Key Concepts

Understanding these core concepts will help you get the most out of Verk. This guide covers the fundamental building blocks of the platform and how they work together to create a powerful task management and automation system.

Platform Hierarchy

Verk organizes work in a clear, three-level hierarchy that keeps everything structured and easy to find. Think of it like Russian nesting dolls: Organizations contain Projects, which contain Tasks.

Organizations (Workspaces)

Organizations (also called workspaces) are the top-level container for your work. Think of an organization as your company, team, department, or personal workspace – a dedicated environment that's completely separate from other organizations.

Real-world examples of organizations:

• "Acme Design Studio" – A design agency with 25 team members working on multiple client projects
• "Personal Projects" – Your individual workspace for personal tasks and goals
• "Marketing Department" – A team within a larger company managing marketing initiatives
• "Smith Family Household" – A shared workspace for family members to coordinate household tasks
• "Freelance Consulting" – A solo consultant's workspace for managing client projects

What's included in an organization:

• All members (team members, guests, admins)
• All projects and their configurations
• All tasks and subtasks
• File storage and attachments
• Custom fields and task schemas
• Integrations and API keys
• AI agents and automated flows
• Billing and subscription settings
• Activity logs and audit trails

Organization settings you can configure:

• Organization name and logo
• Timezone and language preferences
• Notification defaults
• Security policies
• Billing information and payment methods
• Member invitation settings

Projects

Projects help you organize related tasks into logical groups within an organization. They're the middle layer that adds structure to your work.

Why projects matter: Projects aren't just folders – they're powerful organizational tools that help you:

• Group related work: Keep all tasks for a specific initiative, client, or product together
• Define task structures: Create custom fields that apply to all tasks in the project
• Control access: Invite specific members to specific projects
• Track progress: See completion percentages and timelines at the project level
• Standardize workflows: Use consistent task schemas across similar work

Key features of projects:

• Custom fields: Define project-specific fields that all tasks inherit (e.g., "Client Name", "Budget", "Priority Level")
• Task schemas: Templates that specify what information tasks should include
• Member access: Control who can see and edit tasks within the project
• Views and filters: Each project can have its own preferred view (Kanban, List, Table, Calendar)
• Project templates: Save project structures to reuse for similar work

Real-world project examples:

• "Q1 Marketing Campaign" – Contains tasks for planning, content creation, social media, email campaigns, and reporting
• "Website Redesign" – Includes tasks for wireframes, design, development, testing, and deployment
• "Client: Acme Corp" – All work related to a specific client engagement
• "Product Launch v2.0" – Coordinating product development, marketing, sales enablement, and support preparation
• "Home Renovation" – Personal project with tasks for planning, contractor coordination, purchasing, and inspection

When to create a new project vs. using an existing one:

• Create a new project when work has a distinct goal, timeline, or team
• Use an existing project when tasks are related to ongoing work
• Consider creating a "General Tasks" or "Miscellaneous" project for one-off tasks that don't fit elsewhere

Project schemas explained: Each project can define a schema – a template that determines what fields tasks should have. For example:

• A "Client Projects" schema might require: Client Name, Budget, Deliverables, Due Date
• A "Bug Tracking" schema might require: Severity, Browser, Steps to Reproduce, Fix Version
• A "Content Calendar" schema might require: Content Type, Channel, Target Audience, Publish Date

When you create a task within a project, it automatically inherits that project's schema fields. This ensures consistency and makes sure you capture all necessary information.

Tasks

Tasks are the individual work items that need to be completed – the atomic units of work in Verk. Everything you need to do eventually becomes a task.

What makes a good task:

• Actionable: Starts with a verb and clearly describes what needs to be done
• Specific: Detailed enough that anyone could understand what's required
• Achievable: Can be completed by one person (if it's too big, break it into subtasks)
• Measurable: You can determine when it's done

Task components:

Core properties:

• Title: Short, descriptive name (required)
• Description: Rich text area for details, context, and requirements
• Status: Where the task is in its lifecycle (To Do, In Progress, Blocked, Done)
• Priority: How urgent or important (Urgent, High, Normal, Low)
• Due Date: When it needs to be completed
• Start Date: When work can begin
• Assignee: Who's responsible for completing it

Rich content support:

• Formatted text: Bold, italic, underline, headings, lists
• Links: Clickable URLs to external resources
• Images: Embedded images and screenshots
• Code blocks: Formatted code snippets
• Tables: Structured data
• Mentions: @-mention team members to notify them

