement yourself so it is preserved. Removal requires a future file format.

The Schema Reference marks each deprecated field and describes its replacement: task fields, file timestamps, metadata, and minimumTaskPoints. The last is a compatibility fallback, so it still affects estimates when minimumTaskEstimate is absent.

Look up fields

validation: totals, task counts, repetition, and required tasks.
metadata: category, guidelines, and notes.
formatVersion: the file format that decides when a deprecated field can be removed.