Commands in the message box

The message box at the bottom of your conversation with kanman is also your command line. Type / and a list of commands opens above it: every place of the app, every team and every action. While you write a message, stories, runs, decisions and incidents you mention show up above the box, ready to open. And /search finds anything that was said in your conversation. It works the same in General and in every team chat, on your phone and on your computer.

Desktop Mobile

Opening the commands

• Type / at the start of the message box.
• Press Ctrl+K or Ctrl+P (Cmd+K or Cmd+P on Mac), from anywhere in the app.
• Or press / anywhere outside a text field.

The shortcuts put a / into the message box and open the list. If the conversation is not on screen, for example on a phone while the board is open, or in your settings or the workspace settings, kanman first opens the right conversation: the team’s chat when you are in a team, otherwise General.

A message you had already started is kept. Close the list with Escape or run a command, and your text is back in the box.

The command list

The text after the slash filters the list word by word, for example /inbox for Decisions, /settings budgets or /new team. Commands whose name contains every word you typed come first. Without any words, the list shows:

Once you type something, the list also offers Settings: every page and every single setting of your settings, of the workspace settings and of the settings of the team you are in. For example /settings budgets, /shortcuts or /settings budget per day take you straight there; a single setting opens its page with the setting highlighted.

A line that starts with a slash but matches no command is sent to kanman as a normal message when you press Enter.

Finding stories, runs, decisions and incidents while you write

You do not have to leave the conversation to open something you are writing about. While you type a message, kanman shows matching items above the box when your text contains:

• a story key, for example SBX-12
• a run key, for example run-7f3k
• a decision key, for example dec-1c95
• an incident key, for example inc-c5sm
• or # followed by words at the end of your text, for example #export invoices

The results never get in your way: nothing is selected, so Enter still sends your message to kanman. To open one, press ↓ to move into the list and Enter, or tap or click it. It opens the page of the story, run, decision or incident, and your message stays in the box (a # search is taken out of it).

Searching your conversation

Type /search followed by words to find messages of your conversation with kanman, yours and kanman’s, in General and in all your team chats. Each word may be the start of a longer word, so /search deplo finds “deployment”. Every result shows who wrote it, in which conversation and when.

Choose a result and kanman jumps there: it switches to that team’s chat or to General if needed, scrolls to the message and highlights it.

Only you can find your conversation: other members of the workspace never see your messages in their results. Pressing Enter without a result does nothing; a search is never sent as a message.

Finding settings

Every settings page has a search field at the top of its list of sections (on a phone, tap the section button to open the list). It finds every page and every single setting, for example budget per day, Slack channel, dark or retention, across all three levels: your personal settings, the workspace settings and the settings of the team you are in (or the team you worked in last). Each result says which page it is on. Choose one and the page opens with that setting highlighted; settings tucked away under Advanced are unfolded for you.

Press Ctrl+, (Cmd+, on Mac) from anywhere to jump into that search field: kanman opens the settings of the team you are in, otherwise the workspace settings, with the cursor in the field. Escape clears the field and brings the list of sections back.

The /settings command in the message box finds the same pages and settings and opens the same places.

Keyboard use

The rows are large enough to tap comfortably on a phone.

Tips

• There is no separate search field: whatever you would search for, start in the message box.
• Commands and results are not case sensitive.
• Results only include your current workspace. To look in another one, switch to it with the workspace switcher at the top left first.
• Messages are found by whole words or the start of words, not by parts in the middle of a word.
• To ask kanman a question, just write it in the message box and press Enter.

Related pages

• Keyboard shortcuts
• Talk to kanman
• Tour of the app