> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.onset.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Stages & Statuses

> How milestone stages and customizable statuses work.

The roadmap has two levels: a fixed set of **stages**, and **statuses** you define inside them.

## Stages

Stages are the five structural buckets Onset uses internally. You can't add or remove them:

| Stage           | Signals to customers                         |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| **Backlog**     | We're considering this. Vote if you want it. |
| **Planned**     | We've committed to it, work hasn't started.  |
| **In Progress** | Being built right now.                       |
| **Completed**   | Shipped, usually linked to a release.        |
| **Canceled**    | We decided not to do this.                   |

## Statuses

Statuses are what you and your customers actually see on a milestone. Each status belongs to one stage, and you can have several per stage. That's how a single **In Progress** stage can present as *Alpha*, *Beta*, or *Testing* publicly.

Onset ships with these defaults:

| Status      | Stage       |
| ----------- | ----------- |
| Backlog     | Backlog     |
| Paused      | Backlog     |
| Planned     | Planned     |
| In Progress | In Progress |
| Alpha       | In Progress |
| Beta        | In Progress |
| Testing     | In Progress |
| Released    | Completed   |
| Canceled    | Canceled    |

### Customize them

Go to **Settings → Workspace → Roadmap**. Statuses are grouped by stage, and within each stage you can add new ones, rename them, change their color, and reorder them.

Because every status maps to a stage, Onset still knows a *Beta* milestone is in progress and a *Released* one is complete, so sorting, archiving, and filtering keep working no matter what you name things.

<Note>
  Each stage must keep at least one status, so you can't empty a stage out entirely.
</Note>

## Changing a milestone's status

Open the milestone and change its status in the details panel. The change shows up on your public roadmap right away, so a customer who upvoted something six months ago can watch it move from Backlog to Beta without asking you.

## Using Canceled honestly

It's tempting to quietly delete things you've decided against. Moving them to a **Canceled** status with a one-line reason in the description does more for trust than silence, and it stops the same request coming back every quarter.

## Archiving completed work

Milestones in the **Completed** and **Canceled** stages are auto-archived after a period you set under **Settings → Workspace → Roadmap → Auto-archive closed items**: 1, 3, 6, 9, or 12 months.

Archived milestones can still be shown publicly if you enable **Archived milestones** under **Settings → Page → Roadmap**.