Attachments:

• Drag-and-drop file uploads
• Support for documents, images, spreadsheets, PDFs, and more
• Files stored in your organization's S3 bucket
• Preview support for common file types
• Version history for uploaded files

Comments and discussions:

• Threaded conversations about the task
• @-mention team members to bring them into the discussion
• Rich text formatting in comments
• Emoji reactions to comments
• Comment history and edit tracking

Activity tracking:

• Automatic log of all changes
• Shows who changed what and when
• Tracks status changes, assignments, due dates, and more
• Provides an audit trail for compliance

Custom fields:

• Project-defined fields appear on all tasks
• Can be text, numbers, dates, dropdowns, checkboxes, or multi-select
• Help capture domain-specific information
• Enable better filtering and reporting

Task relationships:

• Subtasks: Break large tasks into smaller steps
• Dependencies: Mark tasks as blocking or blocked by other tasks
• Related tasks: Link related work together
• Project membership: Tasks belong to one project

Task visualization: Tasks can be viewed in multiple formats:

• List View: Traditional task list with grouping options
• Kanban Board: Visual cards organized by status columns
• Table View: Spreadsheet-like grid with sortable columns
• Calendar View: Tasks plotted on a calendar by due date
• Miro Board: Visual whiteboard integration for brainstorming

Task states and lifecycle: A typical task moves through these states:

1. Created: Task is added to the system
2. To Do: Ready to be worked on
3. In Progress: Actively being worked on
4. Blocked: Can't proceed due to dependencies
5. Done: Completed and verified

You can customize statuses to match your workflow (e.g., "In Review", "Waiting for Approval", "Deployed").

Example of a well-configured task:

Title: Design homepage hero section for Q4 campaign

Description:
Create the hero section design for our Q4 product launch campaign homepage.
Include:
- Headline and subheadline copy
- CTA button design and placement
- Background image or video
- Mobile responsive layout

Reference: See brand guidelines doc and previous campaign examples.

Status: In Progress
Priority: High
Due Date: December 15, 2025
Assignee: Sarah Chen
Project: Q1 Marketing Campaign
Custom Fields:
  - Campaign: Q4 Product Launch
  - Design Phase: Initial Mockups
  - Review Required: Yes

Attachments:
  - brand-guidelines.pdf
  - campaign-brief.docx
  - reference-designs.sketch

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User Roles & Permissions

Verk uses role-based access control (RBAC) to manage what users can do within an organization. Understanding these roles helps you invite the right people with appropriate access levels.

Owner

The person who created the organization or received ownership transfer. There can only be one Owner per organization.

Owner permissions (all):

• Everything Admins and Members can do
• Delete the entire organization – Permanently remove the workspace and all its data
• Manage billing and subscription – Update payment methods, change plans, view invoices
• Transfer ownership – Give ownership to another member (requires confirmation)
• Cannot be removed – Only the owner can delete their own organization

When to transfer ownership:

• You're leaving the organization permanently
• Someone else should have ultimate control
• Company ownership changes
• Consolidating multiple organizations

Owner-only capabilities:

• Access to billing dashboard and invoices
• Ability to cancel or upgrade subscription
• Authority to delete the organization
• Power to transfer ownership
• Final say on all organizational decisions

Admin

Managers and leaders who need to configure the workspace and manage team members.

Admin permissions:

• Invite and remove members – Add new team members and remove existing ones
• Change member roles – Promote members to admin or demote admins to members (cannot change Owner)
• Configure organization settings – Update workspace name, logo, timezone, preferences
• Manage projects – Create, edit, and delete projects
• View all tasks – See tasks across all projects
• Access integrations – Connect and disconnect external tools
• Manage AI agents – Create and configure automation agents
• Everything Members can do – Full task management capabilities

Cannot do:

• Delete the organization
• Manage billing or subscription
• Transfer ownership
• Remove the Owner
• Change the Owner's role

When to assign Admin role:

• Team leads and managers
• Department heads
• People responsible for workspace configuration
• Trusted senior team members who help manage the team

Real-world admin scenarios:

• Sarah is the marketing manager and needs to invite new marketers and configure marketing project templates
• John is the IT lead and needs to manage integrations with company tools
• Maria is the operations director and needs oversight of all projects

Member

The standard role for most team members doing daily work.

