WIP-limit overload detection

The board’s silent-WIP-creep alarm. Per-column WIP limits drive a three-band visual escalation, and moving a task into a column that would push it past its limit triggers a confirmation prompt.

Where this lives in the story

Step 6 (Execute) of the hybrid PM flow. Companion to the Capacity preflight panel: capacity catches over-commitment at plan time; this catches WIP creep at execution time.

What you see

Three column states:

State	Condition	Visual
Under	count < limit	neutral chip {N}/{limit} — no special chrome
At	count == limit	semantic-at-risk chip {N}/{limit} WIP + amber column header band
Over	count > limit	semantic-critical chip {N}/{limit} — over WIP limit + red column header band

Moving a task into a column that would push it past its limit:

This column is at its WIP limit (3/3). Move anyway? [ Cancel ] [ OK ]

Both drag-and-drop and the keyboard “Move to…” menu route through the same guard. Declining cancels; accepting proceeds with the existing status mutation.

Trend arrow — catching creep before the breach

The at/over chips catch a column that is already full. To catch the creep building toward it, 0.4 will add a tiny trend arrow to the column header, next to the breach chip. It reads the column’s recent occupancy from the flow-analytics daily series and shows direction:

• ▲ rising — the column is filling. It turns amber (“trending up toward WIP limit”) once the column is within one card of its limit; below that it stays neutral, purely informational.
• ▼ falling — the column is draining. Always neutral — recovery needs no alarm.
• No arrow when the trend is flat, no WIP limit is set, or the recent flow series is empty.

Because the trend reads the team-private flow series, it follows the same audience rule as the flow-analytics charts: a viewer who cannot see the flow charts does not see the trend arrow either. The current-state at/over breach chip stays visible to every board member regardless.

Direction is carried by the arrow shape and its screen-reader label, not by color alone, so it reads the same with color vision differences.

Where to find it in the app

• Route: /projects/:projectId/board
• Configure WIP limits in board settings (board column config panel)

Backwards compatibility

Columns with wip_limit=null render the unchanged neutral count chip. The default board ships with WIP limits on IN_PROGRESS=5 and REVIEW=3; everything else is unlimited.

Related ADRs

• ADR-0039 — Board column config (where wip_limit lives)

If you are…

• Tom (engineer) — the over-limit chip says “this column is full.” Don’t pile on; finish what’s in flight first.
• Maya — the at-limit / over-limit chips are your standup signal. If REVIEW is over-limit two days running, something downstream is blocked.