Member permissions:

• Create and edit tasks – Full task management in projects they have access to
• Comment on tasks – Participate in discussions
• Upload files – Attach documents and images to tasks
• Create projects – Start new projects (depending on org settings)
• Invite guests – Bring external collaborators into specific projects
• Use AI agents – Leverage automation for their work
• Build flows – Create personal automation workflows
• View analytics – See reports and dashboards

Cannot do:

• Remove other members
• Change anyone's role
• Access organization settings
• Manage billing
• Delete projects they didn't create (unless given permission)
• Access projects they haven't been invited to

When to assign Member role:

• Most of your team members
• Individual contributors
• Contractors doing regular work
• Anyone who needs full task management capabilities

Real-world member scenarios:

• Developers creating and updating task statuses for their work
• Designers uploading mockups and collaborating on design tasks
• Content writers creating blog post tasks and marking them complete
• Marketing specialists managing campaign tasks

Member customization: Some organizations configure Members with restricted permissions:

• Require admin approval for project creation
• Limit guest invitations
• Restrict certain integration access

These settings are configured in Settings > Workspace > Member Permissions.

Guest

External collaborators with limited access to specific projects only.

Guest permissions:

• View specific projects – Only projects they've been explicitly invited to
• View and comment on tasks – Within their permitted projects
• Upload attachments – To tasks they can access
• Receive notifications – For tasks they're assigned to or mentioned in
• Mark tasks complete – Tasks assigned to them

Cannot do:

• See other projects in the organization
• Create new projects
• Invite other members
• Access organization settings
• Use integrations
• Create AI agents or flows
• View analytics or reports
• See member directory beyond their project

When to assign Guest role:

• External clients who need visibility into their project
• Contractors working on a single, specific project
• Vendors or suppliers involved in limited work
• Partners who need view-only access
• Temporary consultants

Real-world guest scenarios:

• A freelance designer working only on the "Website Redesign" project
• A client who wants to see progress on their project but shouldn't access other client work
• A consultant providing input on one specific initiative
• A vendor tracking delivery tasks

Guest security and isolation: Guests provide strong security through isolation:

• Cannot discover other projects or tasks
• Cannot see full member lists
• Cannot access organization settings
• Automatically removed when project ends
• Activity is logged for audit purposes

Converting guests to members: If a guest's role expands, an Admin can promote them to Member, giving them access to the full organization.

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Views and Visualizations

Verk offers multiple ways to view and interact with your tasks. Different views suit different workflows and thinking styles.

List View

A traditional task list with grouping and filtering.

Best for:

• Linear thinkers who prefer traditional lists
• Getting a quick overview of all tasks
• Processing tasks one by one
• Daily task management

Features:

• Group by status, priority, assignee, project, or custom fields
• Sort by due date, priority, creation date, or alphabetically
• Inline editing of properties
• Quick status changes via checkboxes
• Collapsible groups
• Show/hide completed tasks
• Drag-and-drop reordering within groups

Use cases:

• Daily standup preparation
• Weekly planning sessions
• Processing inbox tasks
• Reviewing overdue items

Table View

A spreadsheet-like grid with powerful sorting and filtering.

Best for:

• Power users comfortable with spreadsheets
• Analyzing multiple tasks simultaneously
• Bulk editing operations
• Data-driven task management
• Comparing tasks across properties

Features:

• Customizable columns (show/hide any property)
• Multi-level sorting (sort by priority, then due date, then assignee)
• Advanced filters (combine multiple criteria)
• Resizable and reorderable columns
• Column pinning (keep important columns visible while scrolling)
• Bulk selection and editing
• Export to CSV
• Inline editing of any field

Use cases:

• Resource planning and allocation
• Identifying bottlenecks
• Batch updating task properties
• Generating reports
• Cross-project analysis

Table customization:

• Add/remove columns to show only relevant information
• Pin columns left or right to keep them visible
• Adjust column widths to optimize data density
• Save view configurations per project

Kanban Board View

A visual board with columns representing workflow stages.

Best for:

• Visual thinkers who process information spatially
• Teams using Agile/Scrum methodologies
• Seeing work-in-progress at a glance
• Understanding workflow bottlenecks
• Collaborative planning sessions

Features:

• Drag tasks between columns to update status
• Customizable columns and column order
• WIP (work in progress) limits per column
• Swimlanes for grouping (by assignee, priority, project)
• Collapsed columns to focus on specific stages
• Task counts per column
• Color-coding by priority or project
• Quick task creation in any column

Use cases:

• Sprint planning
• Daily standups (move tasks across board)
• Identifying blocked work
• Balancing team workload
• Visualizing progress

Kanban best practices:

• Limit WIP to prevent context switching
• Move tasks from left to right
• Address blocked items immediately
• Use swimlanes to see individual workloads
• Review the board daily with your team

Calendar View

A monthly calendar showing tasks by due date.

Best for:

• Time-based planning
• Scheduling and deadlines
• Seeing workload distribution
• Coordinating with external commitments
• Identifying busy periods

Features:

• Month, week, and day views
• Drag tasks to reschedule
• Click dates to create tasks
• Color-coded by project or priority
• Filter by assignee or project
• Recurring task visualization
• Today indicator
• Overdue task highlighting

Use cases:

• Weekly planning
• Quarterly roadmap visualization
• Coordinating multiple project deadlines
• Identifying schedule conflicts
• Planning around time off

Calendar tips:

• Use week view for detailed planning
• Use month view for big-picture overview
• Tasks without due dates don't appear
• Drag multi-day tasks to create date ranges
• Use color-coding to identify different workstreams

Miro Board Integration

Visual whiteboard for brainstorming and planning.

Best for:

• Brainstorming sessions
• Visual planning and mind mapping
• Workshop facilitation
• Complex project planning
• Creative collaboration

Features:

• Integration with Miro whiteboards
• Convert sticky notes to Verk tasks
• Bidirectional sync
• Collaborative editing
• Infinite canvas for ideation

Use cases:

• Design sprints
• Retrospectives
• Strategic planning workshops
• User story mapping
• Process diagramming

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AI Agents and Automation

Verk includes powerful automation capabilities through AI agents and flows.

AI Agents

AI Agents are intelligent assistants that can perform tasks, answer questions, and automate workflows using natural language instructions.

What AI agents can do:

• Process and categorize incoming tasks
• Extract action items from meeting notes
• Draft task descriptions based on brief inputs
• Answer questions about your tasks and projects
• Suggest task priorities based on deadlines
• Automate repetitive workflows
• Integrate with external tools

Creating an AI agent:

1. Define the agent's purpose and instructions
2. Provide context and knowledge (documents, links, FAQs)
3. Select which tools and actions it can use
4. Choose the AI model (GPT-4, Claude, etc.)
5. Test and refine

Example AI agents:

• Task Organizer: Automatically categorizes and prioritizes new tasks
• Meeting Note Processor: Extracts action items from meeting transcripts
• Email Processor: Converts emails into actionable tasks
• Sprint Planner: Suggests task distributions for upcoming sprints

Agent capabilities:

• Natural language understanding
• Multi-step reasoning
• Tool use (create tasks, update statuses, send notifications)
• Knowledge retrieval from uploaded documents
• Context awareness of your projects and tasks

Flows

Flows are visual automation workflows that trigger based on events and execute a series of actions.

Flow components:

• Triggers: What starts the flow (task created, status changed, due date approaching)
• Conditions: Rules that determine if the flow continues
• Actions: What the flow does (send notification, create task, update field)

Example flows:

• When a task is marked "Done" → Send notification to project manager
• When a task becomes overdue → Change priority to "High" and notify assignee
• When a new task is created in "Client Projects" → Require "Client Name" field
• Every Monday at 9 AM → Create weekly planning task

Flow triggers:

• Task created
• Task updated (any field)
• Task status changed
• Task assigned
• Due date approaching
• Member added to project
• Comment added
• File uploaded
• Scheduled (recurring)

Flow actions:

• Create task
• Update task properties
• Send notification (email or in-app)
• Assign task
• Move task to project
• Add comment
• Send Slack message
• Create calendar event
• Call webhook

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Integrations

Verk connects with the tools you already use to create a seamless workflow.

Integration Types

OAuth Integrations:

• One-click authentication
• Secure, no password sharing
• Examples: Slack, Google Calendar, GitHub, Jira

API Key Integrations:

• Enter your API key from the external service
• Full control over permissions
• Examples: OpenAI, Anthropic, custom APIs

Webhook Integrations:

• Real-time event notifications
• Bidirectional data sync
• Examples: Zapier, Make, custom webhooks

Popular Integrations

Communication:

• Slack: Notifications, task creation from messages, bot commands
• Microsoft Teams: Similar to Slack
• Email: Task creation from emails, email notifications

Development:

• GitHub: Create tasks from issues, link PRs to tasks
• GitLab: Similar to GitHub
• Jira: Bidirectional sync of issues and tasks

Productivity:

• Google Calendar: Sync task due dates
• Notion: Embed Verk tasks in Notion pages
• Miro: Visual planning and task creation

AI & Automation:

• OpenAI: Power AI agents with GPT models
• Anthropic: Use Claude for AI agents
• Zapier: Connect to 5000+ apps

Setting Up Integrations

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Files and Storage

Every organization includes file storage for task attachments and project documents.

File Management

Storage limits by plan:

• Free: 5 GB per organization
• Pro: 100 GB per organization
• Enterprise: Unlimited

Supported file types:

• Documents: PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, MD
• Spreadsheets: XLS, XLSX, CSV
• Presentations: PPT, PPTX
• Images: JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG
• Videos: MP4, MOV, AVI
• Code: Any text-based code files
• Archives: ZIP, RAR, TAR

File features:

• Drag-and-drop upload
• Preview support for common formats
• Version history
• Download originals
• Share links with expiration
• Search within file contents
• Organize by project or task

Security:

• Files stored in encrypted S3 buckets
• Access controlled by task and project permissions
• No public sharing outside organization
• Audit logs of file access

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Search and Filtering

Powerful search helps you find anything in your organization quickly.

Universal Search

Press ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) to open universal search.

What you can search:

• Task titles and descriptions
• Project names
• File names and contents
• Comments
• Member names
• Tags and labels

Search operators:

• project:name – Find tasks in a specific project
• assignee:email – Find tasks assigned to someone
• status:done – Find tasks with specific status
• priority:high – Filter by priority
• due:today – Find tasks due today
• created:this-week – Find recently created tasks

Example searches:

• design project:website – All design-related tasks in the website project
• assignee:sarah status:in-progress – Sarah's current tasks
• priority:high due:this-week – High-priority tasks due this week

Advanced Filtering

Every view supports advanced filtering:

Filter by:

• Status
• Priority
• Assignee
• Project
• Due date range
• Created date range
• Custom fields
• Tags

Combining filters: Filters work together (AND logic):

• Status = "In Progress" AND Priority = "High" AND Assignee = "Sarah"

Saving filters: Save commonly used filters for quick access later.

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Notifications

Stay informed about important changes without being overwhelmed.

Notification Types

Task updates:

• Task assigned to you
• Task due soon or overdue
• Task you're watching updated
• Someone mentions you in a comment

Project updates:

• Added to a new project
• Project deadline approaching
• Project completed

Member updates:

• New member joins organization
• Your role changed
• Someone requests access

Notification Channels

In-app notifications:

• Bell icon in header
• Badge counts for unread
• Click to navigate to relevant task

Email notifications:

• Immediate or digest (daily summary)
• Configure per notification type
• Unsubscribe from specific types

Slack notifications:

• Post to specific channels
• Direct messages for personal notifications
• Configure verbosity

Managing Notification Preferences

Go to Settings > Notifications to configure:

• Which events trigger notifications
• Which channels to use (in-app, email, Slack)
• Quiet hours (don't notify during specified times)
• Digest schedules

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Understanding the Data Model

Here's how everything connects in Verk:

Organization
├── Members (users with roles)
├── Projects
│   ├── Tasks
│   │   ├── Comments
│   │   ├── Attachments
│   │   └── Activity logs
│   └── Custom Fields (schema)
├── Integrations
├── AI Agents
├── Flows (automations)
└── Settings

Key relationships:

• One organization has many projects
• One project has many tasks
• One task has one assignee (but can have many watchers)
• Tasks belong to one project
• Users can belong to many organizations
• Members have one role per organization

Data isolation:

• Organizations are completely isolated from each other
• Members of one organization cannot see data from other organizations
• Each organization has its own file storage, integrations, and settings

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Next Steps

Now that you understand Verk's core concepts, you're ready to dive deeper:

Learn about workspaces:

• Organization Settings – Configure your workspace
• Member Management – Invite and manage team members
• Workspace Switching – Work across multiple organizations

Master task management:

• Creating Tasks – Detailed guide to tasks
• Task Views – Using different visualization methods
• Projects – Organizing work with projects

Explore automation:

• AI Agents – Automate with AI
• Flows – Build workflows
• Integrations – Connect external tools

Understanding these fundamental concepts is your foundation for using Verk effectively. Everything else builds on these building blocks.